Peter Gade Høeg – Master of Badminton Deception

Peter Gade was one of the best players in the world of badminton during his time (in the early 2000s).

 

Player Profile

Best BWF World Ranking	: 1
Date of Birth	: 14 December 1976
Specialty	: Deception
Country	: Denmark

A player is considered a true badminton champion by claiming an Olympic Gold Medal at least once in their career. Unfortunately, Peter did not manage to get his hands on the Olympics title over his career.

Despite that, he is a very reputable badminton player. Peter’s spirit, love, and respect for badminton are exemplary traits for all sportsmen in the world.

At around the age of 30, players usually lose their stamina. This is the age where they are forced to retire since they will be lacking the competitive advantage against younger players.

But for Peter Gade, he is still active in professional badminton tournaments even at the age of 35!

You won’t find many players playing at this age. This shows how much Peter loves the sport.

Although his fitness level was not what it used to be, he still kept his eye on reaching the semi finals of every tournament he played in 2011.

And he did just that… he battled his way to the semi finals of almost all the tournaments he played!

Younger and talented players often force Peter into a third and deciding game. Obviously long games are not favourable for him nowadays because he lacks the stamina and fitness to compete in long matches.

However, Peter never gave up in most of these matches. He never disappointed his fans and his respect for the sport is phenomenal.

Greatest Opponent

During Peter’s era (early 2000), he had a number of strong competitors.

Among the few were Xia Xuan Ze from China, Taufik Hidayat, Hendrawan from Indonesia, and Wong Choong Hann from Malaysia.

Unfortunately I do not have much knowledge on badminton players at that time. If you have any interesting information on Peter Gade’s greatest opponents, feel free to share it here.

Style of Play

At the peak of Peter’s career, he was very agile and consistent. This gave him the advantage to perform fast attacks against his opponents.

Peter’s winning strategy is pretty unique.

He would either force his opponents towards the net area and then force them to lift the shuttle, or he would play a deceptive shot to force a weak return from his opponent.

However in most cases, his deceptive shots were executed so effectively that the shot itself became the ‘killer shot’.

Peter’s opponents who knew him very well were reluctant to bring themselves too close to the net area.

If they go too close to the net, they risked falling into Peter’s deceptive trap (he would change the flight direction of the shuttle at the very last second and push it to the rear court.)

When Peter manages to keep his opponents away from the net, he is more likely to dominate the front court and force his opponents to lift to him.

Specialty

As mentioned above in his style of play, what makes Peter so unique are his deceptive badminton strokes. He was a natural at producing deceptive stroke.

He made it look effortless. He naturally had the ‘hold and hit’ deception technique incorporated into his badminton strokes (especially underarm strokes).

His opponents could never read his where his shot would go. He holds the racket for a while and flicks it at the very last minute.

Other than having the passive “hold and hit” technique in his strokes, Peter is also well known for his active badminton deceptions.

Badminton deception became popular because of Peter Gade.

During Peter’s era, badminton deception was not a skill used widely to win badminton rallies.

Peter introduced how deception could be used to create chances and set up badminton rallies.

The “Hold and Hit” Technique

Peter Gade has produced so many deceptive shots that badminton fans around the world decided to give unique names to these shots.

The most common deceptive shot is the “hold and hit” technique. This steps involved are:

1. Move towards the shuttle so that you have more options of what types of shots to perform
2. Hold your racket up and pause for a short while, so that your opponent is uncertain of what type of shots you’ll perform
3. Delay point of contact, follow the shuttle with your racket and flick it at the very last second

The video below shows a classic “hold and hit” deception.

 

“Double Action” Deception

Using the “hold and hit” technique, more variations of deceptive shots can be performed.

One popular deceptive technique often used by Peter Gade, also one of his trademark shots, is the double action of the racket.

This skill is an extension of the hold and hit technique. This deceptive shot is called the doubles action of the racket because it involves 2 actions with the racket.

The first action is to use your racket to draw your opponent to a particular direction. Then as your opponent moves towards that direction, quickly change the swing direction of your racket and send the shuttle to another direction.

This shot is a beauty to watch. See the videos below of some double action of the racket from Peter Gade.

 

 

“Double Motion” Deception

Another popular deception by Peter Gade is the double motion. This is a variation to the double action of the racket.

The double motion involves 2 actions as well.

The first action involves using your body to draw your opponent to one direction. Then the second action involves using your racket to send the shuttle to another direction.

During this technique, you’ll be using your body movement to mislead your opponent.

The videos below show you some double motion from Peter Gade.

 

 

In the videos above, Peter moves his body to the front of the court, giving the impression that he will produce a net shot.

As his opponent moves to the front, Peter sends the shuttle to another direction with his racket.

Look at the beauty of this deceptive play. He made his opponent look like he was in another world.