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Badminton singles make up two of the 5 disciplines in badminton; women’s singles and men’s singles. Men’s singles, thanks to the 4 legends, were unspokenly considered to be the premium event at most tournaments. However, with women’s singles being the most competitive discipline at the moment, the rivalries growing there will surely create legends in the future. The first female Yonex Legends will no doubt come from the current generation.
Singles Court
The singles court is different to the doubles court. It’s commonly described as long and narrow as the boundaries of the court are designated by the inner tram lines and the backline on the court. This does not change with the serve as in doubles.
Nature of Singles
As the name suggests, there is only one player on either side of the court. They must ensure that they can adequately cover the court for any potential shots played by the opponents. The difficulty that many amateur players have here is that they do not have the correct footwork which allows them to do this efficiently which creates a lot of muddled feet! We will discuss this is a later article with a focus on singles.
Physical & Mental Attributes Of Singles Players
We discussed this in one of my other articles on the aerobic energy system but just for the sake of completeness, I will briefly discuss the physical attributes of a singles player.
Studies such as the one which produced the above graph, have shown that singles is more physically demanding than doubles in terms of aerobic capacity and endurance. More than 50% of the time singles players heart rate was working at 90 – 100% of their maximum capacity. This is a big difference with doubles whose rallies are often shorter and rely more on stamina than endurance.
Singles players are often very lean. If their body had more weight, it might become more difficult to move as quickly around the court as quickly. Contrary to what might be considered skinny, they are physically strong, particularly in their legs. I mentioned before that Lee Chong Wei could squat over 2X his body weight. This strength helps to drive their movement around the court and allows for quicker recovery.
In addition, strong mental fitness could be considered even more important in singles than in doubles. Within a partnership, if one player is mentally weak or not playing well, their partner can try to motivate them. However, in singles, you’re on your own. So you have to be able to focus on your game, particularly against stronger opponents and in more high-pressure situations. Lin Dan, perhaps famously, has a very strong mental game, able to play at a consistent level or even raise his game at crunch time. This has produced some amazing comebacks.
Shots Played in Singles
The same shots played in doubles are played in singles, however, how they’re utilised is different. Net shots, clears, smashes, drop shots, lifts and drives are all employed in singles, almost with even distribution.
Deception is a much bigger factor than in doubles. There is no partner to cover should you be deceived. Deception is used in singles to create an advantage in the rally and can win the point outright.
Types of Single Players
Very broadly there are three types of singles players. More often than not, players will tend to be very well rounded in all three areas but tend to have a natural game which leans towards one of these three categories.
Attacking
Attacking players are very aggressive, preferring to play a fast-paced game. They favour attacking shots, smashes and fast drops to pressurise the opponents. You have to be incredibly fit to take this approach, especially if you intend to keep it up for (possibly) three games!
In addition, they aim to really control the net so that the opponents are forced to lift the shuttle so that they can continue playing downward attacking shots. They are able to inject pace into a rally and likely to place smashes into areas which force weak/loose replies to the net so that they can rush forward to kill the shuttle.
Women’s singles ace Carolina Marin has a natural attacking style. In the men’s game, the best example of attacking play is by Lin Dan in the 2008 Olympic final.
Defensive
Defensive players can be very frustrating to play against. Because their defence is so solid they are able to bide their time, absorbing the attacking play of the opponents. If the defensive players game is superior to the attacking player, their strategy will be to wear down the opponent, either forcing them into error or tiring them to the point where the court opens up for a counter attack.
Lee Chong Wei in his youth was a very defensive player. Over the years he has developed to take more initiative in his game and become far more attacking. However, we can see that his defensive play is still pivotal in his gameplay. Akane Yamaguchi from the women’s game also has a defensive style of play.
At high levels of play, it’s difficult to maintain a defensive approach because always being on the defence will not win you points. Players are so physically fit and consistent at this level that you cannot simply rely on them to make errors or move out of position if you are reactive. If the defensive player never takes the initiative, there’s very little chance of them winning the match.
Controlling
Controlling players are usually very straight forward. They play shots which allow them to anticipate the most likely return and use that to their advantage to pressurise the opponents. They do not always over-commit to riskier shots such as cross court shots, preferring to play straight shots and to the middle. In doing so, they aim to prevent the opponent from being in a good attacking position. They themselves will usually wait until they’re in a good position before they attack and they are likely to be successful in winning the point.
Having said this, there are some players such as Tai Tzu Ying. In my opinion, she is a controlling player. However, her approach to this style is vastly different. She adopts a lot of deception, in order to control rallies but in doing so also plays many risky shots which put her out of position should the opponents read her deception.
Kento Momota is a user of this strategy and Lin Dan has also evolved into using this method as he aged. The key to this method is patience. Players must be prepared to pay the rally in order to move their opponents out of position before going for the attack and always ensure they are in balance when playing their shots.
Conclusion
Singles is perhaps something that amateur players don’t get to play enough because most clubs cater towards doubles to accommodate more players. It is an extremely demanding discipline both physically and mentally.
In the modern game, we have seen it really develop into a faster-attacking game (probably initiated by the change in the scoring system in 2006). This has also meant that defensive play has also become much more important to keep up. Therefore having a well-rounded game is necessary to compete at higher levels.
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