Exactly what I think. Viktor and even Yamaguchi, were smart to choose which tournament they should win and which tournament they should lose. Smart choice ==> good result.
Akane usually will not withdraw. But she will play just for practice. She will hit many shuttles out of the court. Then lose the game. But opponent should think twice and not underestimate her because she lost that particular game. She just want either to rest or to sharpen her shots which she already know will have high chances of going out of the line. Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk
Just one tiny hope for Momota using this racket. He knows that using this racket will be a step back. But there is such thing as taking a step back in order to go 2 steps forward. Heard of the story about someone who loves to type with 2 fingers and can type quite fast. When someone suggested to try using 5 fingers, this person was reluctant at first but gave it a try. Using 5 fingers to type felt slower for this person for a while and was tempted to go back to using 2 fingers. But after a while, this person found that he could for faster with 5 fingers instead of 2 fingers. So, who knows. Maybe, this racket might have something special that Momota likes. Although it will take time to get used to it but he insist on using it continually even if it means he will be taking a step backwards for a while. Actually, I think I did see some improvements in the way he was able to control it. Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk
According to this ranking https://bwfbadminton.com/rankings/, Momota has 112,870 big points which date from 2019, 2020 and 2021. It's quite worrying for its 2023 ranking
It will probably only do him good if he gets ranked lower. Less expecations, more opponments his level to practice match settings.
Hmm, Momota has 44794 points in 2022 with 9 results. There are still 2 Super 750 (Denmark and France) and 2 Super 300 (Germany and Australia) this year and it is difficult for him to participate in the BWF World Tour Finals as he is currently 20th. So Momota lacks a result, so let's add 5000 points to him and suppose he has a good result in Denmark or France, he will replace his current worst result (2220), so let's add another 5000 points for him, for example. At the end of the year, he could therefore have 55,000 points, he would then be 22nd or 23rd in the ranking. But I don't know the rules very well.
ah sorry, I forgot 2 important tournaments in Changzhou (Super 1000) and Fuzhou (Super 750), so my calculations are wrong above. There are therefore 4 important tournaments left this year. Momota lacks a result and he can replace 1670 points (this is his worst result among his 9 results of 2022 in fact), 2200 points and 3000 points. So potentially he could have more than 55,000 points if he has good results.
Hmm interesting, hopefully those tournaments in China don’t get cancelled. As for momota’s performance, it’s hard to predict, he’s like a yoyo
Thanks for pointing out my typing error. I've corrected the post. Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk
Yeah, a yoyo without a string that has rolled under that big old wardrobe in the basement, where you keep the sheets and pillows for guests that barely ever visit.
Just realise that Lee Zii Jia, the so strong man, was not happy with Astrox 99 pro. That's why Momota has to change to another racket.
I have had two 99 pros. There is nothing wrong with the Astrox 99 Pro, it is a great racket at controlling the game and has an absolutely pleasurable feel to it. I was about to tell how the racket destroys on "good days" but have now realized a very interesting thing about this racket. I was therefore forced to head over to Mspaint.exe and have since had an creative outburst which I have decide to post below, perhaps it will start some interesting discussion about how head heavy rackets can cause depression and burnout. Ok so what did I realize? The Astrox 99 Pro is designed for a peak performing athlete like Momota. In fact, he was one who "chose" which of the 99s was going to become the production version. I do not know how many of you have given a head heavy racket a try but the 99 Pro is an absolute beast. In terms of weight, it is truly head heavy and you can feel it in the swings - This head heaviness is intrinsically pleasurable which is something very important to keep in mind. As you swing this racket, you can feel how the momentum of the head moves with your stroke and follows through as you strike the fresh AS50. During your stroke, you feel safe and powerful - more so than with other rackets as the other rackets are not as head heavy. It is ridiculously fun to swing this thing around. The head heaviness of the Astrox 99 pro vibes REALLY well with the pleasure related to momentum, the "G-force-pleasure" part of your brain. On good days, when I have had a little break from the sport to recharge mentally, the 99 destroys. The thing is that my good days do not last and they are not related to me playing worse skill-wise but getting drained from all the playing. The racket that Kento has helped design is too pleasurable to play and it drains my mental energy faster than it can recover. The "G-force pleasure" from the swings is too much and is unsustainable. If you watch KM's recent matches, you can see that he misses a lot of easy shots. Body language wise, you can see how he comes prepared for the next stroke and is unable to hide his play. The deceptive element cannot come forward simply because the momentum that he carries with him has taken a too great of a chunk of his mental energy and focus. When something drains the mind to the point where stress starts to creeps in, bad things happen. This is all connected to Covid as the virus weakens the brain and decreases our ability to live our lives to the fullest. Just take a little look at the picture below that I have taken from Masuo et. al. 2021. The sense of smell is a hair-trigger for memories -- Mary Stewart. (It is a shame that we use it so little!). The bottom most green arrow in C is related to the smell center. We all have good and bad days but here is a quote from the current Olympic champion: “It sucks to sit out and do nothing. I had surgery, saw specialists of a given field and trained a little bit. I knew what I had to do. I'm on asthma medication now. I had to be, otherwise, it would cause unnecessary issues. It's not good to go around with asthma without getting treated,” All best to Momota.
I used to jokingly call it a "honeymoon". You buy a racquet, for the first 2 or 4 weeks you feel like everything is great, you've done it all and you feel like you've improved. But weeks later, your body suddenly gets tired, you feel pressure when holding that racket and the pain starts to appear,...