After a few recent SS, I have the feeling that Tomboys will dominate in women badminton. With the dratical improvement in rackets and strings, badminton become dominent with speed and power, skill comes second, especially in women events. Actually, it is the same situation in man's event too. BCL could have been a great player if he lived 10-20 years ago with his text-book like footwork and stroke. It is kind of sad that we will loose the beauty of skill in every sports where only musles maters.
BCL is currently world No. 3 and is afraid of no one but LD. If we push back 20 years, I don't think he can beat ZJH or YY or Frost. If we push back 10 years, I doubt that he can beat Gade or Sun Jun or Hendrawan. Personally I think he is around the same level as Luo Yigang (10 years ago) or Wu Wenkai (a bit less than 20 years ago).
Kinda Agreed with you. But, seriously, badminton is not as attractive as it was before. I found myself fell in sleep recently when watching the game live. May be it is only a side effect of getting old?:crying:
I think many of us has neglected one big part of today's badminton when comparing to the old days. And that's agility and physical fitness. I agree that player like ZJH, Frost, YY, Gade and Hendrawan has really really good skills but I doubt that they have the fitness and speed of LD and LCW of today. For a better picture, I think TH is the best role figure of "skills & technique" type player of today's badminton. But it is not hard to seeing him get edged out by of the power and speed of LD and LCW slowly. Yeah, I agree that it is not as good to watch where I always liked the beauty of TH's stroke than the raw power of LD's. But I guess that's the way badminton is transforming to and we'll have to live with it. In conclusion, it is not tomboys that will dominate the woman's badminton, but whoever that is stronger and quicker on the court. And hopefully that person would be as pretty as CM.
In terms of power and speed, YES, the tomboys should dominate WD. However, they lack of height. The same goes for CHN WS, they have excellent skills but lack of power (compare to TINE). So, I'm hoping an European pair with height n power to match the tomboys
With OSS, it's very unlikely for BCL to beat the 4 Heavenly Kings 20 years ago. With NSS, BCL can match them and possibly beat them. IMO, BCL is one level above LYG and WWK.
No need to worry. Me too, fell asleep when watching badminton matches, more so when the players are not among my fav.
In 2004 a already slowed-down PG (at age 27-28) could still match LD -- although LD won their encounters, but if you just randomly watch some points without knowing the score, you could not tell who is the final winner. Even in 2006, when PG was too old to match LD anymore, he still beated LCW convincingly in Thomas cup. I don't think the lightning-fast PG in 1999 will have much difficulty dealing with LD or LCW's speed. As for ZJH, watch his 1985 AE final with Morten Frost, and see how agile he could be! TH got edged out not because LD in 2007 is faster than LD in 2004, but because TH in 2007 is so much slower (and weaker) than TH in 2004. Another good example is CH. Just watch any match of LD vs. CH. They are pretty evenly matched.
Ｉ am not saying that "power & agility" has absolute advantage over "skills & technique" players of the old days, but they do have that slight edge IMO. And you pointed out yourself, although it was close but LD still has the upper hand even when he was facing the 04 PG. And PG isn't slow by any means, but just not as fast as LD and LCW and doesn't has their retrieve ability. I don't think TH has slowed down much either, but since day 1 I think LD vs TH was on a 2:1 or 3:1 winning ratio. And look and the recent match between TH and LCW, he simply got drained out by LCW in one of the longest rally, even when Frost mentioned TH's backhand has saved him alot of energy, but we can see that fitness plays a big part in modern badminton and is one of the main key for victory.
basically LD had improved in every department since his lost to TH in 2005 WC while TH, PG remain more or less the same level. I use to hear people back then saying LD only has jumpsmashing going for him since he is way subpar in quality strokes, netting, backhand clear, deception, mental strength when compared to TH, soni D, PG, CH, etc. LD might not be A+ in every of the above catergories but he sure don't have those weakness anymore. LCW is another player who has made significant improvement over the past 2-3 years.
Should not we talk about Women double here? why suddenly we atlk about CH, LD, and all MS here.......
