Just thought I'd put it out there to see what anyone can come with. Was watching THIS match and at about 27 mins, Gill Clark raises an interesting point. Why does it appear to be the left handers who have the bigger smash, She raises examples of Fu, Tan and Rytter-Juhl. Personally I agree with her observation but can see no natural reason (ie non training specific) that can lead to this. I myself am I left hander and find that compared to friends of my age, ability and experience I do have the hardest hit.
there are researches that there are - relatively - more leftys in racketsports than in normal life so there is something about that but it was more a coordination thing (which certainly helps too with smash of course)
Yes, this is what's been mentioned before. How the shuttle doesn't have to reverse rotation when coming off a lefty's strike.
Do we have enough data to say that it is actually true that lefties hit harder than righties. Or is this just as pcll99 said -a type I error. An assumption based on a few anecdotal cases. Yet we are working hard coming up with plausible sounding explanations. (The bird not having to change rotation? Heck, it has to change direction 180 degree when it's hit. Surely it doesn't maintain it's original rotation whilst going through that violent act, does it? Would love to stand corrected by proof.)
interesting discussions. I think there are several possibilities: (1) lefty react faster. [neurological or psychological reasons] (2) lefty swing and hit faster and harder. [physiological reason] (3) the shuttle leaves the racket faster (possibly due to the fact that the shuttle doesn't need to reverse rotate). [physics reason.] (4) Type I error.
Another thing, the sample I originally quoted, top international players, is quite small. I would find it interesting to hear about other's personal experiences about either thenselves or lefties they've played with on a club level too, to see if we can bring out a bigger sample
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handed#Sports Sports Athletes have a larger distribution of left-handedness, not because of skill, but due to the fact that the time taken for the brain to send a signal to the left hand is slightly shorter than the time for the brain to send a signal to the right hand (approx. 0.3 ms), and as such, the reaction times of left handed athletes are slightly faster.[SUP][25][/SUP] Interactive sports such as table tennis, badminton, cricket, and tennis have an over-representation of left-handedness, while non-interactive sports such as swimming show no over-representation. Smaller physical distance between participants increases the over-representation.
advantage of lefty batter in baseball http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-advantage-of-batting-left-handed/
think about it: left handers might be overrepresented because, though being overrepresented, are much less common than right-handers and are therefore harder to play against and therefore have better results than equally skilled right handers...
It's not. Your heart is located pretty much exactly in the centre of your chest. It just seems closer because the aorta -- which contracts powerfully each heartbeat to pump blood around the body -- is on the left side. When you feel for your heartbeat, you're really feeling the location of your aorta. 0.3 ms is 3 ten-thousandths of a second. I doubt that will make an appreciable difference. To put that in context, a fast reaction time is around 180--200 ms.
I would like to comment on this. Here are some players I consider to be powerful: Men: Ko Sung Hyun - right handed Zhang Jun - (used to play with Gao Ling) right handed and I think he used to hold the fastest record smash (around 320ish) before Fu Haifeng Xu Chen - rand handed and regularly seems to smash at 280/290. He seems to be the most consistent at high speeds. Jung Jae Sung - right handed - he seemed to hit it as hard as anyone. Taufik Hidayat - right handed - fastest ever singles smash at over 300 kph Women: Wang Xiaoli - right handed, and hits the shuttle harder than anyone I have seen, including Rytter-Juhl Tina Baun - right handed, hits the shuttle pretty hard Inthanon Ratchanok - right handed, generates tremendous power for such a slight build As far as I am concerned, Tan cannot hit any harder than Xu Chen or JJS. They all hit monstrously hard. Fu doesn't hit so hard anymore, but as far as I am concerned he is genuinely the most powerful player there has ever been. I do not think Tan compares in terms of sheer pace in actual competitions. Thus, I see them all being fairly powerful, except Fu Haifeng who is ridiculous. There is only 1 of him, and he just so happens to be left handed. If there were loads of them, I could make a better comparison. As far as I am concerned, the others are all less powerful.
Just to say. That technically your left hand is closer to your heart as the left side of the heart has a thicker muscle due to it having to have more power to contract and send blood around the body. Also to note, the aorta "contracts" due to this higher pressure. But biologically speaking the left hand is marginally closer to the heart due to this thicker muscle
MSeeley has made a good list of the most powerful smashers... so it seems handedness doesn't matter much.
The BWF has announced a research grants programme for individuals or institutions who wish to apply to the BWF for funding to assist them to complete Sports Science applied research projects in badminton. http://www.bwfbadminton.org/news_item.aspx?id=74895