13. It’s how you react to errors that is important

“One big difference between normal players and Champions is the way a Champion reacts to an error”

“You don’t have to play perfect Badminton to win matches.  Just make fewer mistakes than your opponent”

These quotes are from Roger Mills an All England Champion, but I’m sure many other Champions have said and thought this.

• When I was younger I thought that every error was a bad thing. I tried to play perfect badminton, it never happened.
• When I first started as a Badminton Coach, I tried to eradicate all errors in my players, again it never happened.

I wish I’d learnt to live with (even love) errors.

I certainly needed to react differently.

Players

The errors I’m talking about are those that upset your mind, make it impossible for you to follow your game plan or worst still, take your mind somewhere else other than the game

 

Coaches

How do you react to your players making errors?  Can you separate out the different types of errors they make?

Your reaction to an error can have an enormous effect on you, the match, your opponent, your coaching session, and your pupil.

 

 

If you want to read the longer version of this post click on this image and jump to 6 Ways to take a different look at errors

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Coaching – how I changed

Rather than dismissing every error, I started to look more at what was actually happening.

Then I finally realised that errors could tell me many things and my coaching became far more effective.  I became less str

What did I see …… ?

1.   errors that were ‘forced’ by the opponent

2.   errors that resulted from tactical choices

3.   errors caused by the situation, the score in the game, the players’ mind

4.   errors that seem to happen every time a particular stroke was used

5.  errors caused by fatigue

 

Do you think that there are any other types of ‘errors’

Tips for Players

• Not every error you make is your fault (no.1 )
• You will make a choice in a rally and it won’t always be correct, but use that knowledge and try again (no.2)
• At certain times in a match, you may make strange/different choices, look out for these moments and prepare for them (no.3)
• No matter how positive you are, if you have a critical technical fault you will be more prone to making a mistake… Talk with your coach about this (no.4)
• Just because you can practice perfectly (rally for 2mins without a mistake) it really will NOT guarantee you are great in competition.  Do you agree ?????
• It’s almost impossible to play ‘perfect’ badminton and its a goal not worth chasing.  Instead, try to make fewer errors than your opponent 🙂

Tips for Coaches

• Learn to study a match and realise what are unforced and forced errors.  Sometimes your players will be forced into making a mistake… Consider this and adapt your response (no.1)
• If you don’t incorporate tactical (real game tactics) into your sessions, then your players will make some choices that you don’t feel are appropriate.  Think about the number of player lead decisions you incorporate into a weekly practice (no.2)
• Can you identify those moments in a game when emotions play a big part in the things your player does, how do they react at those times? (no.3)
• It NOT important that your players can perform perfectly for 2 min rallies in practice.  It’s important that they can react to a mistake immediately and in a positive adaptable way.  Train them to cope not to be perfect.
• Understand that critical technical faults will affect the outcome of a rally, learn to technically error-proof your players and banish ‘classic technical faults’ no.4

Players don’t intend to make mistakes

so be relaxed when they happen and consider the cause, then start working on a plan.

Be aware repetition isn’t always the cure

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