Lee Hyun Il : '' Lin Dan is the perfect shuttler..................................................................................but he isn't Lee Hyun Il.''
What a freak and I mean that in a good way. Being from the same country it'd make more sense to cheer for Srikanth but part of me just wants LHI to come out on top.
WOW! Unbelievably, LHI beat Son WH to advance to finals. Not sure how he can recover for tomorrow's game. Too bad they were not on court with HawkEye as many line calls were contested by players. Curious to see if he can neutralize the indian bazooka, Kidambi.
Sadly, Lee Hyun Il was running on empty on final's day. I can't help but wonder if that fateful match were played , say, at the QFs,he might have a fighting chance, certainly not wiping the floor by his 13 years younger opponent. Nonetheless, I must salute the Evergreen and Mr Longevity for making many of us dare to dream the near-impossible. I hope both his contemporaries Lin Dan and LCW take a leaf from him, be encouraged and emulate him as much as they do Peter Gade ,the other Evergreen once upon a time.
Certainly there's a chance that LHI might have prevailed had it been <SF. His subduing of Wang Tzu Wei in the Japan Open this year proves that he can still overcome fast attacking players, provided that his stamina and body are in good shape. The way LHI counters these attacking players is using superior anticipation of enemy shot making, taking the shuttle early especially at the net to dictate pace of play and lastly with heavy shot variation in defence to neutralise opponents' attacks. You see, when you are both physically and mentally tired, it is incredibly difficult to execute this technical style of play. LHI was empty both mentally and physically by Sunday; he had no idea where Srikanth's shots were coming so the defence was essentially non-existent. The legs were evidently sore and tired, he simply couldn't keep up with Srikanth's hold-and-delay shots at the net, taking everything late and giving the initiative away. Towards the 2nd game you could see him attacking out of desperation but his usually pinpoint accurate smashes and clip smashes were just all over the place. It is really a shame that LHI went into the Denmark SSP final with an empty tank. Just half the first game and the lights had already went out. Credit to Srikanth for executing the correct game plan and pushing the correct buttons for his 3rd SS win of the year.
lhi has also taken breaks from playing throughout his career, thereby not subjecting his body to long periods of over training. at this point there's no need to train much. there isn't anything he has not seen. the body will not get stronger or faster anyway. just stay loose. same goes for the other uncle's on tour: ld, lcw, boe/moe...
The way Srikanth played, LHI had no chance to win. He would have mustered far more resistance, but smashes on or near the line as Srikanth was threading, no one can defend. My son and I watched the match and he was very sad for LHI, but I said, he didn't lose this match, he won 2nd place. Albeit, that was the game vs SWH, but when SK is on super form as he admitted in the post game interview (i.e. I am very happy with my game this week) very few could defeat him. Anyway, bravo to LHI for slaying all the giants to get to the finals and win silver!
This statement clearly underestimates the level of training required to reach the level of fitness and accuracy as LHI demonstrated this week. Yes, it is unlikely he will get faster (IMO, he was clearly faster in London 2012) but once you reach a high level, it still takes serious training to maintain it. As LCW and other older athletes attest, you go for quality, and less quantity. But this doesn't mean that that quality training is easy or even much. It just means it is less in volume than before when the younger body could take it. I for one would argue that overtraining is prevalent in badminton-crazy countries like China, et al. How else to account for many top level players who stop permanently because of injury? But such is the demand and competition to win both domestically and internationally.
The longevity of LHI goes to show that the quality of today youngsters are not comparable to a generation ago. When LHI came into the scene ,Rashi Sidek, Fung Permadi, Paul Erik Loyer Larsen , Sun Jun, Dong Jiong, Hendrawan were still playing. Xia, Chen Hong , Xi Ji Peng Peter Gade and Taufik were just coming up as youngsters. The last two were already beating the seniors. That was 1999 folks. Two decades later , top youngsters today are still being punished by LHI once in a while and which goes to show their skills are not that good.
I beg to differ. Are you sure no one can defend those smashes? You haven't been watching any of Lin Dan, LCW, Chen Long's matches ? and a few others who can or could do so (I'd like to mention Wang Tzu Wei among the young guns). For example, at the Rio Olympics Final, Chen Long was practically returning everything or anything thrown at him, so much so that LCW is forced to go for the lines and hence increasing the risk of mikstakes as there's little margin for errors. Don't suppose Srikanth can execute those tight on the line smashes all the time better than others can. Even Intanon Ratchanok and Tai Tzu Ying, just to name two,can do that too and still there are a number of female players who can retrieve them, provided they're fast enough for which fitness, specifically speed, is a precondition, and anticipation helps too. You avoided mentioning Lee Hyun Il being a spent force on final's day which appeared pretty obvious to most of us, objectively speaking. He was a different player in the previous rounds, apparently. I'm not arguing LHI would win if he takes on Srikanth in the earlier rounds when he's less fatigue, just saying he would put up a stiffer resistance and have a fighting chance as he had demonstrated time and again.
Justin, I didn't avoid anything. My response was in agreement to your post on him playing on empty legs. In fact, I quoted your post. Whether he (with a full tank) or anyone else would have been able to defend Kidambi's onslaught is a matter of opinion, on which we have differing views.