Hi everyone, welcome to Get Good At Badminton. Today, we’ll be taking a look at Japan’s women’s singles badminton player, Tomoka Miyazaki.
If you don’t know who she is, she’s the 2022 World Junior Champion and has quickly gained popularity after defeating players such as PV Sindhu and putting up strong performances versus Olympic champions Carolina Marin and An Se Young.
Let’s break down what makes Tomoka Miyazaki so good and what we believe she needs to do to elevate her game to the next level and go from good to best.
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First, let’s talk about Miyazaki’s attacking play. She’s all around very good, but this is her biggest strength in her game.
When you watch Miyazaki play, you’ll notice that she’s a very fast player who often opts to play smashes and slices in the backcourt, followed up with net kill winners.
What makes her attacking play particularly good is her speed and pace. She has good variety and shot quality in the backcourt, but the speed at which she can follow up at the net is what separates her from other players.
Miyazaki also has very good front court shot options that complement her speed. If she’s not able to net kill, she has a variety of pushes, nets, and deceptive pace changes that make it hard for her opponents to play against.
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If Miyazaki wants to get to the next level, however, she needs to clean up some of her movements and become more stable.
One thing that has hindered her gameplay a little is that her racket ready and set up positions are sometimes messy. Right now, there are a lot of unnecessary small movements that often lead her to making more mistakes.
It might seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference especially for fast attacking players like Miyazaki.
Raising the racket just half a second too late could be the difference between hitting your shot over the net versus into the net or playing a clear versus a smash.
Not paying attention to where your racket is also makes your movements more unstable which is why Miyazaki’s style often feels scrappy and energy draining.
Cleaning up her movements will make her more stable and allow her to be more precise with her shots and footwork. She can easily do this by learning from some of her teammates.
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Another one of Miyazaki’s weaknesses, and a more obvious one, is her around the head and backhand side. She doesn’t have a particularly strong backhand nor can she quickly turn to her around the head, leading her to play low quality shots while getting caught out of position.
Many pro players punish this weakness with fast pushes and punch clears to Miyazaki’s around the head that force her to play slow shots that are easily punished.
Practicing these turns would help her fix some of these issues and would propel her from a player who contests the top players into someone who is a top player.
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It’ll definitely be interesting to see how Tomoka Miyazaki matures as a player. If she retains her attacking style while becoming more consistent, it will be super exciting to see her match ups against a more defensive player like An Se Young.
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