Hello everybody,

Took part in my second tournament last week-end. This time, I’ve played in MS, MD and MxD.

I didn’t manage to pass the first round.

For the MS, I’ve played against the winner of the tournament, quite a nice beginning haha. My results are 21-14 and 21-13. Remember that I’ve nearly never trained for single games. Well, even I’ve lost, there were some improvements in my game but well, still not enough.

For MD and MxD, I’ve lost in three games but I’m really disppointed ’cause my partner and I were supposed to win. Maybe not easily but at least, our opponents weren’t that good. For both games, it was the same “story”, we won the first game quite comfortably, the second one lost at 22-20 and for the third game, our opponents took the lead very early and we couldn’t backlevel.

This is all for this week. Next tournament on 8th May.

@ Paul : I couldn’t manage to catch myself on video while playing. None of my friends were available at the time grrr

Paul said:

Jonathan

Well done! Look, you’ve entered a tournament which a lot of players don’t do.

It sounds like you and your partner eased off too much which allowed your opponents into the game. The problem when you do this is that it’s very hard to take a commanding position again.

Losing the second game seemed to drain you of either confidence, stamina, ideas or a combination. I do wonder whether you tried different tactics to address the result?

I would have loved to see the videos of your matches. Never mind Jonathan, write the result off to experience when you understand what went wrong.

Hopefully I’ll see some video of you in the future.

To your future success

Paul

Hi Paul,

“Well done” doesn’t seem very appropriate for my performance haha.

For the tournaments, it’s not like it is a big challenge to take part in it, I mean, anyone can suscribe and play. It is a real and big challenge to have good results at it.This is what I want. I’m not there to win even if it’s necessary to pass C2 haha but well, I’m mostly there to play in “real situation”, in real competition even if I’m still not ranked.

I guess you’re right. We went easy on the second game and let our victory go away. For the tactics, we didn’t have or try anything special as my partner isn’t coming for training as he should do. For next season, I hope I will form a better pairing with a more regular player. For the MxD, I played for the replacement of a friend. I was thinking that the girl plays good at the net (she is supposed to pass C2 as she already wins 3 or 4 tournaments) and I’m not too bad (as a D-player against D-players) so we could play together. But unfortunately, it didn’t go well.

Again for MxD, I went easy in the second game, as a gentleman , I didn’t want to smash everything on the girl. But it was a wrong decision, I’ve noticed that the game was reversed. As I played on the man, he could attack of my partner. Moreover, a friend told me that I’m usually sending back shuttles in the smash position of my opponent as I was trying to cover the back of the court. All my clears were unefficient, coming only half way of the opponents court.

Well , he’s right. I still need improvements for that but half of it was due to a pain at my right biceps. It is linked to a poor warming-up. I began to play at 8.30 AM and I was late so I couldn’t get prepared correctly. I’m still trying to find a shorter way to warm-up in order to avoid injuries like that. It really pisses me off. In tournaments, nothing can be “prepared”, you come and play “in live”.

There’s still one thing about my poor performance. I felt and still am feeling a lot of pressure while playing. As an intermediate player, it is a shame to do some bad shots. When I miss a shot, I feel like it is a kind of dishonour. Hope you will understand. And when there’s a lot of people wachting me, sometimes I can’t stay focused.

Well, that’s all for the analysis. I know what I need to improve but not how to do it.

For the videos, I hope you get them before next season haha as it is my last tournament and I’m still not sure someone can help me for that. But don’t you have plenty of things to do such as reviewing some new stuff ? haha. I don’t want to disturb you when you’re busy. By the way, which view do you prefer ? To see us from the front, from the back or from the side of the court ?

Jonathan

The draw had been made and the shedule had been set up for my last tournament of the season 🙂

For SM, it will be at 8.45 and if I pass the first round, the second round will be at 13.45 for me.

Well, again, I have to play very early so I’m kinda nervous as I’m afraid to get hurt again after that match.

For DMD, it’s going to be one hour after my single game, so at 9.45. If I pass the first round, the next match will be at 12.05.

This one’s gonna be tough as I’m playing with a guy I know but I’ve never play with him in training.

And last but not least, for MxD, I’ll play at 16.00 and 18.15.

I think I’ll begin to pray every night right now. My partner is “only” 43 years old and I don’t know her. I guess I’ll have to cover the back most of the time. The thing is I’ll play against the best team I know in MxD so a pairing like us can’t do anything.

Wish me good luck, guys…

I have one question about the service in MxD, where should I stay when serving ? I want to know the distance in order to know how to serve.

Paul said:

Jonathan. Be careful. You are setting yourself up for defeat with this attitude. Every opponent has a weakness. Find them and play to them.

Their weakness is hardly exploitable for a player like me.

It is very important you talk to your partners and work out where to stand.

For mixed you need to be very clear whether you attack a low serve and stay at the net or play a safer shot and get to the back. Ask your partner whether they can safely cover you and retain the attack.

You must communicate with your partner all the time if you are to be a team.

So instead of praying, I suggest you write down what you know about your opponents. What they good at, poor at and where the opportunity is to win points. Take this with you and then plan to win with your partner.

Yeah I will follow your advice but hope I will have time to explain everything to her as she will come only at 16.00, that means when we’re going to begin our match in MxD.