Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in action against Saina Nehwal. (Source: Reuters)
Kirsty Gilmour learnt to jump-smash because no one told her she shouldn’t. The Scottish girl who posed an almighty challenge to Saina Nehwal before the Indian ensured bronze at the Worlds, says never having enough girls to play against has shaped her game.
“My dad was junior national coach in badminton. Though I played lots of sports – rugby and football, badminton was in the family. I played against boys always so I learnt to play their game. No one taught me, but I learnt the jump smash automatically. I don’t want to emulate anyone, but that’s my game,” she said a day later, before flying off to New York for a holiday.
“It was an honour to play against Saina, I have a lot of respect for her, and we played one of the best matches at Glasgow. And she showed me how it’s done,” she would say, from her home, two miles from the Emirates stadium.
It was the explosive power on that jump smash that sent Nehwal’s progress in a bit of a tizzy, making the bronze medal a tough one to pocket. “I don’t ever remember specific training for the jump smash, It’s just my favourite, and one of my big weapons,” she added. Gilmour plays a tad like German Julianne Schenk, though she’s a beast in fitness boasting a six pack. “I don’t know any other way to be. No one told me not to jump and smash,” she stressed.
It’s cost her a knee when she had to undergo surgery last year. “Yes I have a new knee,” she’d joke, adding, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop jump smashing. I’ve tried becoming a little more economical with the rest of my movements to make sure I can continue doing that.”
The Gilmour girl also has some snazzy deception on her overheads as well as at the net, to go with that long-fussy serve which has all of a showoff barman’s tricks. “No one taught me deception. It comes from loving the game so much that you try and experiment hitting the shuttle in odd ways. Otherwise, the sport has gotten too robotic. I need to invent shots,” she says.
What’s kept her in the sport is how much she loves it. “Lots of people told me after the knee operation that I should stop. But how many people can say they get to do what they love and travel the world. Badminton is a pretty cool job,” she says. She’s called the next-Marin in the making for both her feisty strokes and attitude. “That’s a big compliment, though I don’t want to copy anyone.”
Kirsty Gilmour shared the biggest hoardings in the city with Chong Wei and Lin Dan, and many wondered if Scotland Badminton had gone a little overboard. “Oh, people might not have believed, but I always knew I was going deep in the tournament. I knew how hard I’d trained with my Malaysian coach, and how well I play,” she said, having shocked everyone by beating Chinese Top 10 He Bingjiao. She fancied her chances against Saina too. “I knew I could beat her. This was the first time I was challenging her, but credit to her she played well,” she says.
How high in the air does she go when smashing? “Oh I’m going to find out soon. I’d love to find out. For me it’s never been about the height though. It’s about the timing of the jump,” she explained.
