Era for An SY is taking off.....beware the rest of the field. Similar to LD LCW era at this young age.
I believe the Korean team has been using this method for a long time. I remember videos on the news of Jung Jae Sung training on sand, back in the day.
In cool kidz on the block from 2013 they visited taenung village and I believe the sand court was shown then
No sandbox in this one but it's a much longer video, with appearances by two Ji Hyuns and a Soo Young who now calls herself Girin.
https://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2020-01-09/doc-iihnzhha1358651.shtml (Just want to translate two points in the Chinese article) When asked what she has learned from Wong Tat Meng (ex-Malaysian coach now working for KBA), An Se Young replied: "Wong Tat Meng is currently coaching KBA's men's singles, but before that, I was under his guidance and have learned some tactics and certain things which I could never have learned in Korea, I felt I've benefited a lot from him." On the question of who she idolizes in badminton, An Se Young answered: " In Korea, my badminton idol is Sung Ji Hyun. She has for the sake of KOR women's singles been persisting until now, she has also taught me a lot of things, and has all along been helping the younger generation, therefore my idol is definitely her."
I have no doubt An Seyoung will outdo her two predecessors, Bae Yeon Ju and Sung Ji Hyung. In fact, during the Tokyo Olympics, she acquitted herself creditably in her match with eventual gold medalist, Chen Yufei. ASY despite her 19 years of age showed maturity and steadiness in such a high-stakes match, so impressed was I that, though she went down in defeat, I commented in the Tokyo OG thread that at the rate she's going, she might well be one of the contenders for gold in the next Olympic, Paris 2024, And, added, who knows, by next year, she may even be fighting for her maiden world title. But ,for now, Akane Yamaguchi has in their last encounter at the DEN Open'21 title bout exposed a glaring weakness of ASY's that brooks no delay in addressing, that is, her fitness level leaves much to be desired as she was totally drained in the deciding 3rd set, almost risking injury and forced to quit the match prematurely while trailing far behind. That's most certainly one crucial aspect she must work hard to improve upon, urgently. By the way, forget the previous match they played in the Uber Cup'21 which she appeared to dispose of Akane summarily in two straight sets for , as we now know, it was Akane who gave it to her in a strategic move to conserve energy for the next day's presupposed Uber Cup Team final clash with Chen Yufei, which Akane won in style. Similarly, to further illustrate my point was the aforementioned Denmark Open clash. Anyway, that's not the main point. An Seyoung has a bright future ahead of her, a star in the making. Way to go. Keep it up!
In passing, I'd like to take this opportunity to make a special mention of Heo Kwang Hee, whose exploits since the Tokyo Olympics when he stopped Momota's quest in the preliminary rounds was nothing less than spectacular as since then he has gone on till now to surprise us by some promising results, not least of which was his second defeat inflicted on Momota in the Thomas Cup. To me, Heo Kwang Hee is a more interesting and exciting Korean MS to watch than his retired predecessor, Son Wan Ho. I believe he will soon earn a thread dedicated to him here. May he grow from strength to strength.
An Seyoung, even though you failed to avenge last week's defeat today on Akane at the French Open semifinal, which is to be expected, I feel you acquitted yourself better this time. To me, still it was a remarkable performance, a considerable improvement, not just in the scoreline but overall, more proactive, a bit more attacking, improved rallying and even better retrieving as well as anticipation. In the end, I attribute your loss more to fitness than other aspects of the game. Keep it up. You're making steady progress.
She's a grinder. Like CYF, CL, and the ultimate grinder NTM (Nguyen TienMinh). Boring but often effective. Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk