Badminton is uncomfortably fast when you are on the receiving end of speed and not used to it. I am not just talking about the fastest smash speeds here. Even when you consider other strokes like pushes, slices, flat game, drops, defence, front court play in doubles and the footwork required to reach the shuttle, for most of us, it all feels very fast. But for some players - the Hendra Setiawans, the Lee Chong Weis, the Lin Dans and a few chosen ones, everything seems to happen at a very ideal pace. They never seem rushed. They always seem to have that half a second more than everyone else. It begs the question - is it some mystic art that they are secretly being taught which slows time down for them? Or maybe it's a skill that all of us can learn? At Badmintoo.com, we believe the latter. Let's dive deeper into this.
The central idea behind slowing down time is actually about being able to gain more time to perform every single stroke and the key skill necessary for this is anticipation. 'Anticipation' is about being able to predict future outcomes before they happen and if you can do that, then you get that much extra time to play your shot. Anticipation is not guessing because guessing is random - i.e. choosing one outcome or another randomly. Anticipation on the other hand is about observing one or more information sources and using those to guide your decision - like an informed choice. To note, how you respond to the stroke is not a part of the anticipation process. Anticipation is the 'identification' part; it happens before the response. From a scientific perspective, a measure of whether a player has anticipated is to observe if the player has moved in the direction of the opponent's stroke either before the opponent contacts the shuttle or within 200 milliseconds (ms) after the opponent's racket-shuttle contact. Why 200 ms is a question for another day.
There is a large body of research in multiple sports which has shown that skilled players are better at anticipation than the less-skilled players - i.e. this is one of the abilities that helps the skilled players perform better than the less-skilled players. Skilled badminton players have been shown to accurately predict the location of the shuttle about 80 ms before the opponent even contacts the shuttle. In any international match, you can see this ability on display multiple times. For example, in doubles when the server anticipates the return direction and intercepts it or when a singles player changes his feet position to intercept a cross court lift he/she has anticipated. In all such situations, players are anticipating the opponent's stroke and preparing for it in advance.
So how do skilled players do this? Which information sources do they observe?
Sport scientists have categorized these information sources into two parts -
Part 1: Kinematic information sources: Sources related to the opponent's movement pattern (backswing, position on court, grip etc.). This will be discussed in the next article. It is the more difficult bit to learn as the action occurs very quickly.
Part 2: Contextual information sources: This includes everything other than the server's action. This is the easier way to anticipate and is straightforward (but not easy) to learn by all. It is what we will discuss now.
Contextual information sources include everything about the circumstances, the setting or the environment surrounding the match - i.e. the context. Sources like information about the opponent, their shot preferences, strengths and weaknesses, match score, environmental conditions (temperature, drift etc), court side etc. are all included in this. This is the easier way to anticipate the opponent's stroke because it uses 'static' information - i.e. information that does not change during the course of the match. It is not 'dynamic' like the server's action which is happening in the moment and which changes from one stroke to the next.
So, how are these contextual information sources used and what is the information derived from them? Let's look at these sources one by one.
1. Opponent preferences
Everyone has preferences. Shot options they prefer over another. For any player, these generally develop over time based on what has worked in the past and what hasn't. For example, you might observe in singles, a certain player might on any short serve may prefer to return to the net in order to get you to lift or may prefer to return as a flat lift to your rear court to get you in a defensive position. These preferences are different for different players. The more often you play against someone, the more you start observing these preferences. The trick to take advantage of these is to play a stroke allowing the opponent to play their preferred stroke and then already be in position and ready to take advantage of it. For example, if someone just returns to the net on a singles short serve, you can deliberately play the short serve, wait for them to return to the net and then pounce and kill it.
The way to learn these preferences, especially when you play a new opponent, is to be alert and think actively on court. Between two points, you can think about what shot your opponent played when you played a certain stroke. It's like building your own profile of them. The other way is to observe how a certain player plays when they play others and observe what strokes they hit from specific situations. You can also record matches and watch them again to observe these. It's harder to understand this when a player is skilled enough to play different strokes in the same situation and also varies their strokes. But very often, every player will demonstrate some preferences. A few common situations to observe are -
1. where do they serve (short or flick - T, body or wide)
2. how do they return (to the net - centre or to the side, fast or slow push to the centre or the side, lift - high or flat lift - is it straight or cross)
3. how do they attack from the rear court - smashes, drops, slices, punch clears - do they go straight or cross?
4. how do they defend your smashes - drive back to you or soft blocks or re-lift the smash - do they hit straight or cross
2. Opponent strengths and weaknesses
This factor is slightly different to opponent preferences. While preferences may be observed in tactically neutral situations, strengths and weaknesses are mostly observed when the opponent is in a tactically offensive or a tactically defensive position. They can be understood from two simple questions -
1. how does your opponent win points?
2. how do they lose points?
Again, these will differ from player to player but we can still observe those for every specific individual.
Let's take a simple example. If your opponent has a powerful smash, they will mostly choose to play it as often as possible when you lift. So, if you have played a lift, you have a hint that the next stroke is mostly going to come fast and you can prepare for that. If suppose they are very good at the net, they might try and engage you in a net game. But if you know that, you can play fast pushes or lifts to keep them away from the net. On the other hand, your opponent might be weak at certain strokes. A common example, if someone is weaker at a backhand clear or any backhand defensive stroke, you can try and play punch clears or flat lifts to their backhand corner. If they can't hit a backhand clear, their options are limited to a straight or cross backhand drop and for that, you can step closer to the net and capitalize on that.
These are just a few examples. Similar to opponent preferences, the key to find out these for any individual is to observe how often certain strokes/situations are leading to the opponent winning or losing a point.
3. Opponent physical characteristics
This includes observing their height and general physique. Height is a very useful information source because it determines the steepness of any of the downward strokes. Steeper strokes are easier to hit for taller players with a high point of contact, so when you lift to them, you need to be prepared for a steeper attack. However, for shorter players with a lower point of contact, any smash will generally be flatter and hence, keeping your racket position higher is a good idea to counter attack. Another characteristic to observe is speed and explosiveness of movement. It gives a general idea of the point of contact possible for any stroke as players who are faster around the court will usually find it easier to have higher contact points for any stroke. An opponent with faster speed of movement and more explosiveness will also allow lesser time for you after your stroke. So, consciously observing this can allows you to estimate the time available to get ready for the next stroke.
4. Match score and court side
Match score is another simple information to guide your judgment. The rule of thumb is: If it's an important point in the game or match, for example 15-15 in the third set or if the opponent is under pressure (for example, 19-16 down), the opponent is more likely to opt for their strengths and preferred shots rather than experimenting with new shots.
Court side (left or right side of the half court) is important to observe for especially serves and returns. This is because, the court side from where the opponent is serving or returning allows them to target different parts of your court. For example, if you are right handed and returning from your right hand side court, there can be more space available to your left for the opponent to play a flat serve behind you. However, from the odd court there is no such space available as a flat serve is mostly straight into your forehand which you can attack. (Can you think of more such examples in other strokes which depend on court side?)
5. Environmental factors
This includes factors such as drift, humidity, temperature etc which generally affect the flight of the shuttle.
Drift is the general flow of air in the hall which influences the flight of the shuttle. It may be along the length of the court, along the width of the court or a mixture of both. Drift along the length of the court means that the shuttle will fly faster from one side to another. If the opponent is playing with the drift, then you can expect their strokes to travel a little faster - slightly faster smashes and more length on clears and lifts. Similarly, the shuttle speed will be slightly slower when opponent is playing against the drift. Playing against the drift generally makes it easier to control the lifts and hit them right to the back of the court. A sideways drift is also important to observe as it might cause the shuttle to fly out or stay in the court on the left or right side based on the direction of the sideways drift.
Temperature is another factor that affects the shuttle flight. Hotter temperatures reduce the air density which reduces resistance against the shuttle. This causes the shuttle to fly faster in the court. Humidity on the other hand has the opposing effect. In conditions that are more humid, there is more air resistance to the shuttle and hence the overall shuttle speed slows down.
How to gather contextual information?
As stated earlier, the key to gather information about all these contextual sources is to observe the frequency of occurrences. How frequently does your opponent play a certain stroke in a certain situation and how frequently do they win or lose points in certain situations. You can also observe how they play against other players. Professional players use performance analysts for this purpose. Another important point is to actively think about what's happening on court - what is working, what is not working, how is the shuttle trajectory on certain strokes. Once you analyse these factors, the key is how do you adapt or respond to it; this is beyond the scope of this article.
The risk in using contextual information sources
We have discussed a set of contextual information sources. But while contextual information is straightforward to observe and utilize, it is not what is happening in the moment. What happens in the moment is the opponent's action. And irrespective of whatever your opponent has played in the past, what they will play as their next stroke is more dependent on their current movement patterns. So, while it's useful to estimate where the opponent may hit from contextual information, it is wiser to look at their movement pattern before responding. There is a large amount of research showing that expert players CAN read the opponent's movement pattern to accurately anticipate the next shot. This is what we will cover in the next article. Stay tuned!