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Everyone who watched the badminton men’s singles final at the recent Asian Games in Doha has seen the tremendous skills displayed by Lin Dan and Hidayat Taufik. For me, the thing I remember the most from the match was Taufik’s quick swats near the net. Obviously he had no trouble getting the birds when it was higher than the net or level with the net, but what’s so special about his technique was that he could send the bird down cleanly into Lin Dan’s court even if the bird was slightly below the top the net, which gave Taufik an advantage when playing near the net.
In the situations where the bird has already fallen below the top of the net, normal swatting techniques would result in hitting the bird into the net. If we look at Taufik’s stroke more carefully, we see that his racket actually goes up first to meet the bird and then forces the bird downwards into the other side of the net. If we watch it in slow motion, this technique probably constitutes a “carry” violation in badminton, but Taufik can do it in such a quick single motion that the umpire can’t really notice any violations. This advanced technique is not mentioned in any books or other instructional material, but it allowed Hidayat Taufik to successfully defend his Asian Games gold medals, so it’s definitely worth a closer look.