The Style That Led Chen Long To Win 2X World Championships And 3 Olympic Medals

[Transcript]

Hi everyone! Welcome to Get Good At Badminton, the channel that’s all about as the name suggests, getting good at badminton.

Today, we’ll take a look at Chen Long and the style that led him to win two world championships and three different Olympic medals.

If you haven’t heard, Chen Long has been consulting with the Chinese National Team recently and helping players Shi Yu Qi and Li Shi Feng prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics

There have been noticeable changes in Shi Yu Qi and Li Shi Feng’s playstyles that have led them to occupy the number one and sixth spot in the men’s singles ranking.

These changes include many elements of Chen Long’s game, which is why we wanted to make today’s video.

Let’s take a look at key elements of Chen Long’s gameplay that all of us can apply to our own game.

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Many know Chen Long for his phenomenal defense and his counter-attack playstyle. However, have you ever wondered why his defense is good? Or why he is able to counter-attack so effectively? The answer is not as simple as you think.

Chen Long is not just lifting the shuttle into the back, letting his opponents smash, and getting it back. He’s playing high-quality shots that make it hard for his opponent to attack and easy for Chen Long to guess where the next shot is coming.

First, we can look at his backcourt.

Chen Long was never known for his insane smash, or his ability to confuse his opponent with slice shots, and deceptions. He was a rather simple player. In his backcourt, he generally plays neutral shots where he hits down. As you can see here, Lee Chong Wei is unable to capitalize on Chen Long’s backcourt even though he is taking his late backhand and forehand. This is because he is playing fast shots like drives or half-smashes that keep him in position and prevent his opponent from setting up for a smash. Usually, the only thing his opponents can do is block or drive.

There’s typically three things that Chen Long does after playing a neutral shot in the back court. If he has the opportunity, he will play a drive and continue pressuring until he kills the rally.

Otherwise, his two other shots are a push or blocking in the middle.

What’s important about his push that differentiates it from a lift is how fast the shot is. Watch how his opponents can’t really attack the pushes.

The goal is to ultimately force his opponent to play a flat clear and win points by changing speed and smashing. Additionally, Chen Long can also win points when his opponents get out of position by trying to attack his push. One of his favorite combos is to push his opponent to the back, cross-block the smash, and finish the rally by smashing the lift.

If Chen Long doesn’t have an opportunity to win, then he will block middle with pace, play down in the backcourt, and repeat until his opponent makes a mistake.

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The beauty of Chen Long’s playstyle is that it’s very simple.

He doesn’t have any fancy deceptions or insane shots compared to other pro players. He keeps his game limited to just a few different shots, which allows him to focus on making those shots high-quality and reduce his mistakes.

Sometimes, as viewers, we forget just how exhausting and mentally tolling it is to play tournaments. There’s so much pressure on these players to win and the players get increasingly more tired as the tournament progresses.

One of the things Chen Long does so well is force his opponents to feel like they need to do something extra just to win the point, like play a net roll or pin the line with their smash, which ultimately leads to more mistakes.

You can learn from Chen Long and do the same.

When you’re late, play down in the backcourt using drives and half-smashes. If you don’t have an opportunity to smash or drive, block toward the middle with pace or play a high push. Repeat this process until you win.