Well in the games the badges let you use HM moves outside of battle and made pokémon up to certain levels obey you. I'm not sure if that's the case here though I haven't had much trouble getting mine to listen to me no matter what level they are. Okay...well Rose is an exception, but that's for another reason entirely.

Even though it's a hassle to double back around...I want to be absolutely sure I can beat him. I don't want any of my pokémon to get really hurt, you know?