I wouldn't go as far as blaming them...also pros are used to very quick shuttle these days, usually 1 speed faster than we use
I might. The slow shuttles were one of the reasons why minions lost to Han/Zhou and indirectly endangered Liu/Zhang's position as CHN MD#2. Unacceptable!
haha I think in the finals they are just not lucky and not relaxed enough, luckily they lost not in a major tournament, its good for them to strengthen their mental now
Of course ZN is unhappy they shouldnt have 2 young pairs trying to threaten and unsettle him while he is still playing XD.
Couple of years back a clubmate went to the ntl. championship and couldn't keep the shuttle in the court for the first game at all, despite the hall being infamously slow...of course I'm not saying that they play faster than us because of the shuttles or anything, just that they might sometimes be a little pampered as far as shuttle speeds go. Try playing in our hall in the winter with Oliver shuttles, then rethink if you really need to complain about the FO shuttles
Calm down, girl. I am sure that Liu/Zhang wil wake up considering that Han/Zhou threaten their position. No way someone like Zhang Nan let himself surpassed by the young pairs. His motivation will go up for sure. I still believe him.
How much can a motivated Zhang Nan do without reliable partners? WC Bronzes. And that they lost to younger CHN pairs in SF both XD and MD. He should achieve more with reliable partners. No idea why is it so hard for the coaches to get him a different partner. Is it really compatibility issues?
Oh well anyway next will be Fuzhou China Masters and Hong Kong Open. Their opponents in R1 are Lee/Lee and Endo/Watanabe respectively. Tricky opponents, I just hope minions are fit enough to compete.
a note regarding one of many bwf shuttle regulations: 3 speeds of shuttles must always be kept on hand, due to varying conditions day to day. i always found this to be misleading (and almost pointless) because any pro (or high level amateur) can make all 3 speeds land within the test zone. some referee's have been known to spike some matches, as in give wd & ws faster shuttles in hopes to speed up the tournament. i kid you not. the players have no recourse to dispute the shuttles given for play.
Pros hit the shuttles through, just like anyone else (usually just before the session starts, but they used to sometimes change shuttles once during the day as the crowd warms the hall), although I can imagine the referees deciding that based on the conditions.....would be a fairly simple matter to make a matrix for this based mainly on temperature (although pressure and humidity can also play a role). And the hitting-through method has obvious flaws, there's a guy in my region who used to demand that you bend every 2nd feather outwards when the shuttle was fine or even on the slow side for you, and the discussion on that could last for minutes me, I tend to prefer the shuttle a bit quicker than most of my team mates, but obviously there's no lengthy discussion about it in training...
Sigit is his former coach in Djarum Kudus club. I think it's just as easy like that. And even Christian Hadinata mentioned that there is Sigit's DNA inside Kevin's playing style (source in Bahasa).
Congrats to minions for their 3 consecutive finals in Fuzhou. Sad that Liu/Zhang didn't make it but happy too that minions made it through. It was a close game and good start by Liu/Zhang. They were playing the right game and were doing so well exploiting Marcus while LC was pretty solid. ZN made haste in G2 and cost them a few critical points. In G3 LC no longer able to keep up and ZN couldn't stop minions by himself (unlike the match against Goh/Tan). Minions got lucky but they did quite well considering. Marcus could hold himself more than LC in G3, unfortunate for ZN. Kevin not fooling around and not messing up didn't help the CHN pair either. Well, they are facing He/Tan tomorrow. This time I am going to root for them 100%
Congratulations again to minions for their hat trick in Fuzhou China Open. What a year for them. While the other top pairs are struggling, they could remain consistent. And I am sure it is not because of their striped shirts. They got lucky this time He/Tan weren't at their best in the final. But it was a close game all the way. Marcus didn't do that bad, I guess we can't expect both of them to be in their top condition all the time, but I feel that Marcus could improve some aspects of his game in slow conditions. Kevin did well at the back, he is getting better with his smashes but lack of patience at times. My favorite of this tournament is of course their match against Liu/Zhang. Especially when Kevin shouted that urgent "out, out, Out , OUTTTT!!!!" call to Marcus just before G3 interval. Lol. Never heard him that distressed. I think he would have really gotten upset if Marcus had took that shuttle. Always enjoyed their match against Zhang Nan and I really like how Kevin performed yesterday. Hopefully they can face each other again soon (maybe with an upgraded version of LC or different partner).
I think he/tan were playing well, especially he jiting...they're surely much closer to their best compared to minions who clearly far from their best (especially gideon). watching all 3 minions matches against 3 chinese mds since french open it's clearly the tactics from the chinese is to attack gideon time and time again, and its really effective. he really need to improve his defense especially counter attacking defense, he just can't rely on kevin all the time to make counter attacking shot. agree on kevin part, need to be more patient...sometimes he goes crazy from the back court and get countered. In the future hopefully minions could be more smart when playing someone who can match them in the fast play, just focus on controlling first, playing more block shot, etc. they did that very well since the second game so need to keep that on mind.
Congrats to minions on their second career hattrick. Hope we see lots more from them over the next few years.
