Badminton is one of the world’s most beloved sports, and many incredible players have achieved international renown over time, inspiring up and coming talent and showing that hard work often pays off.
Shadowing an outstanding player can help you enhance your own game. Watching videos can also provide an effective means of acquiring new techniques.
1. Lee Chong Wei
Malaysian icon Lee Chong Wei was one of the greatest badminton players ever. Twice world champion and multiple Commonwealth Games gold medalist, as well as being an All England Champion three times over, Lee was widely revered.
Lee’s court style is defined by agility and explosive power. His extraordinary counterattack, crouch defence, swift recovery, cunning net play strategies, steep powerful jump smashes, and unique net play skills have set him apart from his competitors and earned him 349 weeks as World No 1.
He holds the record as being the first player ever to capture all six Grand Slam titles over 19 years of competition, amassing over 80 major championships en route. Many consider him one of the greatest badminton players ever.
Lee stood out in a sport plagued by injuries and bad luck by showing incredible perseverance despite his diagnosis with nose cancer in 2018. Even so, he recovered fully and has resumed badminton play since 2019.
Lin Dan is widely considered one of the greatest players in badminton history. Over his career he won two Olympic and five World championship titles as well as six All England Championship titles and over 100 tournaments worldwide.
Throughout his storied career, Lee faced off against him 40 times – their epic encounters having become legendary within badminton history. Their rivalry has often been likened to that of tennis icons Federer and Nadal.
The iconic duo’s battle for supremacy have inspired new generations of badminton players worldwide. Their fierce competition held audiences captivated for years as it helped elevate badminton into an elite sporting endeavor.
2. Lin Dan
Lin Dan is one of the most famous badminton players ever and widely considered the greatest player of all time. A Chinese national, Lin is widely seen as being a risk-taker with unmatched skill at trick shots that leave his opponents helpless and has amassed 732 career wins including two Olympic and World Championship titles as part of his attacking style.
Lin Dan was known for being a highly aggressive player; yet his calm demeanour on court belies the intensity of his character off of it. Lin’s rivalry with Lee Chong Wei is well documented within badminton history; their battles became known as the ‘Lin-Lee War’.
Lin Dan’s playing style stands out from others by being so adaptive, changing his game on a dime and anticipating what his opponents will do in certain scenarios. By knowing their weaknesses he can set up attacks or take advantage of weaknesses to win matches more easily.
At times, he can force errors out of players who block close to the net with devastating speed smashes and then follow it up with quick net kills or push shots that take advantage of those mistakes to break through their defences.
His anticipation and expertise is something many players would find difficult to match; this is one reason he stands out amongst all players of all time and why he won so many badminton titles. Additionally, he is widely-renowned as an instructor, helping countless young players realize their dreams. He stands as an ideal example of someone who has not allowed fame and success to cloud his vision of what’s important to them.
3. Goh Cheng Wei
Chia and Goh from Malaysia are two of the world’s most captivating double badminton players, known for their innovative strategies and brilliant footwork that often surprises their opponents by altering their shot’s pace, deception skills, and sublime net play that make them difficult to respond to, especially at an elite level where any second of hesitation could mean victory or defeat.
Badminton is an active sport, so developing pre-game analysis skills is vital to its success. A pre-match analysis can assist players in creating an efficient strategy for each match by studying opponent movement patterns, front court tactics, backcourt smashes and unforced errors – knowledge from these analyses allows teams to better their games and attain higher levels of success.
A study was undertaken to explore the effects of different warm-up routines on change of direction speed (CODS) and smash velocity (SV) during simulated match play in trained badminton players. Participants were randomly allocated one of three conditions – control condition, weighted wearable resistance condition (WWR) or banded variable resistance condition (BVR), with all three warm-up routines lasting four minutes prior to baseline CODS and SV tests.
Results from this study demonstrated that both WWR and BVR resulted in faster badminton-specific CODS at baseline (4 minutes after warm-up), however WWR showed more pronounced improvements from block 1 to block 4 as exercise duration increased than BVR did. The authors believe these variations in performance could be explained by increased recruitment of motor units, enhanced synchronization, and decreased pre-synaptic inhibition by employing resistance training regimens.
4. Kiong Chan
Kiong Chan was an influential Chinese badminton player known for her powerful serves and deceptive shots, earning her multiple world championship titles before her knee injury ended her career.
Kiong had an accomplished career as both a women’s doubles and singles player before her retirement from professional badminton in 2004. Beginning as girls doubles partner for Zhang Jiewen of her provincial teammate Zhang Jiewen she won gold at the World Junior Championships and later transitioned into women’s singles becoming world number 1 ranking player by 2004.
She went on to win two Asian Games gold medals and three Badminton World Cup championships during her career, garnering her the name of China’s “Sweetheart”.
Researchers studying elite badminton players discovered that lumbar facet joint sprains were the most frequently occurring injuries for both male and female players alike, with more injuries sustained during practice sessions than matches – suggesting postural stability training programs as key components in badminton training regimens.
Lin Dan is well-known as a world champion but also for his spectacular trick shots and outlandish moves. His unique playing style has entertained audiences by switching up shuttlecocks with rubber ducks or performing wild capriccios moves.
5. Martina Hingtao
Named for Martina Navratilova, Hingis was trained methodically towards becoming a WTA top player. Although her early success is often credited to natural talent alone, I believe it was more the result of her hard work ethic and ambition – particularly as her INTJ personality type allowed for an analytical yet strategic approach that helped her win multiple major tournaments without resorting to brute force tactics.
Her style is remarkable in its diversity, boasting both baseline and net skills. She displays outstanding anticipation by anticipating where her opponent may run before hitting back to that area of the court. Furthermore, she excels at using drop shots and swing volleys from no-man’s land as transition tools from defence to offense; and boasts one of the world’s finest lob shots that she can hit from virtually any defensive position on court.
My greatest admiration for her lies in how she never seemed intimidated by her opponents – even those who had won 20 Grand Slam titles; she always approached them as individuals and played their matches accordingly rather than treating them as faceless statistics and fame-collectors.
Hingis was an enormous source of motivation, as she gave me confidence that I could become a professional tennis player, despite my lower than average height and lack of power. Her legacy will remain forever; all we can hope for now is more girls following in Hingis’s footsteps by taking up tennis at its highest levels and inspiring those around them.