What have I done to move forward?
I’ve finally set a date for retirement as an athlete, after World Championships in early August this summer. I hope that retiring from competition can help me focus more on being an athlete, but I have other things to attend to with my new role with Badminton BC. I really hope to find something that can be more applied and useful, but to be honest, I’m still unsure what that can be. Some changes have made me re-think about the direction that I want to proceed in, and I do hope I can resolve things sooner than later.

Originally, I wanted to do notional analysis of historical matches in Mens Doubles, where I would look at the first four shots of every rally. Since there is great importance to the beginning of a rally, it would be interesting to see if that importance can be quantified because quantifying the significance of that part of the game may affect how much training should be dedicated to mastering that part of the game. The best analogy I can think of at the moment is a face off in hockey. Although it is generally preferred to win the face off, it may not be considered to be as important as other parts of the game. For example, there may not be a correlation between winning face offs and winning games. However, it would be interesting to see how the “opening sequences” of badminton correlates to the chances of winning a match in mens doubles. From my experience as a player, this is not really significant in the singles events, less so in womens doubles, and most important in mens and mixed doubles. Quantifying it would be an interesting task to take.

However, a new regulation has now created a significant drawback. As of March of this year, an experimental service regulation was implemented. Historically, service had to be including the striking of the shuttlecock below one’s waist (i.e. lowest rib), but it has recently changed to a standardized 1.15m height. Based on some personal observations, there has been some changes as serving positioning and stances have to be modified to fit the rule, which has also included some differences into the opening sequence of shots. As the rule looks like it is here to stay for a while, it may render previous data less useful and it would affect my overall conclusion if I were to proceed with my notional analysis. Additionally, a recent vote was overturned in changing the scoring system last week, with a proposed change of best to five games to 11 points. Although there won’t be any changes until after Tokyo 2020, I fear that a change in scoring system could also affect the relevance of my research project.

So now I need to shift gears again and I wonder if I can somehow create and validate a podium pathway for badminton in Canada? Or perhaps just BC? Can I create a scaled down pathway that can produce National level badminton players? Maybe I can just simplify it to doubles events? Worst case, maybe just mens doubles OR mixed doubles? I still want to analyze badminton footage and find a way to measure data in a meaningful way. I look at badminton in a way where rallies are constructed through sequences. There is a lot of cause and effect because each side takes turns hitting the shuttlecock over the net. There is no bouncing allowed (unlike tennis) or multiple touching (unlike volleyball). There is finite amount of space within the court on both sides. Because of this, there is a certain level of predictability in sequencing. For example, if you hit a shot down with angle and pace, your opponent’s return must come up. If they hit it hard, it will rise significantly. If they hit it soft to the net, it must be at a slower pace to prevent too much rising. Still, there is a bit of room to play with, but if you know the patterns, it’s fairly easy to predict what can happen. Then adding the statistics, math, computer science, data analysis, machine learning, etc. would be additional steps in finding some answers. However, there is a large possibility that I have no idea what I’m really talking about. Wouldn’t someone have done it already? I suppose that’s a good sign to consult the academic research.

But here is an example of what I am working on:

What relevant academic evidence is there to support my project / research question?
With a slight change in direction, I am going to have to go through more research again to see what is available on the subject. Ideally, if there was a way to load videos and have matches analyzed by a computer algorithm, that would be awesome! Unfortunately, I don’t think that exists, but there are people out there who have tried. Here is a link to a paper about badminton game analysis from video sequences from Belgium: https://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/002/153/740/RUG01-002153740_2014_0001_AC.pdf

How does this relate to one of the four themes?
Having better answers on sequencing would help Coaching Effectiveness and Program Planning. It would help Coaching Effectiveness because it would direct a coach in maximize time in the right areas that can deliver the greatest impact for players, especially in our Canadian badminton system where we may not get as much coaching/training as we want to. It would help Program Planning in a similar way, by determining where time should be spent training the most.

Is there evidence that I can add to my portfolio that demonstrates a particular theme?
I think there is a lot of power with data and sports can generate tremendous amounts of data depending on how you look at a problem. Typically, people consider easier measures and general statistics, including win/loss percentage or score lines, but there is a lot of details missing. For example, if a score for a match was 21-9, 21-8, it may seem like an easy match. But if we find out it took 60 minutes to complete, it would make sense that the rallies were very long, as an average match should be about 20 minutes per game, but that is based also on my own estimates. However, it could also indicate a delay in the game somehow. Perhaps someone was injured, or some kind of other problem such as the court having problems and needs to be taped, etc.

Ultimately, I know I need a lot more work and I’m hoping I can find an effective way to combine my interests to find an appropriate project to pursue. I only hope I am going in the right direction this time.