Ridiculous argument, btw, but also someone posted statistics elsewhere that China has surprisingly few athletes playing badminton (i.e. not middle-aged accountants), in fact not even more than some other nations. It's always the excuse of others, "Waaaah, China just has so many people, they just throw people at the problem and randomly someone gets good", but in elite sports, it's a ridiculous statement. You need to spot and develop the talent just like everyone else.
Indonesia is much worse I think, I can remember 2 of their singles players suffering potentially career-ending injuries bit too long ago, and their players also seem to have much more weight problems than any other nation's. Sometimes you're unlucky, or the player doesn't tell you about an ache or small injury, especially in highly competitive squads... Lee Chong Wei once told a story in an interview, how he got left at home with a small injury once and afterwards stopped telling coaches about smaller ones to be sure to play the tournaments and not get left at home to rest. I imagine the same thing can happen with other players, and some of them should have rested and get injured seriously when they didn't.
I can see the point you make about the future prospects for badminton players. But I disagree on the point that there are not enough good players taking up the game. At junior level China is the best performer and the current crop of senior players comprise many from the junior level except for MS. Its not the lack of players in that department. I can name quite a number of them ranging from 16 years to 21 years of age. They are not being exposed to the world and do not seem to get representation compared to the other disciplines. Just looked up my list and there are 18 juniors already playing in tournaments. I figure that number of MS is greater than most countries. And that doesn't include others that comprise the various age groups in the squad. Why is this?
On the one hand, it's true China doesn't have a huge talent pool to tap into for professional athletes; on the other hand, for what she has, the current crop of juniors , CBA is not sending enough of them regularly to as many tournaments as available, esp the smaller events,in order help them gain more international exposure and facilitate their growth and development, as that's what is needed to realize their potential in the shortest possible time which is what their foreign peers are doing.
Shi yuqi lacks in stamina. It was clearly seen asian games. No chinese players in chinese taipei open
The competition among the new crop of tigresses is rather fascinating to watch. He BingJiao seems having the most badminton talent. Chen XiaoXin is perhaps the most physically gifted (in a Lin Dan-esq kind of way). But as unlikely as it is, the leader of the pack at the moment is undoubtedly Chen YuFei who is good at everything but does not look spectacular at anything. Gao FangJie had her moments from time to time but is still a hard one to figure out. Cai YanYan has also elevated herself dramatically in her game and her looks but still self-destructs from time to time. Added to the intrigue is the new coach Luo YiGang. All the players now seem liberated to be more adventurous on court. If nothing else, the Chinese WS troop surely will be entertaining to watch, on top of an already very exciting WS scene. Good times ahead for badminton fans!
This tournment system is a miserable one unlike the past one most of the top 10 ranked players are not in the qualifying range for the year end finals till now
Great observation!! Agree with your analysis of the WS. The new coach seems to know what he is doing. The ladies are improving at every tournament. If they can reduce their unforced errors and also have more patience they can cause a lot of problems for the top players. One thing that the coach should emphasise playing against the Japanese is their drop shots. Get ready for it. The trio of CYF, CXX and CYY are the great to watch as they have exciting new shots. Now they don't appear to "collapse" playing against the Japanese. In fact they are beginning to give them a hard time. Fun.
There seems to be too many WS players now. LXR will find it hard to make a comeback especially with standout juniors Wang Zhiyi, Zhou Meng and Han Yue waiting in the wings. Maybe they should consider LXR for WD. She’s quite fast and has a fairly decent smash. Could be a good partner for Zheng Yu. For MS, I think they should cut their losses with HYX and QB. No point flogging dead horses. Without meaning to sound blasphemic and with no intention to elicit an outraged backlash, I think LD should go too to make way for younger players.
I wonder what did li/liu said in post match interview after that disgraceful performance in the final..
Two promising young mens doubles pairs for china. Han chengdkai & zhaou houdeng were better than he jinting & tang qiang in junior level. But he jinting & tan qiang performing better than them in senior level. These two are well built & athletic players. They also fast & powerful.
They have a very poor record against kevin & gideon. They can beat any other pair but they are unable to beat kevin & gideon
It is impressive that after a brief unstable period, China quickly found 2 dominating XD pairs once again, just like they used to have in Zhang Nan/Zhaoyun Lei and Xu Chen/Ma Jin. I don’t see the rest of world catching up anytime soon. I do hope Wang/Huang have better luck winning titles than Xu/Ma.
Where do you think LD should go? It's not like he is doing anything to halt any younger players development, he's not taking anyone's chance. He is just there basically staling and still the younger players couldn't go pass him in the World rankings. Him being MS3 alone has won the team Thomas Cup and Asian Game Team Event Gold this year. Not his fault that the team is still needing him. Though I personally hope he could go independent and play on his own will without any ties to the team.
Much as I'm a big fan of Lin Dan, my realistic assessment is he will not go to Tokyo 2020, simply because he will probably be kept out of the running by remaining as CHN's MS3, if not lower, by the qualification deadline,that not for want of trying.
Really like Li/Liu's game play. Very strong attack and flat game. Quite astonishing to me that their h2h with the Minions is so ominous.
It's what happens when your opponent is even better at your strength and you can't outdo them significantly in other areas
You might have a point with the flat game, but I think the Chinese can attack harder and better, well, better than Kevin that is.
Forget about getting ahead in the race of qualification. ATM, I don’t think Tokyo Olympics is not there in his mind. LD is more about what HE wants Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
