After an enforced hiatus, my badminton group started playing again last week. Kind critics would describe the standard of play as “mixed”, and the atmosphere is more one of a good-natured thrash around than anything particularly serious. I’d rank myself as one of the better players but because we mostly play doubles (and now the newly invented “triples” rules too) it tends to even itself out.
Playing with the same people over a long period of time means that even at our casual level you can appreciate people’s different strengths and weaknesses – don’t give that guy the opportunity to smash; she can’t return from the back of the court but will get to anything you drop short; if you give him the opportunity to smash, make sure he has loads of time because he’ll overthink it and hit into the net… and so on.
More interesting than your opponent is your partnership with your doubles partner. With some people I can discuss tactics, and we manage to play accordingly; but some people all the talk between points just doesn’t stick – neither my partner nor I manage to stick to our plan. With some players it is pointless to discuss tactics. This can be good or bad – one guy knows his way around the court so well that you can just play around him, or if you make a move he will play around you, with no planning needed. Another player seems intent on returning to the dead centre of the court making it very difficult to locate yourself in a complementary position.
On the face of it I might expect the quality of the partnership to be based on a combination of badminton skill and how easily you have a rapport with that person off the court, but neither of those things seem to predict who I gel with on the court and who I don’t. I’m sure there is a lesson there…
