Hmmm... but there is more to it than just a simple smiley, isn't it? Anyway, some really good pictures coming from that photo session - here's another one take from her FB page:
Back to a more badminton related content... I just did a rough calculation of the WR points and if I'm not mistaken, TTY will lose her #1 spot to AY with the next ranking coming out tomorrow. Quite a lot of WR points gone due to the changed tournament schedule under the new BWF World Tour this year.
With apologies to AY, but somehow I doubt her longevity at the very top level due to her body habitus and the amount of work and scrambling she has to do to cover the court. At the moment she still has youth on her side, but compared to TTY who has seriously gotten uber fit over the last 2 years, the odds are TTY will out last her on finals day. Okuhara's knees are still not dependable for multiple SS events. She looks like she's saving for the big events, eg. WC, OG.
Yeah I kinda feel the same way. I'm a little surprised she's playing WS, I think AY could fare incredibly well as a LD player.
I saw her in a special with LD/LCW/LXR I meant Yamaguchi would make a good women's doubles player TTY can stay where she is in WS
Similar to Okuhara, she seems just a bit too small for singles. She needs the odd extra step here and there, and the lunges often need to be longer relative to her body than those of taller players, and she lacks the angles to end rallies quickly. If the opponent has good retrieving, she can basically not end the rally of her own volition, basically has to outlast her opponent almost every single rally.
Can someone translate what the dad explains about the string? I think it starts slightly after 22 min, I would like to know the reasoning for her famous missing 3rd bottom.
I think someone has answered this here before: the tension gets tighter and the sweet spot area gets more 'concentrated'. However, strings will break easier.
Mechanically speaking, less strings means the string bed gets a bit softer. My own personal feeling is that it doesn't really change anything much, nothing you couldn't achieve with dropping the (cross) tension 3-5%.