What is to be gained from using this practice?
What are the pros and cons of half-court singles?
Will you agree with these thoughts?
There are many different uses of half-court singles
some of them are conflicting or affect players in completely different ways
A coach asked me what were the benefits of half-court singles
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 !
We agreed that for the practice to be effective, it was important for coaches to know why they were using the practice, and for players to have an aim or goal when they used it in 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 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
The postives
- 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 outmanoeuvre opponents, plus they can ‘defend’ more easily
- More players on the court playing games which most coaches like
- Good for forwards and backwards movement
Too much use of half court singles will reduce the effectiveness of full-court play
Play full-court as soon as player skills allow
Do you want a conversation?
I’d like to hear from you if you have a viewpoint on anything that you’ve read
We don’t need to agree, but explore viewpoints.
It would be great to hear from you, 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.
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