Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Overcoming Nervousness?

If there is one thing that people say to me causes the most problems with their badminton, it's nervousness.

You might be playing really well in practice, and your confidence levels going into an important match of tournament might be really high.

But then on the day, you start worrying about what's going to happen, your palms get sweaty and the mere prospect of going on court starts you wishing you were somewhere else!

Well fear not, for I have a simple tip that I hope will help with this.

Now, think for a mintue about what happens when you get nervous.

You might get the sweaty hands, the 'butterflies in the stomach' that we all (even the very best players) get from time to time.

But THEN what happens?

You think 'oh no, I'm so nervous, I'm never going to be able to win this game' and you try to relax and stop feeling nervous.

Which makes a lot of sense.

It's only natural that the first thing we think of when we get nervous is how we can stop getting nervous!!

But it isn't the being nervous that causes the problems, but the worrying about what being nervous might lead to.

And so what we need to do is to cut off the step from being nervous to worrying about being nervous, and we will as a result stop the negative things that are happening, such as not playing as well as we could do.

But how does this happen?

Simply by changing the thoughts that you get when you feel the first signs of nervousness.

The 'butterflies' in the stomach happen, and normally that would be seen as a bad thing. But there is no reason to do this - the butterflies (and all other means of being nervous!) are there to protect you, to warn your body that what is going to happen is something that is out of your 'comfort zone'.

It is when we decide to ignore them or try to stop them that the trouble begins.

If you simply acknowledge that they are there, be thankful that they are there to protect you, and view them as a good thing, you will be well on the way to combatting the nervousness.

Because nervousness is OK.

I like to think of nervousness as a sign that you are really living your life (and more importantly your game!).

Your badminton isn't going to improve if you're not going to put yourself into situations that scare you, that make you nervous and give you the butterflies.

So if that is happening, it means you are doing just what you need to do to take your badminton to the next level.

And that HAS to be a good thing!

So, whenever you next get nervous when you are playing badminton, remember that it is simply your body reminding you that you are doing just what you need to do to get better!

Next time we look at turning this nervous energy into a positive, badminton-improving energy that will take your game even higher.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

New Website Is Up!

The new website has been up a couple of weeks, and it's been getting some great feedback.

There's certainly a lot more to read, and will be added to as time progresses.

I'm also going to be working on some new bonuses for the Badminton Secrets Course that will all be added at no extra cost - and of course emailed for free to existing purchasers.

And I have also added a new forum to the site -- http://badmintonsecs.proboards49.com/ . It is very much in a trial stage, to see if anyone finds it useful, but I figured that seeing as we've got over 2700 subscribers to the Newsletter, it might be nice for some of them to get to know each other!

Let me know what you think of the new site by clicking the 'comments' button below!

In badminton,

Robert
http://www.badmintonsecrets.com

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Subscribers From 7 More Countries - 49 In Total!!

Welcome to subscribers to the Badminton Secrets mini course from 7 new countries:

Taiwan, Greece, Cyprus, Georgia, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia!

That brings the total to 49 different countries, and we're just getting up to 1600 subscribers.

And I still get wonderful emails from people saying how it has helped their badminton.

Such as this one, from AD:

"In the past few weeks, I have received your Free Badminton Secret Mini-Course.

To tell you frankly the said course helps me a lot in improving my game and my lifestyle.

Last week i joined a tournament where I played above my game.

Then my friends ask me how I did it.

Then I mentioned about you and your secrets to achieve it."

If you like too like what I'm doing, how about checking out two of my other sites?

One gives away a free self help book, a book by Samuel Smiles called 'Self Help'.

Or, if you want a self help book that is slightly different, try Mornington Crescent Books.

With this site, I'm trying to raise some money for charity by giving away a unique little book that I wrote.

It's going well so far; there is even a Mornington Crescent Books Blog, just like this one!

Monday, June 06, 2005

A Few Badminton Articles

Here for your delectation are a few articles on the very basics of badminton - the rules, the history of badminton, one about badminton rackets, and another all about the badminton court.

Badminton Articles:

Badminton Rules
History of Badminton
Badminton Rackets
Badminton Court

Hope they are of some use to people!

Monday, March 07, 2005

Subscribers In 42 Countries And Counting!

I fancied a little break during writing today, so I decided to count up how many different countries the subscribers to the Badminton Secrets Mini-course were from.

I was amazed - 42!! Badminton truly is a global sport, and I feel humbled that what I write goes out to so many different nations.

The 42 are, in no particular order:

UK, US, Canada, Phillipines, Croatia, Poland, Fiji, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, China, Belgium, Malaysia, Iceland, Singapore, Japan, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, India, Ireland, Australia, Slovenia, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina, Qatar, Brazil, Hong Kong, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Sweden, Romania, New Zealand, South Africa, Luxembourg, Bahrain, Bulgaria and ... Kenya!!

PHEW!! I am truly humbled.

If you are a subscriber and your country's not on the list, please email me and I'll add it, so we can prove that badminton really has covered the globe!

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Is This As Good As It Gets?

I recently received a question from a subscriber of the Badminton Secrets Mini-course, and I think the answer is worth sharing with you (my reply is below).

It's from Weer, via hotmail:

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Dear Robert,

I've had a little bit of training now, and am feeling that my badminton skills are improving.

But now I feel that I can't get any better than this. Do you think this is my limit?

Please have some advice.

Rgds, Weer

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My reply:

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Dear Weer,

Congratulations on getting to the stage where your skills are improving!

What you are experiencing at the moment is a 'consolidation period' that the brain goes through whenever we learn anything new.

Everything that you have learnt so far has lead to your game improving bit by bit. Now your brain is sitting on what it has learnt and making sure that it understands whathas happened, and how it all fits in with everything else it knows.

It is even possible that your game will go down a little (or even a lot!) - this happens to every player at some stage, and is nothing to worry about.

It is all the natural process of learning.

There are two important things that you must do now.

1) Don't give up! If you give up there is a 100% chance that you won't get any better :) Perseverance is one of the key attributes of successful players, for the exact reason that every successful player has to go through these 'consolidation periods'.

2) DON'T think that this is the best you will ever play. As long as you keep going, keep learning and persevering,you will get better as your brain gets ready to take in more and more information.

This is covered in more detail in Chapter 6 of the Badminton Secrets book, when we look at the steps the brain goes through when we learn any new task.

The main thing to remember is that it is perfectly natural to NOT improve every time you play, but that overall you WILL keep going in the right direction.

Regards in badminton,

Robert

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I hope this reply can help in YOUR game, it is the ability to recognise that bad patches are all part of getting better that can make real differences to your badminton.

Monday, February 28, 2005

1000 Subscribers!

I have just noticed on my stat counters that the Badminton Secrets Mini-Course has now gone past the 1000 subscriber mark!

Considering we have been live for only 3 months, this is a phenomenal achievement, and I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has subscribed and stayed with it.

There has been such excellent feedback that it feels just like being in one big family.

So to all in the Badminton Secrets Family - I salute you!