Badminton half-court singles
What are the pros and cons of half-court singles?
Is there anything to be gained from using this practice?
Will you agree with these thoughts?
A coach recently explained to me all the benefits they thought half-court singles matches could provide.
After a great 5 mins chat we produced the list below but also realised that many of the positives (advantages) could also be seen as negative ( disadvantages)
They also suggested some concerns (negatives) that I hadn’t thought about !
Above all else, we agreed that for the practice to be effective it was important for players and coaches to know why they were using the practice.
This may sound obvious but there are so many different uses of half-court singles and some of them are conflicting in aim or affect players in completely different ways.
Understanding these conflicts will improve your use of this practice.
I recommend that you consider each of the points below and see if you agree that I have them under the correct heading.
Can you spot which ones conflict with each other
The positives
- Improves physical endurance. Less space to hit winners = longer rallies
- Especially good for beginner players as the smaller area should result in longer rallies
- Longer rallies will test players psychologically as its hard to out manoeuvre opponents, plus they can ‘depend’ more easily
- More players on the court playing games which most coaches like
- Good for forwards and backwards movement
The negatives
- It can be psychologically frustrating in many ways – how may can you list?
- Limited (if any) sideways movement reducing technical/skill transfer onto a big court
- The use of preparatory stances is harder to develop, almost any stance could be used and this not desirable
- Does not develop full-court real competition tactics
- Longer rallies result in difficulty to hit outright winners
If used too much half court singles will reduce the effectiveness of your full-court play
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Some great ideas to inspire you from Badminton Insight
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As always, I’m very grateful if you have read this far 🙂
I like to know if you use badminton half-court singles and if is it one of your go-to practices?
Do you agree with the points above, why not send me an email contact@badmintonandy.com
This is part of a series of conversation starters.
Although not in detail, the posts are written to get you thinking and talking with others.
