Motivation in Badminton

Try to answer the following questions first. How did George Washington defeat the English to liberate US? How did Magellan voyage around the world when navigation systems were primitive? How did Alexander and Chengiz Khan conquer much of the world in their time?

Well, the answer lies in a single magic word. MOTIVATION. May be this is the single most important word which has made us what we are today. The same applies to badminton as well. If you have the motivation to play badminton well, you will.

You know, it is no longer true that champions are born, not bred. It has been conclusively proved that it is the motivation to excel in big stage, which separates champions from others. It is similar to the hare and tortoise story where the motivation to do consistently well was the single factor, which the tortoise followed to defeat the hare.

But for motivation to come, one must heartily like badminton. You cannot get motivation to do something unless you like it. Your motivation will naturally tell you that badminton is an easy game and that you can play it well.

But is it enough? Surely no. Because next you need motivation to focus on your game to play good badminton. You must focus on your strengths as well as weaknesses. It means you have to fine tune your strengths and minimize your weaknesses by constantly practicing them well. For example, if you are weak in smashing, you concentrate smashing well in your practice, believing that you can smash well.

When in constant practice, the various body parts perfectly synchronize themselves without you realizing it when we play different badminton strokes. In this process, our reaction time is saved by microseconds in a crunch game, which is sufficient to overrun the opponent in a fast game like badminton.

For you to focus, you must have the motivation to avoid the distractions that come with badminton. For example, where will you focus when you are playing in front of hundreds of noisy spectators supporting your opponent and crying for your blood?

Well, you focus on the shuttlecock and shut out everything else. You will realize the importance of avoiding distractions if you understand that while the hare got distracted by everything in its path, the tortoise just focused with motivation on the finish line and came first.

You must also have motivation to develop a positive attitude to play good badminton. It has been observed that the motivation, not the ability, to play the toughest and unimaginable shots taking the rival by surprise is what separates badminton champions from average players. The champions even surprise themselves when doing so.

Obviously, having a positive attitude alone is not sufficient if you have the fear of getting defeated. Failure fear is one thing, which prevented legendary tennis player Ivan Lendl from winning Wimbledon throughout his career.

For you to develop motivation to eliminate fear of failure, it is essential for you to understand that playing badminton is not a war and failing in a game is not a crime. You are not going to be prosecuted or shot at. You can always get up the next morning to play better badminton.

Finally, motivation to read the opponent and anticipating in advance as to what shot he is going to play at you is the clinching factor in making you a true badminton champion. It gives you a few milliseconds extra in executing your stroke better.

It is a proven fact that an expert professional badminton player decides faster on what side his opponent is going to smash than an average amateur player, enabling him to earn a few milliseconds to tune his response better to the shot.