In a badminton match, it’s the player on court that usually has the spotlight, and their coach is sitting in the background. But at the BWF World Junior Championship in Guwahati, it’s a certain coach that has been drawing plenty of attention from all quarters, much more than his players. This gentleman is one Chen Long; three-time Olympic medallist, two-time World Champion and one of the greatest men’s singles players of all time.
The 36-year-old is in India as a coach with China’s junior team, who have won three medals already. Chen has been an uncharacteristically animated presence behind the boys singles competitors from China. Vigorous claps and hand gestures, pats on the back after losses, and even a cinematic jumping-off-his-chair celebration after a close semifinal win, watching coach Chen in action is an experience in itself.
Imagine having such a storied presence – the ‘Great Wall of China’ – behind you when you are a teenager trying to break into the famously unbreachable Chinese national badminton team. It’s a heady combination of motivation and pressure.
The challenge for him, Chen says, is how to transfer his know-how as a player to help the team as coach. “How I can use all the experience I have gathered over the years to teach the players and help them to perform better in the court and win is my challenge as a coach now,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the competition. “I tell the players to focus on every point and not pay too much attention to the result. It’s okay if you lost just a point, pay attention to the next and play.”
It’s not often that a bonafide great of the game returns to the badminton coaching chair so soon after retirement. The last time the Chinese great was seen on a high-profile badminton court was the final of the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, where he won his third straight Olympic medal. No one had known then that it would be the last match of Chen’s decorated career.
He didn’t play on the BWF Tour after that and announced his retirement in 2023, wanting to focus on his family life with his wife and former world No 1, Wang Shixian. But just about two years later, he is back on the road because of his love for badminton.
“After retirement, I thought about it for a time and realised I still had enthusiasm for badminton. So I returned as coach to continue to work with badminton,” he said of his transition from player to coach.
It’s not easy to fully grasp his thoughts in a conversation that requires translation from Chinese to English, but his dedication to his role as coach can be felt in person via his reactions on the sidelines. Both the boys singles semifinals, for instance, were close thrillers against China’s age-old badminton rivals Indonesia.
In the first, Mohd. Zaki Ubaidillah beat Li Zhi Hang in a three-game cracker, and coach Chen was fully involved in the rollercoaster of emotions. When the Indonesian cinched it, Chen walked over to his player, patted him on the back in a telling gesture of support before walking off court. In the second, when Liu Yang Ming Yu won a nervy decider, Chen leapt off his chair, raising his arms and pumping his fists in another rare display of extreme emotions.
The banter going around that Chen showed more emotions as coach than as player is in fact the truth. He was candid enough to say that he feel more stress when he does not have a racquet in his hands.
“It’s more stressful as coach for sure, you can see that after the two men’s singles semifinals. It’s very stressful both in mind and heart, I do not need to play on court to feel the same stress as the player, [sometimes] even more than the player,” he said.
And the reason for his animation as coach is a touchingly thoughtful one. “As a player, I needed to be poker-faced to perform better and focus on court. But as a coach, I am trying to make the players on court feel better,” he explained. “If they win one point, I will cheer them, but if they lose they also, I smile and tell them it’s okay, continue to play.”
Chen himself has won the World Junior title, both team and individual, as a player back in 2007, before going to replicate it at the senior level multiple times. He could very well repeat the feat as coach too. He knows what it takes to succeed in the hyper-competitive Chinese badminton scene. As of now, he is happy with the junior team, seeing players win with his coaching and wants to take his future coaching roles step by step.
Seeing his enthusiasm for the sport and interactions with the youngsters, it’s hard not to hope for Coach Chen to have a long future, perhaps one almost as successful as his career as a player.
