Before I give me two cents, let me say weak doesn't mean ineffective, just lacking power. Shin Baek Cheol hits very steeply and with good placement but the power seems a bit underwhelming.In terms of very successful but with a weak smash, the biggest candidate that comes to mind for me is a singles player. Hendrawan. Great? Definitely. Weak smash? Probably.
for me it's frans Kurniawan Teng His smashes always seems very weak, even compared to woman smashes. When he was paired up with Shendy, Initially I thought Shendy was the male player, not only because of Shendy's bigger body and Frans beautiful face, but also because Shendy have a more male play, and her smashes are hard too. But weak smashes doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. it messes up your rythem
Bro, dont know if your here to troll or what... nothing to say to you If FHF smash is weak.... im quite sure Taufik's smash is peanuts right...
Shin BC barely hit one smash winner in the WC, but he did his job and kept the attack thanks to angle and placement. He doesn't have to hit hard, though; Ko is the monster in that pair.
For WS, among the top 20 players, WSX has the weakest smash, a glaring weakness - nobody has to fear lifting the shuttle to her, even a relatively short or poor lift, a loose shot, there's at least a 50% chance you can save it most of the time. In fact, 90% of the time, it's not going to come thundering down to your side.
Also, Shin has a pretty strong smash, just because he didnt score many winners against one of the strongest defenses in the world it isnt automatically weak
I think for md where more smashes come from, strangely the first person that come to mind is lyd. Any takers?
Nah. He's got a very solid smash even after his elbow injury, the last speeds I remember are from the 2011 WC with ~270-280 on his best ones. That was pretty strong with only FHF cracking the 300 mark and afaik only JJS surpassing 290
Thats why I said the last speeds I remember, trying to give you an objective value. Imop he is still a solid attacker from the back court, while he doesnt have the crazy lateral movement of Ahsan or the sheer power of Ko Sung Hyun or Hong Wei, but he has really good placement most times and the power is still decent, at least average for the Top15-20 doubles. Given that he excels at net play and has excellent defense, thats not bad. There are quite a few players with weaker smashes - Liu Xiaolong, Lee Sheng Mu and Markis Kido, and probably Kenichi Hayakawa as well - and that's just from the Top10. In terms of sheer power, Setiawan is also worse, but he has excellent placement and angles on his smashes, which makes them fairly dangerous.
Maybe if it was named slow smashes? But a weak smash doesn't only have to be slow. There are people that get much better results with 20km/h less than other because they place the smash well or have steep angles. A weak smash is an exploitable one that you're comfortable defending. A slow smash can still be rather strong.
So, did you register just to troll? Or have you never in your life competed in anything? Also, dont pretend there cant be more than one meaning to a word.
In men's doubles, most pairs will have one consistent smasher and one play maker. It's really weird to compare the firepower of this two different role because they were trained differently. I think if Setiawan and Ahsan switched training, Setiawan would be raining down consistent 280s as well. But that's not his style and he's old. It would only be fair if we compare players of the same role where their job is to create opportunity with their smash. For example, xu chen, ahsan, sung hyun, boon heong, uncle jung, fu hai feng etc. Though I say so, I think some play makers have extraordinary smash. On top of my head I can think of Cai Yun and setiawan. I remember seeing them planting shuttles on the court from the back. Through out the years, professional players have developed defenses that surpassed the older generation. That's why big guns like Fu hai feng, xu chen and tontowi ahmad may not always seem super effective in tournaments. I really missed watching FHF and uncle jung duke it out in all their finals.
Ahmad big gun? In what universe? But I agree with you where the improved defense is concerned. Lighter rackets and higher tensions allow faster reactions and more accurate replies these days, abd most players find it hard to really put on pressure from the back of the court these days, which -I guess- is one of the reasons the whole service situation and flat game is so important these days. Even Fu Haifeng, while still a very good attacking player, doesnt smash as hard as he used to, focussing on the net more than in the past and adopting more of an allround style...
There should still be ways to revive the smashing era? Maybe not in international tournaments but in our own games? I sometimes wonder why people are giving up the chance to do so when it's perfect opportunity. Or is it just me? Haha And yes Ahmad ain't big gun. Haha! Nice catch there.
