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Lin Chun-Yi is your 2026 All England
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men's singles winner, and he looked
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On his way to the win, he took down big
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names including Indonesia's top player
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and world number four,
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World Tour Finals winner,
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and the current world number one,
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And out of the five matches that Lin
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he only dropped one game to Kunlavut
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This All England win now puts him at his
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personal highest ranking ever, at number
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It also feels like that performance is
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In 2026, Lin Chun-Yi has already won
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both the Super 750 India Open and Super
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1000 All England, and there's something
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new about his gameplay that will make
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him particularly dangerous if he
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continues to improve on it.
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Lin Chun-Yi has been a good player,
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but never really a great player until
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If we look back at his history to when
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he first started competing
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we'll see that he has been good,
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but not really good enough to
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consistently contest the top players.
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He had consistently won at the challenge
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and series levels enough to quickly push
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him higher, but for a while,
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Lin Chun-Yi's gameplay seemed to be
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stuck at the Super 300 level.
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He could occasionally pull the win at
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these Super 300 and 100 tournaments and
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upset some top players on a good day,
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but consistently winning these Super 500
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tournaments and higher
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it might have felt as if Lin Chun-Yi
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peaked at that Super 300 level,
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especially as players younger than him
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have began to overtake him.
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In fact, Lin Chun-Yi's record against
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Kodai Naraoka is actually 1 to 8.
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Against all odds, however,
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something has clicked for Lin Chun-yi.
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And he began to rapidly improve from a
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player contesting top spots to a top
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Lin Chun-yi is known for his explosive
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that all opponents have difficulty
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We talked previously about how this was
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and something that always made Lin
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Chun-yi hard to play against
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because you had to uniquely prepare for
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That weapon was not enough by itself.
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And it wasn't even enough when in
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combination with some Lin Chun-yi's
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other strong skills like his front court
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What you would have noticed while
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watching Lin Chun-yi's past games was
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that if the opponent could manage to
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defend against Lin's smashes or find a
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way to prevent him from playing them as
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often, Lin Chun-yi would end up making a
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And if you've seen another video we made
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about why Taiwanese badminton players
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have struggled, you'll know that one of
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the problems is their intention to
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continuously create opportunities to
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>> a lack of willingness to play defense.
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Lin Chun-yi has made great strides in
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where his improved defensive
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capabilities combined with his elite
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attacking skills make him particularly
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He's a much more well-rounded player now
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and there's a specific adjustment in his
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footwork that has made his defensive
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A lot of badminton players and coaches
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work so much on ways to score points and
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that we forget to develop arguably a
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more important aspect in not losing.
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An example of what this means is that
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coaches and players, including
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ourselves, might spend a ton of time
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looking at how to break your opponent's
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get opportunities to smash, or develop
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certain shots to prevent them from
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that we often forget about developing
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the skills to make ourselves play well
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regardless of the situation.
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What Lin Chun-Yi has found in his wins
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is a stronger sense of maintaining his
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Instead of looking to always pressure
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and break your opponent's rhythm, a
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different mindset you can have is to
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play shots that allow you to maintain
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smooth movement on court.
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Lin Chun-Yi has a preferred rhythm on
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court that's best shown rather than
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What you'll notice when comparing Lin
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Chun-Yi's current footwork and rhythm
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is that he has changed his recovery
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footwork to sync up better with his
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His goal is to actually start his split
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step before or while his opponent is
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so that when he lands and pushes off
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it's timed better accordingly to his
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opponent's hitting timing.
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>> there were more moments where Lin
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Chun-yi's footwork rhythm was scrambled,
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where multiple steps messed up his split
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step initiation that resulted in late or
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weaker push-offs. [music]
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This is a big reason why his defense
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wasn't as good before.
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Smashes at the pro level are at the
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or a few millisecond difference in your
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split step timing can lead to returning
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the shuttle or missing it.
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poor split step timing can lead to worse
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control of other shots,
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which is why a previous version of Lin
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Chun-yi had consistency issues.
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>> This was seen less at the 2026 India and
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Lin Chun-yi's control was often far
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better, and his defensive play was much
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You can even compare this to the German
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Open, where he lost to Christo Popov in
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The playing conditions were much faster,
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and it was more difficult for Lin
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Chun-yi to control the shuttle, and that
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affected his ability to maintain his
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A lot of the times he would push, only
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to have Christo moving quickly into a
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smash that didn't give Lin the time to
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complete his full split step and
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On that note, we wanted to take a deeper
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look at split steps and explain how
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Lin's bigger split step has actually
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been key to his success.
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Players will often learn that the split
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step should come in the moment right
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after the shuttle leaves your opponent's
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But few players will actually learn
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exactly how to do this, even at the
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Badminton often doesn't have the same
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academic depth in sports science studies
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is something that's common in many other
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sports and well-studied.
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Across various studies, the ultimate
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goal of the split step is to preload the
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muscles to create a spring-like effect
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that allows you to push off much
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Much like what we talked about in a
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video about Lee Chong Wei's footwork.
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A lot of players in an effort to make
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their split step smaller
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or to time their split with their
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will lose this preloading effect and the
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ultimate push off becomes [music] much
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One of the things that has become more
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noticeable for Lin Dan is his play and
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movements that have been modified
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to try and produce the preload feeling
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To time the impact and push off to the
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moment that the shuttle leaves your
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opponent's racket, you generally have to
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start the preload and split step
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movement as they are swinging.
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Players known for their elite footwork,
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such as Lee Chong Wei
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and Lee Hyun Il, have mastered the
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to the point that they can make the
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movement very small and precise.
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But if that timing has not been
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you would prefer to have more air time
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to make sure you get the preload feeling
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rather than have a small movement and
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And this is what has been an adjustment
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for Lin Dan that is more obvious when
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you compare how he moves after playing
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Before he would often stay relatively
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as most of us are taught to stay up and
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he will pretty much always split step
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even after playing good tight net shot.
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The result has been less mistakes and
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higher quality returns from Lin Chun-Yi.
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That's a huge point. Another result of
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Lin's higher emphasis on his split-step
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is that it acts as a way to reset his
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legs and stabilize his movements on
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A key benefit of split-stepping after
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is about re-centering your body's center
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so you can move equally as well in any
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By playing to pretty much always have
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Lin Chun-Yi has become a much more
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and his overall game is smoother
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and more consistent.
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Anyone think he took inspiration from
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Let us know in the comments below.
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For us as players, we can learn from Lin
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Chun-Yi in the sense that our gameplay
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shouldn't always be about how we can
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beat our opponents, but perhaps more
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importantly about playing to maintain
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and ability to repeatedly deliver our
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best performance. [music]
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Lin Chun-Yi was a player that had
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extremely deadly weapons in his smashes
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alongside good front court shots to set
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he could not consistently repeat strong
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performances to win top [music] level
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What's changed is that Lin Chun-Yi plays
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much more to maintain his own smooth
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and that has led to better defense and
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This footwork and rhythm adjustment
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combined with Lin Chun-Yi's already good
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makes him a truly dangerous player to
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It will be interesting to see if he can
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continue to maintain his form.
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If you like this video
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And as always, thanks for watching.
