I’ve always had a fascination for the way that Lin Dan plays badminton. It’s true he isn’t the world’s number one badminton player at the moment, according to the Badminton World Federation Men’s Singles ranking, but there’s just something so intimidating about the way he plays that makes it difficult even for the top seeded Lee Chong Wei to compete against him.

What marks Lin Dan’s  style of play is his quickness to get behind the shuttlecock and his athleticism on the court. Look up any video of Lin Dan playing badminton, and you’re bound to see him diving around the court making some of the most amazing saves you’ll ever see. And although “Super Dan,” as he is sometimes called by his fans, has slowed down a little bit in the last one or two years, he is still one of the most aggressive badminton players who’s ever played the game.

Lin Dan’s signature speed and agility on the court did not, of course, come naturally. Lin Dan began playing badminton at the age of 5, a choice he made for himself over his parents desires for him to play the piano, and constantly pursued to better himself in and through the game by joining the People’s Liberation Army and later the Chinese national badminton team in 2001. Lin Dan’s only notable junior achievement was reaching the semi-finals of the 2000 World Junior Championships and at the start of his professional career between 2001 and 2003 was met with defeat without coming close to victory in most of the professional tournaments he participated in, and it wasn’t until 2004, with the help of many training camp sessions, that he finally found his feet in the game, earning the number one ranking of the Badminton World Federation.

Lin Dan’s badminton success clearly shows how dedicated training can improve a player’s skills and abilities, and allow him or her to win competitions. No matter how tiring it may be, putting in time at the court is an essential requirement to becoming better. Only when the quiet hiss of the shuttlecock and the light drone of the vibrations running through the badminton racquet‘s shaft becomes very familiar to you can you expect to perform well on a competitive court.

Many badminton players live under the impression that if you have the best badminton equipment money can buy, then it will be easier to become better at the game faster. Good badminton equipment might help you improve your game, to some degree, but nothing beats the time you have spent in training. You might have the best Yonex badminton racquet and play with the best Yonex Aerosensa shuttlecocks, but that isn’t any guarantee of success. Lin Dan himself shows how small a difference equipment plays – he no longer uses Yonex equipment and instead uses racquets, shoes, and clothing by Li-Ning, a Chinese brand that is popular in China but is struggling on the world market. I’ve had the same experience in the 6 or so years that I’ve been playing badminton –  I had, at one time, no choice but to borrow my ex-boss’s cheap steel badminton racquet with thick strings and horrible tension for a few weeks, but I ended up playing better with that racquet than any racquet I had used before that, and this subsequently improved my whole game with any of the better racquets I’ve owned after that.

So if you really want to play at your best, then it’s dedication to training that counts – not equipment. Whether you’re playing with a Yonex Nanospeed 7000 or a racquet with an obscure brand that you bought from an online wholesaler, if you’ve exerted a lot of effort into mastering your basics and spent hours repeating drills over and over until they are perfected, then any competitive appointment at the badminton court is sure to go your way – or at least you’ll have a fighting chance. So get in that court and put in the time you need to excel today!