In our previous article, we explored the concept of using contextual information like opponent's strengths, weaknesses, past outcomes etc. to predict our opponent's upcoming moves (also called 'anticipation') in badminton. It is a relatively straightforward way of anticipating the opponent's next stroke. All it needs is meticulous and mindful observation of the general occurrences in the game - what was played, which stroke won points, which stroke lost points, drift, temperature etc.
However, this information isn't about what's happening in the current moment; rather, it's knowledge derived from the past, an understanding of the player's tendencies or the game's unique setting - which brings us to the hard, but more effective way of anticipation. While contextual information can provide valuable insights into your opponent's potential next moves, it's not a fool-proof method. This is because your opponent's next stroke doesn't directly depend on the environment, their strengths or what they did in the past. It depends on how they are moving right now. If we can read that movement accurately, we have a much greater chance of predicting their next stroke accurately. An obvious question here is - how are current movements predictive of the next stroke? This is because the opponent's shot outcome is constrained by the biomechanics of their movements, i.e. they must perform specific actions in a specific pattern to achieve a certain speed, spin, and trajectory of the shuttle. If they move in a different way, they cannot produce the exact same outcome. A simple example is, if your opponent wants to play a forehand stroke, they mostly need a normal forehand grip and not a backhand thumb grip. They can try hitting it with the backhand grip but it's almost impossible to hit the shuttle with the same speed and trajectory. In the world of sports science, these positions and movement patterns are called 'kinematics'.
Now, make no mistake - observing our opponent's actions is not easy. The reason? Firstly, both of you are in constant motion, moving around from one stroke to the next. Secondly, the pace of the game leaves us with just 1-1.5 seconds time to recover from our last stroke, observe the opponent's action and move towards the next stroke. But here's the interesting part – research has shown that even in this rapid pace, expert international players across multiple sports still possess this uncanny ability to observe these lightning-fast actions and anticipate the next stroke accurately.This allows them to be in a better position to hit the next stroke, as compared to amateur players who cannot anticipate at all.
So, which information sources in the opponent's movement hold the key to this anticipation process? Let's look at them one by one.
Opponent's position on court with respect to the shuttle
Where is the opponent on the court? Where is the shuttle? These two sources can tell you a lot about all the shot options that the opponent has. These two things are used to define the 'tactical situation' of the opponent in the rally.
For example, if the shuttle is above them and they are behind the shuttle hitting forward, then they are tactically offensive and plenty of shots are possible (Image on the left below). However, if the shuttle has gone behind them and is closer to hitting the floor, then they are in a tactically defensive position and have fewer shot options (image on the right below).
Grip
Observing the grip with which they are holding the racket is another great way to predict the shuttle trajectory. For example, in the rear court if they are on the forehand side with a grip rotated towards the backhand (observe image below), then they are likely to play a slice, which means the shuttle is going to slow down significantly with a steep trajectory. It's generally quite hard to observe the grip when the opponent is far away, but the grip changes the direction where the racket points, so observing the racket face direction is indicative of their grip.
This can be applied in the front court as well. For example, in the image below, observe how Ginting approaches the shuttle when returning serves. He has a forehand grip and it's very difficult from this position to play it straight without putting your wrist in an awkward position. So, the most probable shot is cross court.
End of racket backswing
Another common information source to anticipate shot direction is to observe where the backswing ends. If you observe the end of the backswing and where the shuttle is and connect those two with a line, that is generally where the shuttle is going to be hit. A thumb rule is, for any cross court shot in the front court is - the racket needs to be on the side of the shuttle at the end of the backswing. So, if you observe this, then you can have a fair idea that it's going to go cross. Observe the image below where Stefan is hitting a cross court net shot and you can see the racket on the side of the shuttle.
A similar rule can be applied in the rear court where the racket at the end of backswing generally points in the direction of the intended shot direction. For example, observe Kento Momota here and if you draw a line between the end of backswing and the shuttle, you can see that he's mostly going to hit it straight, because to hit it cross court from this position, he will have to go around the shuttle which seems difficult.
Forward swing or racket path
One of the most reliable indicators of the direction, speed and spin of the next stroke is the forward swing or the racket path - i.e. observing how the racket moves from the end of the backswing until it contacts the shuttle. For example, similar to the end of backswing, the shuttle direction can be predicted by observing the racket path and the shuttle position. Observe the below images to see the difference between a straight and a cross court smash from Stefan. Even though it's blurry, you can see how the racket path towards the shuttle points in the direction of the shuttle direction.
Another use of this forward swing is estimation of the time remaining to contact. For example, a study in anticipation of tennis serves showed that the speed of the forward swing roughly indicates how much time is available before the opponent contacts the ball. This is applicable in badminton as well. Why is this important? - because before hitting most strokes in badminton, you need to perform a split step and the common coaching instruction is to make sure that this split step happens almost at the time of the opponent's racket-shuttle contact and to estimate this time, you can observe the speed of the forward swing. However, there is one catch here; the badminton rackets are very light which means it is possible to either slow down or speed up the racket in the last moment, and expert players can do this to mess up your estimation of the time remaining to contact. A recent example of this is how Yuta Watanabe plays a smash and a delayed drop, and this puts off his opponents who are expecting a fast smash by the fast speed of his swing which he slows down in the last moment.
What we have discussed so far is not a complete list. There may be more such information sources that players use. Our aim by discussing the above is to give an idea of some general rules about anticipation from some common information sources.
Learning to observe the opponent's action
So, we discussed a set of information sources related to the opponent's movement. But everything in the player's motion happens so fast and all of these sources are being used collectively to anticipate the final outcome. So the obvious question is - how do players get used to observe and process all this information? The answer is, this process is not always fully conscious. Players don't have the luxury of a mental checklist, thinking, "I see this, so I predict that." Instead, it's a combination of conscious and unconscious mental processes. Players may observe the position of the opponent with respect to the shuttle or the grip consciously, but their trained instincts kick in when observing the backswing and the forward swing which occur very fast. That is why the terminology used by skill acquisition specialists is 'being attuned'. Simply said, by virtue of years of training, players are naturally but unconsciously tuned to observing these complex information sources and how they interact. Hence, the easiest way to learn to anticipate is to play different players again and again, so that you get attuned to their motion.
Another way to learn to anticipate is to incorporate it in training drills - i.e. creating drills where players are not just performing a technical drill, but having conditions in the drill like - 'if you see this happening, then do this; if you see that; then expect this other thing'. Just this conscious process, repeated over and over again, can train your visual system to process multiple information sources very quickly and at the same time.
One other way to improve anticipation is a detailed understanding of the technical elements of the game. Our full course on foundational technique covers these in great detail. Check it out!
Now all the above methods take a significant amount of time before any improvement in anticipation skills is observed. To speed up this process, skill acquisition practitioners have done years of research on something called 'perceptual training' - i.e. training how we perceive or observe our game specific visual information. Multiple researchers create special video clips which are stopped at certain points before the opponent contacts the shuttle - for example, at the end of backswing. Some researchers also hide specific parts of the player's body like the racket, forcing the players to observe other information available to anticipate. This method of stopping the video at certain specific points or hiding some specific parts is called 'occlusion'. The aim is to train players to use this early information to anticipate the next shot and all these methods have been observed to improve players' anticipation skills in a span of 6-8 weeks. We will discuss different perceptual training methods in a separate article in the future.
One complication in anticipation
There is one badminton-specific complication in this process. As the badminton racket is very light, it is easy to change the shuttle direction or trajectory in the last moment. So, skilled players tend to have the same action right until the racket-shuttle contact and decide the shuttle speed, spin and trajectory at the last moment. This sameness and last moment changes make it very difficult to read the player's action and anticipate their shot. In scientific terms, this is called 'disguise'. Another method to make reading the opponent's action difficult is 'deception' where a player will deliberately show you that they are going to hit one way and then change this in the last moment to hit the other way. Expert players are very skilled at both disguise and deception and it's an important skill to train to make your game difficult to read.
Conclusion
So, that's a wrap on the anticipation topic in badminton. Over the last two articles, we discussed two methods of anticipation and how they can be used to read the opponent's next shot in advance. While one method (contextual) is straightforward to learn, it is less reliable. The other method (observing player movements) is difficult to learn but is more reliable. Both these methods and information sources are combined to perceive the final direction of the shuttle and respond to it.
Which sources do you use to anticipate?