How To Analyse A Badminton Match - 4 Step Process (+ FREE TEMPLATE)

Being able to analyse a badminton match is crucial if you want to improve!

Match analysis is important because:

  • Watching your opponents before you play them can help your preparation for your match against them as you can identify their strengths, weaknesses and patterns of play.
  • Watching yourself back after you’ve played is a great way to analyse your own game and identify any areas of strengths and weaknesses.

The 4 steps to analysing a badminton match are:

  1. Look for patterns in serve and return
  2. Identify your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses
  3. Notice any patterns in mentality and attitude
  4. Recognise your strengths and weaknesses

We’ll now go through each of these in more detail, so that you can master match analysis! There’s also a Match Analysis Template (that we also use) that you can download for free below.  

Check Out Our FREE Match Analysis Template!

If you want to get the same template we use that provides you with 4 steps to analyse your opponents and also the tools to analyse your own game, you can get it for free below!
Get The Free Template

The 4 Steps For Analysing A Badminton Match

Step 1 - Look For Your Opponents Common Serve & Return Patterns

We gathered data for over 2 years on the % of doubles rallies that were over within the first 3 or 4 shots and found that:

  • For professionals, between 30-40% of rallies are over within the first 4 shots
  • For intermediate players, this goes up to between 40-50% (with many matches even higher than this!)

With so many rallies being over within the first 4 shots, it’s so important to try and gain an advantage – which is why this is the first step of analysing a match! 

💡 Of course, this will depend on factors such as the speed of the shuttles, which event it is or the styles of the pairs. But, hopefully this still shows how important this area of the game is, especially in doubles!

When we do match analysis, we will fill out the Match Analysis Template:

For this step, you simply add 1 each time you notice your opponent do that specific serve or return. The template then shows you the data on:

  • The placement of the serves – i.e. did the opponents flick, how often did they serve low to the T, or low out to the tramlines etc.?
  • The placement of the return of serves – often players have a ‘favourite’ return they play if you serve to a certain area which you can then identify. 

These are both really useful to know because for example:

  • If your opponent never flicks, then you can move your starting position forward and be earlier and more aggressive onto their low serves.
  • If your opponent hits a soft return into the mid-court on 50% of their returns, where do they move to after they hit this? Where are the gaps in the court?
  • Or, where can you serve to stop them doing their favourite return? Is there a place they struggle returning from?

💡 It’s also really important to look out for what they do in key moments of the match (such as 19-19), as people often revert back to what they’re comfortable with!

This is the part of the match analysis that will take the most amount of time, but you can gain a lot of insight and advantage by doing this, for both singles and doubles.

If you’re analysing your own match, you can also fill out the same template. This helps you identify:

  • If you’re using enough variety in your serve and return.
  • Where you got points in the first 3-4 shots.
  • Where you could improve in the first 3-4 shots.

Step 2 - Opponents Strengths And Weaknesses

The second step is all about identifying your opponent’s top 2 or 3 main weaknesses and strengths.

Weaknesses: An example of a weakness is that someone might only hit their defensive shots straight and can’t hit it cross because of their positioning or grip. You can then take advantage of this by intentionally hitting a smash and instantly moving to intercept the straight shot!

Strengths: It’s also important to look out for any stand out strengths – maybe they always smash cross court to the tramlines and it’s usually a winner, or maybe they have a really good drop shot that you need to be extra ready for.

💡 Looking out for these things and being aware of them might mean you don’t get caught out with them in a match, potentially being the difference between you winning and losing!

Step 3 - Mentality & Attitude

Look out for your opponents character and body language:

  • Do they get easily stressed or angry with themselves or their partner?
  • Do they try to waste time or play ‘mind games’ with you?

And if you’re watching your own match back you can also do the same:

  • Do you look angry with your partner and has this negatively impacted them?
  • Do you look nervous during certain points and did you notice a difference in your game as a result?
  • Do you look absolutely exhausted which has given your opponents a mental edge because they know that they are less tired than you?!

This might seem trivial, but knowing these things can help you be more prepared going into the match, make sure you’re not showing any signs of weakness, and also prevent you from potentially falling into their ‘mind games’!

Step 4 - Recognise Your Strengths and Weaknesses

It goes without saying that you need to look at any weaknesses you have, whether these are technical, tactical, physical or mental. Often it can be hard to notice these, and that is where the job of a coach comes in (or submitting some clips through our Patreon Match analysis!) but there is one easy way you can do it for yourself. 

When analysing your own game you can watch every point that you lose and assess why it was that you lost that point:

  • Did you make many mistakes on a certain shot?
  • Did you make a wrong choice of shot earlier in the rally that led to you being under pressure and losing the rally as a result?
  • Were you too slow to some shots or did your speed drop over the course of the match?
  • Were you very nervous?

We’d recommend finishing the match analysis by reminding yourselves of your strengths:

  • What did you do well in the match?
  • What do you want to continue doing more of in future matches?
  • What have you improved on since you’ve been working on it?
  • How can you play to your strengths more in matches?

💡 It’s always good to have some positivity, and knowing your strengths is actually really important in giving you confidence on court!

How Much Of Your Opponents Match Should You Watch?

  • As a general guide, we recommend watching 2 sets of one specific match, or if there’s a lot of footage available you can watch 1 set of 2 different matches to see if they play differently against different opponents! You can of course watch more, but be wary of becoming to fixated on your opponents and not focussing on yourself! It is also worth noting that everyone is different in terms of how much knowledge of their opponents they want to have – some like a lot, and others (including Olympic medalists) only like a very little amount.
  • If you don’t have any videos of your opponents, you can still do this at tournaments (watching their previous rounds) or at your club night when you’re sat off watching!

Learn More

We know that analysing badminton matches can sometimes feel overwhelming as you’re not sure what to look out for, but we hope that by using this 4 step process, you can now analyse your matches much more effectively! 

Remember to check out our free match analysis template below:

Check Out Our FREE Match Analysis Template!

If you want to get the same template we use that provides you with 4 steps to analyse your opponents and also the tools to analyse your own game, you can get it for free below!
Get The Free Template

And if you’d like to see more visual examples of what we’ve discussed above, you can watch our YouTube video on badminton match analysis below.

Subscribe To Our Monthly Insight Newsletter

Each month we share exclusive insight into becoming a better badminton player, and behind-the-scenes of Badminton Insight. 

Join 2100+ people receiving our free Monthly Insight Newsletter!

  • Badminton Insight Ltd
Youtube Instagram Facebook Twitter