Guys, just wondering who invented the backhand smash or........ should i say who is the 1st to used and to mastered the art of the backhand smash and made it so popular? ..............Was it Zhao Jianhua ? as i watched his backhand smashes against Joko in 1990 AE final, he used backhand smash quite a few times, and it was so natural....and I also reckon that Yang Yang is also the " pioneer" of Backhand smash, I watched the AG 1990 final against Zhao, Yang was pretty good at it as well ..... I also found that...before 90s...most players were using their backhands mainly for backhand drop or backhand clear only.....very rare to see them using their backhand to strike against their opponent......so yea, let's discuss about it
I started watching world level badminton while a lad in MAS, and the first player I know of that used the BH smash frequently and was famous for is Punch Gunalan.
Svend Pri was great with the backhand smash. His career belonged to the late 1950s Punch Gunalan came much later... in the 1970s In a 1958 encounter, an exasperated Svend Pri resorted to using backhand smashes against Iie Sumirat after being tormented by the Indonesian's casualness on court (a trait famously inherited by Taufik Hidayat)
Do not forget...these players as well.... Thomas Stuer Lauridsen Icuk Sugiarto for a net play....the one and only....HENDRAWAN..
All three, Punch, Sven Pri and I Sumirat belonged to the 1970s. Finn Kobbero was from the 1950s. The greates Danish backhand exponent was Flemming Delfs, also from the 1970s. The backhand smash was used a long time ago, just like the backhand high backhand clear. But it was Taufik who brought the backhand smash to a new level, smashing straight down the tramlines which nobody to my knowledge had ever done before. Smashing backhand crosscourt is easy, just like dropping a crosscourt backhand.
Svend Pri broke Rudy string of AE wins and the following year Rudy came back to win his 8th AE. Pri belonged to Punch and Rudy era...Svend Pri may used BH smash but Punch used BH smash more of the time.
Taufik might not be the one who invented..but he's definitely made it so popular n more ppl r learning it.His backhand is the best i've seen..n i didn't just mean his back hand smash.I mean every stroke that his backhand can make.
I am thinking of applying for a patent on the "reversed slice backhand jumpsmash" patent pending... /T
Agree with you...TH BH is as good as his fore hand...TH does not have a weakness, more a complete player...unless we pick on his smoking, night clubbing (when he was young and good looking, still good looking though), lazy in training, etc.
Backhand speed record holder??.. ..is that: a) in the air? b) on land? c) under water? or d) all of the above? ..hmm, if only TH can play with his left hand...hmmm..
The backhand and all its variations and strokes was "invented" in Malaysia in the 1930s, probably in Penang. The greatest backhand exponent in the late 1940s and the mid 1950s was the great Wong Peng Soon. The gifted Dane Finn Kobbero was the first westerner to copy his style of play and backhand from Wong Peng Soon. Even up to the 1970s you can find British books on badminton paying homage to the Malaysians for bringing the backhand clear to England. A quote on backhand overhead clear in an English "Badminton Complete" book says: "This shot perhaps came into greater prominence with the advent of the Choongs, Wong Peng Soon and other Malayans in this country. It is an apparently effortless flicking of the shuttle from end to end of the court. Despite its apparent ease of execution it is one of the most difficult shots in the game, demanding a steel wrist and split-second timing."
i think women were the inventor of the backhand smash. It goes way back to the caveman era. Ask any unfaithful husband and boyfriends about it
