Aesthetically Pleasing Category 1. Zhao Jianhua 2. Yang Yang 3. LCW 4. Sun Jun 5. Xia Xuanze 6. Lim Swee King 7. Peter Gade 8. Liu Jun 9. Luan Jin 10. Ib Fredriksen (bet many don't know him) Non Aesthetic but Effective Smash Category 1. Han Jian 2. Park Joo Bong (he played MS too) 3. Morten Frost 4. Hoyer Larsen 5. Hermawan Susanto 6. Allan Budi 7. Eddy Kurniawan 8. Rudi Hartono 9. Hendrawan 10. Liew Darren 11. Taufik 12. Boonsak 13. Chen Long 14. Prakash Padukone 15. Pulella Gopichand Brute Force Category 1. Icuk Sugiarto 2. Joko Suprianto 3. Xiong Guo Bao 4. Bambang Suprianto 5. Hariyanto Arbi 6. Foo Kok Keong Phenomenal Speed and Power 1. Lin Dan 2. Tan Boon Heong (oops MD) 3. Fu Hai Feng (oops MD) Smash cum Stroke Category 1. Misbun Sidek 2. Rashid Sidek
Pakito friend, am interested to understand what you mean by smash cum stroke. And where would you fit in Lee Hyun Il, Sho Sasaki and Hu Yun ?- the latter two are late bloomers that impressed me a lot, surely they have a good smash too. And I'd have thought Chen Long goes under the 'Phenomenal Speed and Power' category.
Would've put Taufik in both aesthetically pleasing and phenomenal power. At his best, his smashes were faster than LD's.... Justin: LHI would fit in with not so aesthetically pleasing but effective, and both SS and HY aren't special in Elite terms.
The phenomenal speed and power category also carries with it a degree of aesthetic fluency. I know CL has speed and power, but I don't quite like the posture of him, not possessing the gait of fluency, maybe he is a bit gigantic. The smash cum stroke are stroke players who perform their smashes with utmost use of 'chop's and 'cut's (slicing) every single time, in fact overuse of them. Misbun Sidek is a compulsive stroke player who likes to keep his racket very close to his face. However, stroke players still lacks the stinging whiplash power and Rashid is the same version as Misbun, just that the former has a more ideal body weight and is lighter and movement is swifter than Misbun, who literally drags his body around when fatigued.
Pakito's category list doesn't include elite players only, that's why I asked about SS and HY, both of whom are very good players in no way inferior to Darren Liew and Boonsak (who is just as good).
When he was in his superior form, Taufik created world Record in his smash which no other player in history of badminton is able to reach atleast in their prime form. . So, if anybodyelse atleast touches what Taufik has created , it will be good for them to be accepted as best smasher. Lets see, who does it.
Well 'touches' is maybe the wrong choice....because at the 2006 WC, many of the MS players played 300+ smashes (I thought Lee Hyun Il played a 308 against Bao, but maybe that one didn't count for some reason...). Also, Fu Haifeng far surpassed Taufik
fastest smash record, yes, but how about the accuracy and effectiveness of TH smash ? . LD in his early career heavily rely on smash, smash and smash to win points, and the fact is LD smash were weaker than TH, but in term of accuracy, LD is far better, that's why world badminton was dominated by LD, not TH hahaha
After seeing the MO QF today, I really have to disagree with the rating of Daren Liew....one of the most harmless MS smashes I've seen on the international circuit. Not much pace, no exceptional accuracy, little variation....combined with his stiff movement (especially to the long backhand corner) he plays a rather boring and ineffective offensive game. Even Chen Long is more interesting to watch. He also really, really outdoes Daren Liew in offensive play - much better angles and penetration.
If by powerful you mean best, yes I agree. To be exact, it's not so much the power but more the timing,angle and placement such that the opponent cannot quite guess where it's going to land and even when he retrieves it, it will be a fraction of a second slow to return it with interest so that Lin Dan can follow it up with a kill or put it away effectively.
I would agree that MO is the occasion that you caught him with his pants down - bad. The problem with Daren is the antennae connecting and communicating with his brain is frequently out of sync. Daren can be lethal when he concentrates, after Lin Dan didn't praise Daren for not seeing anything in him.
Not saying he's a bad player, but I've never seen him and thought "That's a great smash". He's always super stiff (not using his body well at all like LD or LCW do) and doesn't get great power or angles. LHI and BCL both didn't smash all that powerful, but with great precision and angles, so they had very effective smashes. Daren Liew, in my eyes, has a pretty weak one in terms of world class badminton. Also, rating him better than Taufik or CL is really unrealistic - Taufik had a really powerful smash and Chen Long is getting there, having good power and angle already and still improving (WAY past DL already though). I think DL's main problem is that he rarely (if ever) uses his legs and torso to create power. It's as if as soon as his feet leave the ground, he loses all tension in his legs....they just flop around below him, unlike any great smasher like LD, FHF, LCW....who get a large amount of power from their leg swing in the air. Once again - I'm not saying he's a bad player. But his smash just isn't special at all.
Aah yes, I forgot to mention that the listing is in no particular order of ascending or descending, it's just players in that category. As for the essentials of a great smash, primary powers comes from the wrist and fingers and other contributing powers from the body are supplementary. But still the greater importance is of placement, angle and accuracy, not just power alone. Hariyanto Arbi uses all his power to the absolute, and his physical was all injured by the time he was at the top for a fleeting moment. Daren does not have the benefit of past coaches like Li Mao, Frost and Misbun that LCW had in the past.
Ah I see. Well then it makes sense, even if I'd still put Taufik in another category alltogether Also most of the power is generated from the pronation of the forearm. If you watch the pros closely you'll see that some don't actually use their fingers on a hard smash at all, but get all their power from the pronation, extension of the arm, upper body rotation and legs. Best examples of this are LYD, JJS, LD, FHF, Mohammed Ahsan (as there are good slow-mos of them smashing, I'm sure many others don't use their fingers all that much either). I don't think a super coach is needed to improve one aspect of your game that has clear weaknesses. Many should be able to spot several areas where his smash can be improved, and the Malaysian team still has well-qualified coaches (Rashid Sidek and TSB seem to have a good influence on the singles players). Maybe the extra km/h he could get on his smash aren't deemed all that important by the coaches though....or he is just unable to improve it (which would be rather sad but also unlikely). While he wouldn't necessarily get up to the 270s LD and LCW can reach a 250+ would already help his penetration on attack very much. A little bit of upper body strength could help there as well, he is rather bony around the shoulders
Yes he does seem rather bony at the shoulders, but then again, so is Zhao Jianhua. At this level of international play, I do not think there is a single player who does not use arm pronation. The fingers method comes in more of a last minute angle switch or placement when executing a smash as the move or the twitch of the fingers is so refine, it is near impossible to detect. That is how lethal it is. Again the fingers method of playing badminton is further cemented upon by Tang Xianhu. Of course it is pointless to utilize the finger method when one doesn't even have sufficient wrist power to begin with. Wrist power can be further improve with whiplash like movement produce by a sudden choking of the racket handle by the 5 fingers just before impact.
About putting Taufik in another category, I would concur with you if putting into consideration of the year around 2005 -2008 where his smashes would be under the immense speed and power category. It is a different story now.
Ya, but I think a list like that is more about the players in their prime, right? After all everyone has a very different smash in different stages of their career (with a few exceptions like FHF/TBH...)...so I guess their smash when they played their best should be the one considered, not the one they had 6 years after their prime Absolutely agree that right now he is effective but rather unspectacular though.
Yes you do have a point about rating at their prime, but I guess playing while you're way past your best does have it's downsides and uninvited criticisms, even though Taufik still plays for the love of the sport.
I guess it also has sth to do with the $$$ Although I understand and am not gonna criticize him for playing with less training and not the same hard preparation of LCW and LD....after all he probably feels he has achieved what he can and is at a point where the All England is out of his grasp, even with hard preparation. In his position I would probably not do much different...if you've been playing on the international scene since you were 16 I think your enthusiasm for those hard, grueling training sessions necessary to excel in MS just isn't quite there anymore
