Different shots have different attributes. These attributes combine to make a contribution to the attacking and defensive factors of the aim of badminton. This combination can either have a positive or a negative effect on the aim. This can be labelled a good or a bad shot, respectively. The more positive an effect, the better the shot is.

The defensive aim is achieved when the player keeps playing legal shots. This aim is sustained by increasing the chance of the player playing a legal shot.

As seen before, the difficulty of playing a shot varies within the set of possible impact points. Therefore one element that advances the defensive aim is in the surplus time associated with the particular impact point.

The type of shot also has an associated difficulty. This is dictated to by the technical difficult of the shot and the margin of error that the trajectory will have. The margin of error is a function of the proximity of the trajectory to the net and the boundaries of the court. The more difficult a shot type is, for a given situation, the less chance of a legal shot being played. Therefore an increase in difficulty means a decrease in advancing the defensive aim.

The ability of a shot to directly advance the defensive aim is called the safety attribute (Ats). It can be interpreted as the chance that a legal shot will be played.

The attacking aim is achieved when the opposition do not play a legal shot after you play a legal shot. Therefore this aim is approached by reducing the chance of the opposition of playing a legal shot.

The ability of a shot to directly advance the attacking aim is called the attack attribute (Ata). This can be interpreted as the chance of a shot winning the rally.

Shots in a rally are linked by the possible shot sets they produce. As such a shot’s influence continues throughout the remainder of the rally. Although this influence diminishes rapidly throughout the rally as the possible shot combinations grow exponentially, let’s examine the influence of a shot a player plays, and the next shot they receive.

The opponent’s shot set is dependent on the player’s shot. The player’s next shot sets are in turn dependent on the opponent’s shot set and therefore the player’s previous shot.

If a shot forces the opponent to play from a shot set with weaker attack attribute values, it helps the defensive aim. This property shall be labelled deny (Atd).

Similarly, if a shot forces the opponent to play from a shot set with weaker deny attribute values, it helps the attacking aim because it implies the player will be presented with a shot set consisting of higher attack attributes. This property shall be labelled build (Atb).

There is a degree of symmetry in the attributes - half attack, half defence. The deny and build attributes are linked together through the attack attribute. This underlines the importance of attack in general as a determining force in badminton. This concept shall be developed through this resource.

A pattern can also be seen in how the attributes of an opponent’s shot affect the potential attributes of the player’s next shot (reply). This pattern is summarised in the table below. The opponent attributes affect the player attributes inversely. A high opponent value gives a low player value and vice versa. Also, the term potential is used because the player is playing from a potential shot set and they may do better than average for that set (an excellent shot) or worse (a poor shot).

Reading from the list we can produce a theoretical model for a rally that ‘goes to plan’:

• player has high build so opponent has weak deny
• because of this, player has high attack so opponent has weak safety
• because of this, player has wins the rally

The above rally consisted of three successful shots. Rallies usually consist of more shots than this. This is accounted by preceding shots to the first bullet point, and a failure to maximise potential by the player, and a success of the opponent to not succumb in weaker positions.

The shot attributes are dependent on shot selection and preparation. Shot selection sets the base values for these attributes, whereas preparation (RP and Prepare phases) act as a multiplier for the given situation. The shot is fundamental to the system. All actions are centred on shots either directly, through execution, or indirectly, through preparation. The next section starts to examine shot types by looking at trajectories.