Ooooh! Lots of interesting and good points raised!

Slightly off topic of coaching, but regarding club nights:

The “good players practicing together” conundrum has been the death of nearly every club I have played at. These clubs all had one thing in common: a peg board. The peg board is a strange thing. The rules state you can choose from the previous X players. However, people often get offended at the choice taken from the X players. They feel they have been “left out”, or that players are just playing amongst themselves. If you don't want people to be able to choose, then change the system!

Anyway, enough ranting. The “practice amongst yourselves” vs “equality” argument is always a good one. Peter asked a good question: if people want to practice, shouldn't they do it on their own time. How many people have TIME to play more than one night a week? There are often matches in a week as well! If you want them to practice in their own time, you are effectively saying you don't want them to come to club nights at all. The deal is, they come to club nights, and support club nights, and don't have their own “club night” instead for practice (which is bad), and in exchange, they will get to play SOME “good” games or serious games amongst themselves. This is such a tricky balance to find.

In my view, the “lesser” players should absolutely be allowed to play with the “better” players. However, they should not expect an easy game. They might get wiped off the court. This is their chance to play at a higher level than they are used to, and get pushed, ask questions, receive instruction etc. I do not think they should expect to play all their games with “better” players. This is SO important: they have to realise, that in the same way THEY want to be pushed, the “better” players ALSO want to be pushed. As such, there has to be a balance between mixing the ability levels, and allowing players to play more serious games. I think match courts are a bad idea, but allowing “matches” is a good idea.

An example of how this might work, is that for the first half of club night, everyone mixes in together, and for the second hour, players play more serious “practice” games. This is still a tough mixture to achieve, and this does not work at purely social clubs. It is important people don't just turn up “late” to play these games.

Something to bear in mind with all this, and it is really tough to overcome, is that if a mixed ability game goes on the court, and the “lesser” players are looking to gain some experience with the “better” players, this game must not be treated as a joke by anyone. If the “better” players treat it as a joke, then this is unfair on the “lesser” players. If the “lesser” players do not try their hardest, then they are effectively ruining the evening for the “better” players, who will lose their focus, and not be able to get it back again for the rest of the evening, rendering the “good” games as useless.

Is anyone going to play the devils advocate? There are so many different opinions to consider on this!

My view remains unchanged: players should all play together some times, and players should stick to more even ability pairings at other times, AND everyone should be ok with this. People should be unhappy if they don't get a few tough or challenging game in the evening, and players should play seriously if they want to improve. Badminton can still be fun, but it is more fun, amongst those who want to improve, if everyone tries their hardest to win! Everyone plays better, tries harder, and enjoys the game more. Club culture is important here.

I accept that some of what I said may seem anti-social, unfriendly, arrogant, or any other negative words. Please challenge this post if you disagree with it! This is such an important issue in modern club badminton. Or maybe this is the wrong thread to discuss it…

Hi Dobbie,

I personally hate Handicap systems in the new scoring rules. I do not think they work! Old rules thats fine, but in the new rules, its not good. I think that it COULD work, but you are forcing players to be competitive throughout the club. Most players will not want this in my opinion… You are also increasing or decreasing the natural lengths of games, which is not good (you need to get games on and off quickly in a busy club).

Personally, I think the best thing regarding coaching would be just to have a coach present at a club night every now and then. They could go on and play games if people want tips during matches, or demonstrate techniques in between games to help people out. Or run a clinic on one court for something e.g. “improve your backhand drive”, and people just come on, hit a few shots, get a few tips, practice a couple of times, then go back to their games. However, this takes a court away from the club night (but players sitting out should go and watch the clinic!).