Shuttlers of the world beware, Japanese bullet trains are gathering pace

To jog memory back to what had seemed like her invincible season of early 2019, Yamaguchi still relied on retrieving tirelessly and powering her smashes from way behind her head, with an arched back like a snapping rubber band. She bounced around the court with great athleticism and flew for the leaping smash, yet something would invariably snap in the head, and she would find herself in a pool of errors.

Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi competes against Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying during their women’s singles final badminton match at the BWF World Tour Finals in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

But the difference from that 2018-19 period when she won many Tour titles, but couldn’t crack the World Championships and later the Olympics and now, has been this next gear of speed. It’s given her the last two World titles since she was stunned at Tokyo Olympics sent out by PV Sindhu in quarters. And the slicker speed metric has left her with big-match bragging rights beating all the big names – Yufei, Tai Tzu, An Se Young and Sindhu in important finals from Asian to World to season-enders with the elite 8 in contention.

For someone who was a barrel tank of stamina in the Japanese run-retrieve-long rally fashion, plus explosive bursts of power, it is the added speed dimension that’s fuelling her success right now.

Japan seems to employ the speed spark into yet another bubbling career: their latest men’s singles contender Kodai Naraoka. A contemporary of Kunlavut Vitidsarn and Lakshya Sen, the young Japanese has burst onto the scene and reached World No 13, sprinting under the radar like a submarine.

It has the same shuttle control as a Kento Momota, but operates at twice the speed. Even as Momota attempts to reinvent his career with his own past glory casting a singeing pressure shadow on his attempts to reboot a brand new reputation, along comes Naraoka – a 2>> fast-forwarded version, who created a stir last weekend at the World Tour Finals.

Japan’s Kodai Naraoka competes against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen during their men’s singles semi final badminton match at the BWF World Tour Finals in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

It wasn’t a title win, for he lost in the semis. But he caused immeasurable trouble to eventual champion, the hard-to-beat Viktor Axelsen.

The last two matches they had played, Axelsen’s winning scorelines had been 21-8, 21-12 and 21-5, 21-15 – and there had been no hint of the gathering storm of pace. Which is to say, Axelsen would not have seen this suddenly injected speed-blur – Pietro Maximoff with a knitting ring head band – coming. And yet, Naraoka gave him one right fright by revving up the hand-pace in the 1 hr 23 minutes though he lost to inexperience 21-23, 21-19, 21-18 in last week’s semifinal.

Axelsen has beaten Sen in the All England finals this season and Kunlavut at the World Championship finals in two masterclasses of dominating play against the brightest Top Ten youngsters. He won the World Tour Finals again, but the speed-bump against Naraoka will give him a lot to think heading into the next season about challenges coming from the Gen Next, in how they could hassle and hustle him with pure speed.

“That match was close to being my toughest the entire year. It had everything – good play, bad play and a lot of mental games. It had everything sport has to offer,” Axelson would say about the game later. It was almost like conceding that things had gotten mighty tight in the semis.

Naraoka mostly starts firing from mid-court, moves quick enough to crowd opponents with a whirring hand speed and springy feet hops to match. It achieves a couple of things – of course there are the winners that come straight off the blitz. But it’s more a tactic to deny opponents any reacting, thinking and processing time, and more importantly lure them into a game-pace of his liking. Of his choosing.

Naraoka has scythed Prannoy and Sen amongst Indians earlier. But it is in his defeat of Indian newbie Mithun Manjunath earlier in the season that there were signs of his speed rush, scorch-earth tactics. Mithun barely dug out the opener 24-22, but the speed overwhelmed him thereafter. The biggest trouble is in reading which side the shuttle comes, for Naraoka’s rudimentary deception lies in accurately aping what’s going down-the-line straight as what’s going cross – all at rapid, enveloping, omnipresent speed. You never know where it came from, just that it hit smack.

Japan’s Kodai Naraoka poses for photographers after wining the match against China’s Lu Guangzu during their men’s singles Group A badminton match at the BWF World Tour Finals in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Men’s singles has for long now watched Indonesian wonder Anthony Ginting, make up with pace what he doesn’t naturally garner through power or long reach. There’s wicked pace in his defense too. Loh Kean Yew boasts of a different kind of well-rounded speed but his booming smash attack is so overpowering on the finishing kills that his employing of speed mid-rallies doesn’t get the gush it deserves.

Perhaps, the biggest speed-manic was Carolina Marin, who could neutralise every kind of attack – the power game, the wrist wizardry, the duracell battery running games as well as Chinese efficiency with her flurry. It is difficult to counter Marin, if you couldn’t bring her pace down a notch.

It also means that on her comeback from ACL troubles, she has lost that same speed and the resultant extra seconds. Someone like PV Sindhu has found mid-rally accelerations at this point in her career which adds to her arsenal, and when fully fit, can prove useful to compensate for her mellowed attack and preferred drawn out rallying.

Axelsen is holding on gamely with his experience and determination, and Tai Tzu and Yufei won’t go down without a fight. Yet on the evidence of Yamaguchi’s success and Naraoka’s preferred weapon, it is speed that promises to trouble opponents the most in the coming season.