Lee Chong Wei is a name that will forever resonate in the badminton world. The impact he had on the sport has been phenomenal. In my opinion, there are not many players, even in the modern era, that can compare to Lee Chong Wei as a player.
I recently went through a phase of watching old Lee Chong Wei matches. Something I haven’t done in a long time since he retired in 2019. And I have to say, whether it’s nostalgia or admiration there’s something about the way he played that’s just mesmerising. And since I’m in Malaysia, I thought I’d try and do an analysis of what made him the player he was.
Play Style
Lee Chong Wei turned professional in 2000. Between then and the end of his career (2019) we saw him evolve from a defensive workhorse to a more attacking style of play while maintaining that solid defence he was originally known so well for. There are few players both in his generation and the current generation that could defend as well as LCW. There is one player I think was marginally better than Chong Wei in defence, but I’ll let you speculate on who that is…
Early Years
Lee Chong Wei started his career playing more passively and not taking as much initiative as his defence and endurance were so strong. He kept rallies going by continuously reaching shots that other players wouldn’t expect him to get close to. This was his bread and butter. He did not attack as much as the player we knew when he retired. His explosive footwork allowed him to cover significant distances quickly and few players could out-last him in rallies he would force them to play.
He also did not possess the net skills he later became known for. He was able to play at the net with the skill you would expect of a world-class player. But he preferred to move his opponent around the back of the court, wearing them down and waiting for his moment to capitalise on his opponent’s fatigue.
One can’t say he was a weak player back then considering the wins he was racking up. But he certainly wasn’t the complete player he would become. He was often criticised for being too passive and relying on his defence rather than taking the game to the opponent. While this approach seemed to be dominating other opponents – two other legends in their own right were causing problems for him.
Evolution
2008 was a turning point for Lee. Although probably conjecture on my part – I believe the 2008 Olympic final was a wake-up call that he simply wasn’t good enough to beat Lin Dan. Sure he had beaten Lin Dan in the past but Lin Dan had always maintained a positive head-to-head. His defensive game wasn’t enough to deal with Lin’s attacking ability. It was such a dominating performance by his opponent that Lee knew something had to change. He developed a more attacking game.
One big change was his development in his net game. He started to look more for the initiative in rallies by playing net shots to set up his attacking play. In addition, he began to dominate the net more, not backing away from a challenge in the front court. Therefore, he was able to achieve more attacking opportunities he started to take advantage of. From this point on, this is the Lee Chong Wei we eventually came to know.
His movement became much more explosive in his attacking play, and he became much more aggressive coming forward. His ability to reach the shuttle so early gave him the highest contact point possible, resulting in endless shot choices. As a result, his game became much more fast-paced and varied.
Not only was his endurance previously top-notch, but his stamina was insane. It wasn’t just that he was able to move so quickly, it’s that he could maintain it for pretty much the whole match which most players couldn’t keep up with. So now, not only did he have one of the best defences in world badminton, his attacking game to matched.
In addition, his shot quality was superb, as was his shot choice. LCW was very disciplined in his game, very rarely deviating from what was quite a basic approach. As I mentioned earlier, he was a textbook. Now is textbook boring? It can be. Some players play a boring textbook game. But it’s like LCW perfected it to the point that it was clinically impressive.
And what’s more, once he evolved this efficient, effective and economical game, he never really changed from it again. It’s like a video game character that distributes all his skill points evenly. Into his 30s, LCW didn’t seem to slow down significantly – maintaining that fast-paced dynamic badminton he has become renowned for.
Footwork
The footwork of LCW is well known to be soi smooth and elegant. He was certainly one of the fastest players in world badminton. He made traversing the court look so easy, even compared to other professional players.
At first glance, it’s hard to tell why it’s different and I’m sitting here watching a few videos of him playing and it’s still quite hard to say why he is so smooth even though it’s the same basic movement patterns as the other players.
I think part of it comes down to natural attributes. LCW is not particularly tall and has a very small frame. He’s also quite light at 68kg when competing according to Google. So being a little shorter gives him a lower centre of gravity and a more compact movement pattern. Being quite slight also means that he could develop a better strength-to-weight ratio.
He did not have a lot of muscle mass (not to say that he wasn’t strong)! As part of his training, I’m sure there was a heavy focus on strengthening the lower body to allow him to move as fast as possible across the court. So combined with his natural attributes he had a high level of strength to transport quite a light load. Not only that, but these characteristics also follow through for his agility and vertical jump as well. It also helped him recover quicker, particularly from jumps as he did not have as much weight to absorb the initial impact on landing.
In particular, his split step was very explosive allowing him to move in any direction extremely quickly. I think it lies in his ability to get off the mark quickly that sets him apart. When you watch him, he’s very relaxed when moving around the court unless he’s really pushed. But most of the time he isn’t. There is very little wasted movement, everything is done precisely and efficiently. He knows he can cover every inch of that court no matter what comes.
Physical Fitness
If you wanted to create a badminton athlete with peak physical fitness, you’d probably end up with LCW. I have always argued that if there’s someone of a comparative level you just can’t beat, at least be fitter than them. Of course, the margins are so small at the top level but LCW proved that this is a valid tactic. The fact he was beating younger players into his 30s (players like Prime Momota (which sounds like a shiny Pokemon) and Viktor Axelsen – just showed how fit LCW kept himself even towards the end of his career. Not to mention while sustaining the same level/style of play. We’re not talking just his endurance here, but his stamina, strength, and flexibility – he was perhaps the most well-rounded badminton player of his generation).
This physical fitness contributed directly to his abilities on the court to sustain the intensity of a rally for long periods of time. He was able to get to the shuttle early, he was able to dictate the rallies against all but the strongest opponents. He could easily pull weaker opponents out of position and had the same opponents reacting to him rather than challenging him for the initiative because it was difficult to keep up. Especially for the length of a match.
It was this fitness, combined with his perfect footwork that allowed him to cover the court so effortlessly, both in defence, offence and in neutral situations. In the rear court in particular, he was able to play almost all shots at the highest contact point, creating some of the most powerful smashes in men’s singles. Many of which were more powerful than men’s doubles players.
Singles by nature is a slower game but he was able to put pressure on the opponent to play at a high pace or they would crumble.
Rivalry
I didn’t want to compare Lin Dan to LCW. However, Lee Chong Wei himself has admitted that the rivalry between both players is what drove him to ever greater heights. Lin Dan created a mental block in Lee Chong Wei in my opinion. So much so that Lee was almost fighting himself on court as much as his opponent. In 2016, when he finally beat Lin Dan in the Rio Olympics, you could see that he reacted like he almost won the tournament itself.
In their head-to-head record, LCW has never led Lin Dan. But as mentioned above I think the 2008 Olympics cemented how much better Lin Dan was at that time. But it was this rivalry that brought LCW to step up his game to compete with the Chinese superstar. That hunger to defeat his rival, resulted in some of the most electrifying matches in world badminton even today.
But it wasn’t just Lin Dan. Lee Chong Wei was fortunate to be in the generation with several exceptional players, including Taufik Hidayat and Chen Long. Throughout his whole career, he had to compete with these top players – World Champions and Olympic Champions. Chen Long especially, after Lin Dan was perhaps his biggest threat. Considering his defence was better than LCW (yep it was Chen Long!), this was never an easy game for Chong Wei.
Consistency
Being rank number 1. for 200 consecutive Weeks and 349 weeks in total is no easy feat. Such was the dominance and consistency of LCW in the era of the Super Series. Very rarely did he not make it into the later stages of any tournament. The only time he significantly dropped his ranking was when he was banned for 8 months, then when he retired.
Of all Super Series winners, Lee Chong Wei stands alone as the King. Other legends don’t even come close to his record. In total, he’s amassed 46 titles. To put that in perspective, the next on the list is Lee Yong Dae, playing in two different disciplines. So to be that dominant in Men’s singles across his career is incredible. Most professional players won’t even win one Super Series or World Tour Tournament as it is now known.
Weakness
It would perhaps be unfair to call out the very few weaknesses that LCW had. After all he has accomplished so much in his career. But we should also take them with a pinch of salt because these minute weaknesses were completely overshadowed by his sheer physical and technical capabilities on the court.
LCW never seem pressured really in many matches of his career. Being world number 1 for so long and winning so many tournaments must boost your ego/mentality. To the point, I’m sure the feeling of his opponents was that they were playing the reputation rather than the player. However, when it came to big tournament finals, the Olympics, World Championships he was more often than not, facing his nemesis Lin Dan.
In his younger days, LCW was more passive and reserved on court. In contrast to Lin Dan, who was often dubbed arrogant in his younger years. But at that level, the “arrogance” almost protects you and gives you more belief and confidence. LCW was not that kind of person – or at least didn’t appear to be.
After some years, both players were technically as good as each other. But Lin Dan managed to maintain an edge. I believe that difference was their mentality – even if the gap wasn’t as wide as previously.
It wasn’t that LCW didn’t want it as much, it’s that there’s a lot of pressure on his shoulders. Imagine being the no.1 sports icon in a country where badminton is revered. He was the only athlete known nationwide representing Malaysia consistently as the top level in any sport. There’s already a huge expectation. And times he’s failed to perform in the past is met with quite scathing assessments by netizens and the media. So no wonder there’s a lot of pressure on him.
Combine that with the pressure of an Olympic final and we can see the difficulties one might be experiencing as they get closer to set point or match point.
I think back specifically to the World Championships in 2011, which was possibly the best men’s singles match to ever have been played. He was 20-16 up in the first set and we see glimpses of this weakness where he lost 4 game points. But he was able to reign it in to eventually win the set. Likewise, in the last few points of the match he played shots which he wouldn’t usually miss or his shot choice was sometimes a little off which was probably done under pressure.
But as I say this weakness was rarely there except in big tournament finals. And over the years it became less and less. It’s easy to judge from the outside but I’m sure most of us would crumble a lot quicker under the sheer pressure LCW was facing from his home country and arenas.
Tactical Ability
Lee Chong Wei was a great textbook player. Pretty much perfecting the game to the point of someone any young player should emulate in terms of technical ability and attitude to training.
Browsing the few badminton forums online – some netizens have insisted that he wasn’t a great tactician. He had what appeared to be a simple game plan for pretty much all his opponents. The basic approach was get the lift, smash and repeat. For most players – this is the tactic. Move the opponent around, get the lift and attack. So it’s unfair to single LCW out for this.
In my opinion, why would someone need to deviate from an approach that’s not only proven, but kept them at the top of the world rankings for 3 years? The fact that people saying he’s not very tactically aware are not very tactically aware themselves.
At higher and higher levels of badminton, the weaknesses of players become less and less. So once you reach the level of competing at the highest level, there are not as many weaknesses to exploit. Not to say there aren’t weaknesses at all. Therefore the strategies and tactics become less but more refined. LCW perfected the approach needed to dominate the sport..
Forehand Corner
It wasn’t a glaringly obvious weakness. Looking online and watching some highlights of the matches back now it does look obvious that Lin Dan had been using this tactic well.
However, without watching all of LCW’s matches it’s hard to say if this was a weakness. After all, the above video only highlights the rallies which shows what the uploader wants to show. I’m not saying they’re wrong at all – but it would require much more research to conclude that. For these selected rallies perhaps it was the case.
But was LCW weak in the rear forehand corner? Or is it a natural part of the game that most players are weaker in this area in singles?
Ironically as it sounds – the forehand rear corner is a better side to play to than the backhand rear corner. I will explain in a separate post. But basically, the forehand side is less dangerous, even if the player is early to the shuttle, because you cannot use your body to play the shot the same as the backhand side. So without analysing a significant sample of his matches and other players as a control group, it’s hard to say categorically this is the case for LCW specifically.
Conclusion
I’m currently in LCW’s home town of Bukit Mertajam – Penang. And as corny as it sounds, it feels kind of surreal to be in a place where someone I loved watching (as we all did) grew up. I find myself thinking – Oh LCW might have been here when I see the many food courts or even the night market.
It’s funny, whether I’m in KL, Ipoh, Penang or even Sabah, it’s clear that the adoration and pride for their badminton hero has not diminished since his retirement. Even those who know nothing of the sport know the name Lee Chong Wei.
Although LCW may never have won an Olympic gold or a World Championship gold – often considered the pinnacle of the sport – he captured the hearts of so many badminton fans around the world. He became a mentor and set the path for the next generation of badminton players. He became an inspiration and role model for many aspiring badminton athletes. And as many would agree and nobody can deny – he became a legend.
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