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Success in sport is about control. The most successful athletes are those who have exerted the greatest control over various parameters of the game – speed, skill, power, etc.
Control over sport is best achieved under standard conditions. Modern sport has been fashioned to reduce or eliminate variables. The possibility of rain, for instance, is sought to be negated by introducing retractable roofs. The problem of natural light fading out was negated by floodlights. Some sports that evolved outdoors have moved indoors to secure them from natural elements. In every sport, we see the effort to eliminate variables. Sport needs standard conditions.
Some sports, however, have stubbornly resisted standardisation. The best example of this is cricket. The variable in cricket is an essential element that adds to its beauty. There is no other sport that is as influenced by nature and all the interesting things it does to the game. The more a sport is likely to be influenced by ‘external’ elements, the greater will be its unpredictability. Nature hates standardisation.
While most sports have managed to insulate themselves from nature, there are a few that have tried and not succeeded. Badminton is one such sport.
The greatest variable in badminton is drift. It’s an element that troubles even top players. What exactly is drift?
Simply put, it is the action of air currents on the shuttle. In most sports, the object of contention is the ball, whose behaviour cannot be changed radically by an air current. However, in badminton, the shuttle is such a light object that its flight can be changed by an air current; the ability to master drift is therefore key to becoming a top-class player. No player can hope to ignore this element if he desires to excel.
There are various reasons for drift. In the days before the introduction of air-conditioning, drift was caused either by air sneaking in through any opening (doors, windows, or other vents), or due to convection currents within the hall, as hot air moves up and cold air down. With the introduction of air-conditioning, the problem has become even more intense. The air usually blows from one side, or sideways across the court, and the current can be so strong that it can cause a significant shift in the destination of the shuttle. All in all, it’s a tricky subject that isn’t easy to prepare for, since no practice venue can replicate match atmosphere, since the audience and lights cause changes in air temperature and convection currents.
Players arrive at various methods to cope. The only real hope is to have such good control over their strokes that they factor in the drift while they play. However, sometimes the drift is so strong that even top players reconcile to its vagaries. The legendary Judy Hashman told this writer that at one All England, the drift was so bad she had to prepare to play a third game because it was carrying the shuttle way off target. Drift is a greater problem in larger halls; smaller the hall, lesser the drift. The problem is apparently greater in Asia than in Europe, for in Europe temperatures are milder and don’t require higher levels of air-conditioning.
Generally, it’s easier for players to play against the drift rather than with it. Playing with the drift means that a toss can easily be carried away beyond the back boundary line; their only hope is to try to keep the shuttle down. If a player begins on the ‘bad’ side, that is, with the drift behind him, he will know that he stands a good chance of losing the game. However, his advantage is that if the match goes to a third game, he will play the last part – the second half of the third game – on the ‘good’ side of the court, so he will try to ensure that he does not concede a big lead during the first half of the third game.
Drift has caused a huge difference to the way the game is played today. The game has become flatter since players cannot trust themselves to play a rallying game. The number of strokes has surely gone down. As former India No.1 Anup Sridhar told his writer: “I think drift has caused such a change in the way we play badminton. It’s easy to talk of how reluctant we are to lift the shuttle now, but it’s impossible to control it in most big halls where there is significant drift. Sometimes the shuttle goes out by two or three feet.” Anup believes drift is the reason players prefer to keep the shuttle low rather than lift it in men’s singles.
The other – and not often-talked about – problem with air-conditioning is that it can be manipulated to disrupt rhythm. This is what the Malaysian press was referring to in the World Championships final this year, when Lee Chong Wei appeared rattled by the sudden switching-off of the air-conditioning. To a player who has adjusted his game to the air-conditioning, the sudden change in conditions can disrupt rhythm. Whether what happened at Guangzhou was deliberate or not is another story!
