AlexLaw said

Yeah I smelled that coming. I had a good feeling you were a competitive player and I was playing in a social club. I do recall it was only last year when I asked Paul if I should buy the VTZF since I was using a $10 dollar racket and played for a few months. Also, for me training is basically playing matches against completely random people but you have your own separate training session. I suppose you’re at a level of a demigod where you shouldn’t yet need to follow the path of normal man.

However….I have also talked to a few people on the national team (they are 19-21 years old)-they told me their tactics were very narrow but they needed to pick it up in the next few years. If those guys in the HK team haven’t learned complex tactics yet, I didn’t expect anyone but a very very high caliber to use tactics.

I’ve also got to say you’ve got some great points, which I didn’t consider. Sadly, I’ll never be a competitive player due to lack of talent to make good use of your points.

You’ve made badminton a bit more complex than I first thought it was. Chess players prepare against each other before the game, to try to get a slight advantage out of the opening phase. Thus, surprises work only once. But money is generally involved in a game, so that’s why we prepare. A question I want to know is, in badminton do you reuse certain longer combinations against the same opponent or can you only win for one night playing certain strategies?

Haha I wish I was anywhere near demigod level The reason I need better tactics is because I don’t have the foundational skills good enough to be able to keep the game simple. If I had a professional standard smash, I might not need to use the tactics so much

Its interesting what you say about the HK team players, and I am not surprised to hear it. You see, what happens in most sports is that the younger players only tend to play against other players of the same age – they all progress through the ranks together, all using similar tactics. Then, when players get really good, they start playing against more experienced opponents, and opponents from other countries with different styles – hence everything changes from being able to overwhelm your classmates with speed and power, to getting your arse handed to you by a crafty old indonesian player with phenomenal defence. The best players can change their tactics to win, the less talented take a few years to develop.

I wouldn’t give up hope if I were you – I regularly lose to the ladies in my club, who are in their 40s and don’t move as well as me. But they have world class defence (ex england players) and have the most evil tactics – you can FEEL the game changing and the rallies changing, and there it is very difficult to stop them manipulating you.

With regard to strategies, I find the same kind of tactics work well against the same opponents in general – most of the players in the league are quite advanced but do not practice or train very often, so it takes a long time to overcome these problems. And I generally only play them a couple of times in a season (not enough time for them to overcome these issues) and by the time I play against them next year, the game is completely different – I have different skills and so do they. You also have to remember that unlike in games like chess, in badminton you can turn up one day and physically not be able, for whatever reason to hit certain shots e.g. my punch clear just keeps going out, so I cannot use it as part of my strategy. This happens frequently – you rarely have access to all of your weapons/tools that you know you could on another day be able to do. You just have to make the most of it anyway!

Generally speaking, the strategies I use are general e.g. against tall players I need to cramp them for space or make them get down low, meaning I need to hit at their body or make them lunge deep into the corners/sides. From this basic point you can then start formulating which combination of shots (bearing in mind which ones are “working” today) will enable you to play these tactics e.g. I need to play the net tight in order to get a lift in order to smash in order to then push them back in order to then have room to hit a slice to get them lunging low etc… However, against another opponent on another day, maybe I can’t play the net tight, or maybe smashing is a bad idea, so you need to use a different sequence to get the lift or create the space.

Some days it works well and other days its hard work. Against some players, its very tough to out play them no matter what you do, and against these guys you can have very interesting games!

I wish I were good enough to play competitive chess! Its a fascinating game, but I am more than a little obsessed with badminton – I just don’t have the time.

AlexLaw said

Thanks for the response! Was great to see deeper into your mind. Interesting strategies in mind.

Following your points one by one- I’m actually thinking the optimum amount of tactics that one should use follows an interesting pattern: nothing up to advanced, increasing and peaking up to B+/A- class, and falling back to almost nothing at world class. What are your thoughts?

I find that part losing to women in their 40’s (no offense) a bit hard to believe, even if they are world class. They could be tricky, but what’s to stop you from slowly preparing an attack, and solidifying if it doesn’t work, then repeat? They don’t have enough speed to attack and if you spend your energy neutralizing them and attacking when you’re absolutely ready, then I believe they are strategically…screwed.

Yeah variance in badminton is a lot bigger in badminton, sometimes there are off days.

You could try online blitz chess- it’s a 5 minute game online, and there’s almost no excuse. After a short while, most people can appreciate the complexity of the game. Competitive chess is not necessarily fun-you’re locked in a room for 6 hours and when money’s on the line it’s war.

On a side note it’s very good to see there aren’t flame wars during this disagreement, and explanations from both sides help reach a conclusion that can be agreed on. There’s too many fallacious claims in arguments I see over the internet, and it’s also attack vs attack and ignoring what the others are saying-except nitpicking the problems of the opposition’s points.

There are actually quite a lot of tactics at a professional level, but generally speaking it can be a bit simpler because of the superior skills of the players – they all hone their strengths to such a degree that once they are using their strengths, it is generally too difficult to overcome them – thus the tactics are generally around how to ensure you are playing the sorts of rallies you want. This inevitably comes down to how the rally starts, which leads to the emphasis on the serve and return and third shot (which determines the overall feel of the rally). For me against my opponents however, I do not have strong enough strengths to overwhelm my opponents, so I have to rely on my ability to exploit their weaknesses.

Against the top women at my club, the problem is less to do with having the skills to beat them, but consistently being able to do so. I win about 50% of the games as long as I have a similar standard partner. You said they don’t have the speed to attack and that is definitely not true – they cover the court extremely well, but do not have the same speed as me and the other men in the club. My analysis of their strengths:
They have a solid attack (always in the correct place, picking out holes in your defensive technique e.g. always managing to hit my right hip at the end of a long rally)
They make virtually no mistakes (which means the pressure is on me to also make no mistakes)
They always manage to get out of crazy situations (with very delicate blocks, drops, netshots etc)
The accuracy of their shots is phenomenal – they can hit very impressive angled slices (with deception) that are very challenging to get to, let alone do anything with (the smashes are their least dangerous attacking shots)
But the fact of the matter is, they can defend in ways I have never seen before. As an example: we recently played a mens league match against another club, which consisted of the county doubles players – tough opposition! The ladies are allowed to play for us in the mens league, because the womens top league (against the female county players) is too easy. They won all their matches (against the county men) in straight sets, and no pair got more than 15 points against them in a single game. I regularly saw them lift and then lift shorter and shorter, until the opposing net player managed to intercept the shuttle. They then hit a cross court block off his half smash/drive/net kill. Of course, neither player can get anywhere near that, and I don’t imagine there is anyone on the county circuit who can defend like that with such consistency.

In terms of tactics to beat them: waiting for the perfect opportunities to attack does not happen – they will keep you off balance with their defence, their precision, and most importantly their deception – you genuinely do not know what shot they will play, which makes covering the whole court extremely difficult. Again – I might be able to soak it up if I could play without any mistakes from pressured situations, but I just don’t have those skills yet (consistently!). Give me another couple of years training, I won’t lose to them anymore – I will have increased my skills and consistency to be able to stick with them and out last them and wait for the perfect opportunities, but I have a long way to go before I get there! (one of the ladies is my coach – she is an excellent teacher and has transformed my game beyond all recognition in the last 2 years).

What this means is – attacking them is a mistake, defending against them is hard work. Then only way to beat them is to play much faster than them and move faster, and make sure you make no mistakes in the progress. Part of the problem for me – I do not have the necessary consistency under pressure to have a mistake free game – If I made no mistakes, I would beat a lot more players than I currently can. No prizes for guessing what I am currently working to improve – my consistency.

What is really interesting about badminton – your tactics have to go hand in hand with your skills. I could design the most incredible game plan to beat an opponent – but if that game plan relies on me using shots or techniques that I realistically cannot pull off in matches, then they are the wrong tactics for me to be trying.

One day when I get some spare time, i may try out Blitz chess. Thanks for the tip!