Every now and then, I receive a call asking about badminton lessons, and when I try to understand why want lessons, it often boils down to feeling insecure of their abilities. If you’re guilty of being one of them, I assure you it is Perfectly normal for a lot of players (Even for national players because playing ability is relative to the players around you)
Personally I’ve come across a few situations that cause players to feel insecure and take up private lessons.
1a. They want to catch up with their group of friends/colleagues in a new firm that have been playing regularly for years
1b. They worry that they bore the stronger players as they are unable to hit a decent return or take their fast shots and etc.
2. They want to train up to a certain standard first before joining a playing group to play.
In this article, I would like to address the insecurities as a recreational beginner (Sorry pros, can’t help you out here!) and with the benefit of hindsight and experience over the years, how best I believe you should go about conquering this problem.
Problems with Just Training
The common misconception is that by taking up quality training under a capable coach, you can finally kiss goodbye to your worries of looking/feeling incapable, you dream of becoming the top player among your friends that everyone looks up to and wants to play with. Sad to say it doesn’t usually happen! Badminton is player versus player sport, and to truly improve fast, you’ll need good training, the right attitude and quality sparring with a variety of players. And that takes more than a 1 or 2 hour, once a week private training to cover them all.
While training is very beneficial in helping you improve, and I strongly recommend it if you want to get a strong foundation, ultimately you must dare to play with a variety of players to practice what you’ve learnt in training! To get started you need to set a good foundation in order to rid yourself of your insecurities, and first up on the list is the right mindset.
Right Mindset
Every badminton player loses games, and as the weaker player in any group, you will lose more frequently. What matters is not how incapable you are compared to your friends, but how you react to the defeat, because remember! Even the world’s best player loses, so whether you win or lose, it really doesn’t matter or make much difference. What we all want is to have fun with badminton, seeking the thrill of an intense game or just a good laugh!
Now that leaves us with the problem of how to give them a good laugh or an intensive game. The most important aspect to is to get in the right frame of mind. Expect to lose often, stay humble and always seek feedback and advice to improve your game. Join more groups and create a feedback loop to understand where your weaknesses are in every match and how you can effectively make them a little better in the next match.
Once you’ve opened yourself up to the fact that even the top players lose, you’ll realize that badminton is not just about being the best. It’ll lighten your mood, help you enjoy the game better and when you are ready to take action to improve your level of play, the next thing you can do is find the right playing group for yourself.
Right Playing Group
Find the right playing group. If you are joining a firm that has a strong sporting culture, you may quickly realize that you are lagging far behind compared to the rest that has played for years. Sometimes the ability gap may be too wide for you to reasonably catch up with them soon (Like within 3 months). In this case, don’t lose hope because now it’s time to find a suitable group to play with.
Note that this is true in the reverse situation when your colleagues are much weaker than you are.
One of the most effective ways you can do this is to ask your friends if they know of any appropriate groups to recommend, bearing in mind they were once a newcomer, they probably started off from other groups too. Another useful place to find groups are badminton halls nearby. Wherever there are courts, there will be players! So find the peak hour of the courts and chances are, there are badminton organizers you can join and even better, they can provide you with other organizers contact that suit your level of play.
The last method I would recommend to find playing groups are online, such as Meetup.com or badminton forums such as BadmintonCentral.com. The reason is that from my experience, good organizers get strong word of mouth referrals and thus do not need to utilize the online forum to find players.
Also, a lot of online organizers spend money marketing to find more players so naturally they will charge more for you to join their games to cover their overheads. Nonetheless there are many great organizers in the online world and it’s a great place to start hunting for playing groups.
The next question in mind is, what makes the playing group suitable for you?
Supportive Friends
The right kind of playing groups that you want are those relatively close to your playing level, yet you belong to the weaker half of the group, giving you the chance to spar with stronger players that can push your game to a new level, while still giving the better players an intensive game.
Ideally these players are very encouraging and willing to share with you your weaknesses. Over time, with trial and error and practice, you’ll be able to improve your game. Eventually as you get better, you can find stronger groups to join, repeat the process until you’re able to match up with you’re colleagues and give them a nice surprise with your smash!
To sum it all up, these are the 3 points.
- Right Mindset
- Right Playing Group
- Supportive Friends
One thing I’ve noticed though, having a badminton buddy that you’re close to really helps a lot in your quest, but I’ll leave that to the next post to share why.
In the meantime do share with me what do you think about this and the problems you face and I’ll do my best to help you out. If you found this post useful to any of your friends, please! Do tag them and lend them a racket for their battles!
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