For example, there's this Malaysian player called Tan Boon Heong who was called the "smash king". When I googled him, he's a 172cm 75kg guy. Pretty average height and weight. Now lets think about players like Lee Yong Dae (176cm 76kg) or even Ivanov Sozonov (200cm 95kg). Shouldn't they have an even bigger smash? My assumption is there's little difference between pros in smashing technique, and a guy like Ivanov surely is stronger than Tan Boon Heong. So why is it one is "smash king" and the other can't reach that level? Is my assumption wrong?
Even with great technique, it's not as simple as "strength". Even if we suppose that the heavier guy can lift more weight in the gym, (very questionable assumption but that aside), even if we grant that assumption, that doesn't mean they can move a light weight like a racquet faster. People have studied about fast twitch and slow twitch but there may be a bigger mystery re maybe some more distinctions like maybe there are fast twitch for smaller weights and fast twitch for heavier weights. At one point some years back , at about 36yo I was squatting a crazy amount. Well over twice my bodyweight. I did a lot of reps at 2.5x times it. And I was about 68kg. I should probably have paused the badminton and signed up to compete in a squatting competition! I don't think it made me fast though. Even if my badminton technique was better, I still don't think my leg speed would have been particularly good. It's a different type of strength. In badminton they just call everything strength. A player has better technique? Look at the strength! A player is fast? Amazing strength. A player has good endurance - what strength!
We have all different genetics so just looking at a height and weight stat of someone can't really tell you anything. There are also a lot more important factors when it comes to swingspeed such as, limb-length aka length of the arm, length of fingers, shoulder flexibility, hip seperation etc. A powerful smash is rarely the feat of exceptional strength but rather utilizing the flexibility of your limbs in order to generate the whipping effect, see Goh V Shem etc. Maybe there is a need for an updated smashing tutorial here
It'd be interesting if you could demonstrate that different flexibility among badminton players with some pictures
