For many years now the top level ladies game has been the poorer relation of badminton, witness the mass exodus from the hall when a ladies doubles or singles match is on court.

Thankfully that is beginning to change, and these games are becoming steadily more watchable primarily due to the increased fitness levels being acheived.

Mens doubles undoubtedly has sheer speed and power as its attraction whilst Ladies doubles offers brilliant tactical rallies and exchanges. How often do you see rallies swing one way then the other as attacks are repeatedly worn down by superb defense only to swing back again as smash after smash is returned, and that in itself is perhaps the problem, international players are so good at defense that the 'normal' smash has little chance of being a clear winner due to the relative lack of power, So....(I knew I would get to the point eventually)... why is it that at International Level we see virtually no Jump smashing as in the mens game, surely the extra power gained would help open up more chances

The physical side of WD is becoming more important as you say, so we'll be seeing more and more of this too in WD. There are a lot of hard smashers now (Helene Kirkegaard probably having the hardest smash of the ladies) but few jump smashers. Indonesian Deyana Lomban is a keen and able jump-smasher, though...

The techincal side of ladies doubles has improved so much over the last 15 years. It was a shock to see videos of ladies of that era compared to now. Perhaps it's the last 5 years that the more physical nature of smashing has come to the fore. Wei Yi Li and Zhang Jie Wen - only in their late teens and they go all the way to the final of the AE, WC. I was really impressed. In another 5 years, ladies doing jump smashes will be the norm...perhaps