How often do you hear someone finish a match, and then they begin to complain about something that caused them to lose? Something happened during the match, or some conditions on the court made it “impossible” for them to win or say they claim. The excuses are many, but to list a few:
- The lighting was bad
- The ceiling was too low
- The walls have painted a color that makes seeing the shuttle impossible
- There is wind in the hall
- The floors were slippery
- My racquet is no good
- The shuttles were too fast
- The shuttles were too slow
- My opponent was a hack. His awkward style threw me off
I’m sure you can add to that list, either from excuses you’ve heard or from excuses you’ve come up with yourself. There’s a funny thing about excuses though, once you deal with one another, one pops up to fill its place.
They are never-ending because the problem was not whatever excuse you were coming up with. The problem is the fact that you see the external influences around you as unbeatable obstacles.
The reality is whatever harsh conditions you might be dealing with. Your opponent is likely dealing with them as well. And even if they weren’t dealing with those circumstances, it doesn’t matter because nobody cares about your excuses. While it might make you feel better about losing, it won’t help you become a better badminton player.
The easy way to get past these conditions that are bothering you is to accept them as just being part of the game, and instead of worrying about them, shift your focus to things you can control. So what do you have direct control over in your badminton game? Let’s look at this from two perspectives, first during gameplay and second during practice/training.
During Game Play
During gameplay, the first thing you have control over is the shots that you are hitting. Pay attention to your shot selection and executing the strategy and tactics that you decide you will use. Try not to make improvements to your game during gameplay.
In other words, if you are struggling to improve your cross-court net shot, avoid using it too much during gameplay. Save it for practice.
Another major thing you have control over during gameplay is your thought process and your self-talk. This is perhaps the most important thing you need to focus on during gameplay and what makes the biggest difference between the very best players and us mere mortals. You need to be positive during matches, and you can’t let things like fast shuttles or other issues become excuses.
However, the reality is that there is not a whole lot that is within your control during gameplay. Most of the hard work has already been done well before this point while you were practicing and training your shots and your body. Once the games begin, all you can do is stay focused on executing what you have practiced so many times before.
During Practice/Training
This is the time where you have the most control over your badminton game and your ability to succeed. During practice, you can work on your shots extensively and refine them so that you don’t need to think about your technique when it comes time to play.
If you make many unforced errors during matches, you should focus on drills that help you improve your consistency.
If your opponents are killing your net shots because you don’t hit them tight enough, then practice your net shots more. It’s really not that complicated, but it does require you to put in that effort.
Perhaps the biggest area that we neglect is our physical training. Sure playing badminton is fun, and it’s an easier way to maintain our fitness than running or during intense training, but if you want to see better results, you have to be fitter.
When you are playing a tournament or even just a match in your local club, and you start feeling tired, there isn’t much you can do because it’s too late. It would be best if you had put that effort in beforehand. If you and I are playing each other and we have equal skills, but I’m much fitter than you, I will win most of the time.
People Complaining All The Time
This is so true. Last night, I was playing at my club, and the guy I was playing kept complaining. He argued over the shuttles the whole time. He wanted to keep slowing them down, and he kept going to wipe his feet. It’s not fun to play against a complainer, and you look bad, too, when you do it!
It is bad to let excuses bother you, but sometimes there is nothing that you can do to help it. Even though if the shuttles are very poor, then it can be challenging to play sometimes. Then it is good to pick a better quality shuttle next time when go to play badminton.
When I go to a hall with a low roof, I always find myself giving away easy points to the opponents. I can’t make the roof go higher, can I? But the thing that I can do is to suit myself and adjust my skill to accommodate the condition.
What I do before a tournament or a match, I do not complain or look for excuses. I was playing yesterday, and I was not playing so well and what I kept telling myself was: “You need more practice, then you be very confident on the court to do whatever you want.”
And reading this today, I am more motivated to practice well and train hard to see the results. I play with my best effort during matches, and I don’t complain or give excuses.
You will feel better when you have played your best, and you feel good even you still lose a match. Whether it is someone better than me or not.
When I don’t play well and lose, especially to someone, I am better than, it can be irritating, but there is still no way to look for excuses. Instead, I will review what’s going wrong with my playing techniques, trying to avoid the same mistake next time.
I think it’s about a strong mental attitude. If someone is spending all their time complaining, they are either:
- Not fully focused on winning.
- Are worried they cannot beat you, so are playing mind games.
Either way, if you are mentally strong, you should retain focus and stuff them.
Excuses Are Only Excuses
Excuses could be, in fact, only excuses, but they can also explain what really happened in the game.
The other player is often not the best you are, but you lost because of the wrong options.
So, this has to be corrected, and even if you lose in a balanced game, and if you know that has been done what was at your range, you will not feel frustrated at the end of the game.
Badminton has rules for the equipment to be used, and this is not by chance. So, obviously, the player is conditioned by the conditions he has in his club, like the coach, shuttle quality, the high ceiling hall, etc.
Obviously that all of this influences the game quality. For instance, you will be in trouble if you need to do a high lob after a net shot from your opponent and you have a low ceiling. Or if you need to do a backhand with a poor quality shuttle, perhaps the result will not be the best.
All this is important for the championships and the pleasure the player will feel for playing in the best or poor conditions.
Notwithstanding, we obviously have to play with what we have, but this doesn’t mean that the game will not be somehow negatively affected by poor conditions or bad equipment.
I mean that most of the explanations given by those who lose are interpreted as excuses and not as explanations that you can use to improve the game.
I used the term ‘equipment more broadly and not only in the sense of the personal equipment; it is not the player’s fault for having to practice in a low ceiling hall or with bad shuttles because he cannot find any other place to play.
Obviously, all the players are under the same conditions during a tournament, but the problem is not with those conditions, but in the conditions that each one had during training; the starting point is essential.
Conditions To Deal With The Excuses
The point is that regardless of whatever excuses you may have for what happened, it doesn’t matter. In the end, both players generally have the same conditions to deal with, and if you are personally having equipment issues, that is your own fault.
The best players are the ones who do not use excuses and insist on improving themselves without complaint. When you start using excuses, there is no end. You can always use another to explain your loss, so you shouldn’t even start with a first excuse.
Excuses and explanations are different. Excuses are used to define why you lost in such a way that you DON’T have to change. You can stay the same. Explanations are used to define why you lost while also identifying where you need to improve.
What Happened to My Friend
A good friend of mine happens to be one of these frequent complainers.
His numerous excuses come in various forms: ‘I have been training too hard lately,’ ‘I haven’t been training enough, ‘I had a busy day at work,’ ‘I really should have a massage right now, ‘I ate too much, ‘I should have eaten something, ‘I’ve changed the tension of my strings,’ ‘My wife had a bad day’ ….
He’s a good friend of mine, and over the years, I have got used to his way of “analyzing” the game.
However, what makes me sad is that those people who use excuses do not recognize that, more often than not, the problem is in their badminton, not in those external issues that they use as excuses.
If one cannot recognize the problem, one cannot improve one’s badminton.
Let’s consider a common excuse: “The lights were bad.” I guess, most of the time, it means that there is a spotlight just above the court, and when looking directly up at the light, you cannot see the shuttle.
So then, where is the real problem?
I claim that the problem is in your footwork. If you had been fast enough, you would be hitting slightly _behind_ the shuttle, not right below it.
If you are quick enough, your stroke options are many. You can see the shuttle, the net, your opponent’s court, and your opponent’s position simultaneously. If you are late, all you can see is the damned spotlight!
And the complainers should have their minds right. Most of the time, instead of saying, “The shuttles were too fast,” they should say something like, “I am not skillful enough to adapt to these fast shuttles.”
The reason for losing the match is that your opponent is better when using fast shuttles, not the fast shuttles themselves. The shuttles are the same for both of you. The difference is only in your badminton skills.
And most of the time, the shuttles are not too fast. Rather, they are likely to pass the hitting test stated in the laws of badminton.
Conditions Are Actually The Same For All Players
The conditions (apart from gamesmanship) are the same for all of us, but while we find excuses, we will not improve our game: we let the conditions affect us. We are not mentally strong.
If you struggle with fast shuttles and rely on excuses, you have lost before you start. If you go and practice with fast shuttles, you will learn how to cope with them and be better next time.
And as mentioned earlier, better footwork can help alleviate bad lighting. Anyway, how many of us actually look at the shuttle as it hits the strings on an all-out smash?
Good technique gets us in the right position and gets the timing right to hit THROUGH bad lighting conditions. How many of us have practiced low serving with our eyes closed to check if our swing is 100% grooved?
In a book by Judy Hashman, she devoted a chapter to tactics to beat poor conditions (bad lighting, low roofs, fast/slow shuttles, etc.). As a Champion playing when well-designed sports centers were rare, she decided to work out tactics that would negate the conditions and give her an advantage over her ill-prepared opponents.
Indeed, habitual and frequent complaints about issues during matches are defeatist and make good players look ordinary. Thereby giving a competitive edge to an opponent who is calm, reserved, and focused.
Let’s stop worrying about what we cannot do anything about, and spend time improving our badminton!
Focus On Learning and Improving Is The Key
Complaining is pointless and immature. It’s also a waste of energy.
Practicing shots during the game can sometimes pay off. What I mean is that you shouldn’t be careless, but being too careful and timid may be just as damaging.
As for focus, you need to stick to your game plan. That may work for you, but sometimes it may cause you to be thinking too much instead of being in the flow.
Some thinking is, of course, required but thinking too much before each shot tends to sabotage your natural reflexes.
I see the focus as being totally present and responding to the game instead of being too much in my head.
Being present is very important. In competition, the benefit of having a game plan is that it provides you a general framework to follow because it’s likely you’ll get nervous.
When you get nervous, you tend to play reactionary badminton. Suddenly you’re not playing with a specific purpose. In the end, you have to find that nice happy medium that feels most comfortable for you personally.
Focus is probably the most important thing that any of us can learn. After the shot technique, it can make or break us.
Just like anything else, you can learn it. But that takes effort. And surely that is what separates the people who are reading this from the ‘average’ player? We are committed to getting better and are willing to put the effort in.
With time and practice, we can learn not to let the ‘Complainer’ put us off our game. Also, with time and practice, we can learn to cope with low ceilings by adapting our style where we can practice this in our normal hall.
Even in a high ceiling hall, we may come up against a player who isn’t good at the flatter game, so isn’t it is good to have the ability to play that type of game? Poor shuttles? We can practice with old or fast/slow shuttles, can’t we?
Do More Practicing
Practice isn’t a chore. Instead, it is what helps us to be in control when things get tough.
Badminton is a very dynamic sport that requires the ability to last long games (aerobic fitness) and also requires speed and the ability to recover from one rally to the next (anaerobic fitness).
I personally try to do 2-3 aerobic workouts per week (running or bike), and then I do my aerobic fitness with sprints, badminton drills, and match play.
Are you making excuses for yourself? Well, stop it! Spend the time before your matches, before your tournaments, and focus on improving what you have control over.
If you find yourself making excuses, the reality is that your opponent was just better on that day, pure and simple. Now go out and kick some butt!