Well, who's the best smasher? this is not a question as easy as it looks. There are many ways to measure. Even the most straightforward is: who keeps the fastest smash? even this question is tricky. Fu Haifeng recorded the fastest smash in match, at the Sudirman Cup badminton tournament that was held in 2005. Fu Haifeng, the champion in that tournament had hit this powerful smash at a stunning world record speed of 332 km/h (That's 206 miles per hour). But later in 2008, Tan Boon Heong claimed to smash at faster speed 421 km/h (262 mph), but this shot was not played during actual match play. Obviously it's quite easy to smash harder when you just want to hit it hard without the direction and timing. FHF might be able smash faster than 421km/h not in real match. The speed is also not everything, the best smash needs to be defined. In real match, there are quite few players can hit close to Fu Haifeng's records, but why Fu doesn't hold the all fastest records. The reason is effectiveness is more important than speed. Having said that, I would like to think from another way, the best smasher should be able to smash with the fastest speed, and biggest solid angle. The concept of solid angle is that the area you can smash in a 3-d space. Fu HF is a much better smasher than TBH, not because he can smash faster in real match, but also he has much larger solid angle to smash. Fu FH is no doubt the best smasher for the last 10 years. But now, another player Hong Wei, in my opinion, could be better. Hong Wei might not be able to smash as hard as FHF, but HW is very agile, and very tall, so he gets a much larger solid angle to smash. Watch the real game, Hong Wei can smash different areas, change directions, therefore, much more effective. On the other hand, Jung Jae Sung, widely regarded as one of the best smasher, doesn't have much solid angle to smash. JJS is short (only 1.68 m) and fat. He needs to struggle with gravity first before he smashes. therefore, his smash is easy to predict, and easy to defend, and also error prone. Combined with speed and solid angle, Hong Wei is no doubt the best smasher in doubles. He can land his smash with fast speed, stable accuracy and all kinds of variations.
If longevity is a factor. Fu hai fend definitely the top by few street. No one able to smash this hard for continuously for the pass 10+ years
For long term, of course FHF over JJS/MK/TBH (names of his rivals). My vote goes to him as well . But recently we have new names of pretty hard smashers namely: XC (but he played in XD), Tontowi Ahmad (also in XD), KSH (a bit prone error), and Ahsan. For the old names, I will pick Liem Swie King only.
IMHO the polling must be limited with period year or decade since not all BCers know well Kim Moon So or Rudy Gunawan. In 90's I choose Kim Moon So, Rexy Mainaky In 2000 my fave smasher are Chandra Wijaya, Fu Haifeng, and Jung Jae Sung. Markis Kido and Tan Boon Heong are slightly below them. In 2010's era M. Ahsan, and still Fu Haifeng
And now choose just ONE ! What a lovely forum we have , for every poll of choose the best/favorite practically everyone names at least three or something!
haha, you are right... but i think, if everyone honest, Fu Haifeng should be the best (2000-up), fast, hard, and quite effective
I actually disagree with about 90% of your post. 1st, JJS wasn't fat. He was very muscular, but had no gut like other players (Kido springs to mind). He was also insanely fast, which made him a very good smasher as he was able to keep attacking, no matter how you directed the high defense, whereas other players can get countered by a surprise cross defense and will be forced to clear. I agree that not only speed should matter in the consideration, and in terms of effectiveness, JJS was one of the best, often seeing that awkward spot in opponents' defense, and getting either a direct point or weak reply by smashing there. Hong Wei can really pack a punch if you give him time, but he isn't very agile, and gets countered kind of easily so far. I wouldn't consider him amongst the Top5 smasher at this point. He might be very tall, but Ko gets both better angles and power, Ahsan gets more power and occasionally better angles and both are faster around the back...Chai Biao is also a better smasher, the added power is just more difficult to defend against than the slight change in angle HW's height advantage gives him. The part I agree on is that Fu should really be considered the best smasher of all time. Insane power, great angles, and (until 2009, I guess) pretty amazing jumps (to create those angles). Concerning Tan's "record" - the high speed was not achieved because of the pressure-free situation (a lot of players will actually be able to smash their hardest in match situations), but because of the different measuring (high speed camera, capturing the first few cms of the shuttle's flight instead of a radar gun).
I would say FHF. His smashes were not only fast and hard but effective. It did not always win the point outright but it sure created a lot of chances for his partner to finish at the net (and CY also happened to be one of the best players at the net). That lethal combination kept them up there for so long. Their defensive play wasn't the best but they made up for it with their great attacking play. But now that both FHF and CY have dropped off the pace a bit, I think Ahsan from Indonesia is the next best smasher.
Because this is about the strongest smasher ever (which he most definitely isnt) and also because this poll was started before he was well-known
It wasn't 'easy' to defend against his smashes. Look at what he and Lee achieved in their partnership, if his smashes were weak (or "tofu"), would they have gotten there? The only players that could reasonably claim to smash better in the 2008-2012 Olympiad are Fu (who is actually THE best) and Tan (who I regard as not quite as good as Jung). Maybe Ko and Mogensen as well, but both lack in some areas compared to Jung (Ko in variation and consistency, Mogensen in power and movement).
ko is a power smasher...basically thundering smashes down trying to win points by breaking the defense...mogensen does not have the biggest smash...in fact a lot of the time it doesn't even look like he's hitting a full smash but a half smash...but it's very effective and intelligently placed
Problem with Ko is that he's not very effective at winning points with his smashes despite him pounding hard. Mogensen is better at that with his acute angles and varying speeds. As you say, intelligently placed.
