scenario:

take a tennis or squash player of top quality, i.e. a very good A grader or pro. give them basic training and, say, 2-3 months solid practice.

question:

put them up against an A or very good B grade badminton player.

winner:

???

i thought about this question after watching Roger Federer play. not just awesome power but incredible touch and superb court movement. i think that it would be a very close match. i've played against good squash players and they take very quickly to badminton.

what does everyone else think? what about the other way around?

jim:)

scenario:

take a tennis or squash player of top quality, i.e. a very good A grader or pro. give them basic training and, say, 2-3 months solid practice.

question:

put them up against an A or very good B grade badminton player.

winner:

???

i thought about this question after watching Roger Federer play. not just awesome power but incredible touch and superb court movement. i think that it would be a very close match. i've played against good squash players and they take very quickly to badminton.

what does everyone else think? what about the other way around?

jim:)
I have my reservations. A very good squash player would imply s/he is technically competent. For he/she to play badminton well means they have to "unlearn" their squash strokes and footwork and "relearn" badminton techniques. If they have been playing from an early age, these squash techniques would almost be innate; habit is difficult to change.

Perhaps taking a natural athlete (track and field) would fair better. They would have good muscle mass, but more important, do not have preconceived notions of how a shot should be played.

I have my reservations. A very good squash player would imply s/he is technically competent. For he/she to play badminton well means they have to "unlearn" their squash strokes and footwork and "relearn" badminton techniques. If they have been playing from an early age, these squash techniques would almost be innate; habit is difficult to change.

Perhaps taking a natural athlete (track and field) would fair better. They would have good muscle mass, but more important, do not have preconceived notions of how a shot should be played. a very good squash/tennis player implies more than technical competency in my books. they are also skilled in hitting a fast moving object, quick footwork and very fit.

perhaps i was a bit ambiguous in my initial question. it wouldn't be an even comparison, the squash/tennis player would be a a higher level comparitively speaking. i thought this would even out the experience factor.

jim

From my own very limited experience coaching HS girls badminton for the past few years, IMHO, the big advantage tennis players have over other kids who don't play racquet sports is the fact that they're used to hit a moving object with a racquet. Everything else, they need to unlearn and relearn, in a manner of speaking. Footwork, grip, hitting mechanics, movement, touch, thought process, etc. Mind you, all newcomers who wants to be good at badminton have to learn all that, but tennis/squash players have a disadvantage of having to spend some extra time to unlearn their tennis/squash habits before they can progress.

To give a little more specific example, tennis players I've worked with have a lot of difficulty pronating their forearms when they're hitting an overhead shot. They don't really have problems extending their arms, reaching for the shuttle, etc.; but, initially, all their clears are either going way crosscourt or have a massive amount of spin and fall very shallow.

Another common problem is moving backward or, worse, moving backward to hit an around-the-head shot. Granted that this (i.e., running backward without looking) is probably the one aspect of badminton that goes against everyone's natural instinct, especially when you add bending your back backward at the end while doing a scissor kick in mid-air and landing just on your non-racquet foot putting all your weight and momentum on one ankle. The quickest newcomers to learn this footwork that I've seen were some ballet, dance and gymnast kids. Tennis players usually have to first learn not to turn around and run.

There are many other habits and skills that tennis players have to overcome to become proficient in badminton. I won't even start on a tennis player who, on the first day, played (singles!) from the baseline. :eek:

Not to pick on tennis players, I remember the first few times I played tennis, I couldn't keep the ball inside the fence much less in the court because I kept slapping them up. :o

Anyhow, of course, all these are generalisations. As they say, all generalisations are false, including this one. :) In the end, IMHO, how quickly anyone becomes proficient in a new activity depends on her/his aptitude and attitude.

The score against badminton player would be :

A Player: 15-0 , 15-0


B Player: 15-2, 15-2


Reason:
1. Badminton footwork is completely different from tennis footwork.
2. Many badminton shots are very difficult and requires much more time to master. If there is any single shot that is not up to par then it can be easily exposed and beaten consistently based on that single weakness. IE. no back hand. or weak defense... etc.
3. Ball movement is completely different compared to shuttle flight.
4. A player typically can bring down a B player at around 15-7 or less. A B player will take out a C player at around the same margin. A tennis player trying to play badminton would almost be certain to lose to C players.

Actually, former Swedish pro Joakim Nyström sometimes plays badminton in the hall where my club resides. I hold a Swedish class B licens, and I dare say that I would beat him 15-0, 15-0. However, give him 2-3 moths of proper training and he would certainly score a few points -- but he still wouldn't win.
Suer, he would grasp the tactics fast enough, and he already has the stamina and strength, but the technical aspects are so different. That takes years to learn properly.

Subjectively I would say that, compared to a tennis player, a squash player would have a shorter path to become a decent badminton player. Squash has more back/forth movements, more volleying, and most importantly, pronative strokes.

Actually, former Swedish pro Joakim Nyström sometimes plays badminton in the hall where my club resides

Excuse my ignorance Mag, what sport did he play pro at?

Excuse my ignorance Mag, what sport did he play pro at?

My bad! You can't know that, but I don't think there are any Swedish squash pros.

Joakim Nyström was (quit a couple of months ago as he was never able to recover from injury) a Swedish tennis pro, of the "post-Mats-Wilander-post-Anders-Järryd" generation.

By the way, any advanced / pro tennis player would be relunctant to play badminton simply because badminton requires too much wrist and different footwork and if they get really used to playing badminton it would literally ruin their tennis forms and stroke. Same goes for badminton players, its really easy to mess up if one plays too much tennis.

BTW, I apologise in advance for going OT slightly. Just want to relate a short story about how badminton really is more difficult than it looks. Some HS teams here do an open challenge day sort of thing to raise money where other students, teachers, parents can come, pay $1/set and challenge anyone on the team. Including the coaches; but, in 4 years, no one's been foolish enough to do that. :D

Anyhow, a couple of years ago, one of the football coaches who's probably in his early to mid 30s challenged my #1 varsity girl, a junior at the time, to a full match. A little to my surprise, this guy didn't have any problem making contact with the shuttle and he could hit firmly. His football boys were all on the sideline yelling and encouraging him to beat the girl. I had to give him credit for trying so hard. Final score? 11-2, 11-0 to the girl. :)

scenario:

i thought about this question after watching Roger Federer play. not just awesome power but incredible touch and superb court movement. i think that it would be a very close match. i've played against good squash players and they take very quickly to badminton.

what does everyone else think? what about the other way around?

jim:)

Hi Jim,

www.racketlon.com (http://www.racketlon.com/) tries to answer this question - who is the best racquet sport player - the number one men's player - has hockey & tennis background and the number one woman has a badminton background.

But I think it depends on the individual players - as opposed to the sport.
CM