Upon deeper reflection,I'm afraid He Bingjiao is also facing the same problem as Shi Yuqi, she is lacking in tenacity, willpower and determination, simply no fighting spirit in the way she lost G3 to Tai Tzu Ying at the French Open. It was reported that after HBJ lost G1, then equalized with G2 only to lose the decider tamely, 8-21, Zhang Ning was dismayed ,looking glum. Similarly as for Shi Yuqi, I think Zhang Ning would've to work on HBJ's mentality more.
In the QFs against Carolina Marin today at the China Open PSS, He Bingjiao came close to winning it, holding matchpoint 20-19 in the 3rd set after one game apiece, 15-21, 24-22, but lost the deuce 20-22. In terms of skills, I believe HBJ is as good, if not better, than CM, but loses out in terms of speed and fitness/stamina. Glad to see HBJ has fighting spirit but I think her mental strength is somewhat wanting, not as tough as Marin. I trust the Chinese coaches, Zhang Ning and assistants, and the Singles Head Coach, Xia Xuanze, can draw the right lessons from this grueling, hard-fought match, and know what areas to work on He Bingjiao's game. Imho, I'd emphasize more on HBJ's mental aspects of the game and her speed of movement rather than techniques as she is a talented, creative and thinking player who is able to develop her strokes tactically coupled with her natural inclination to deceptiveness for which only the occasional pointers from the coaches are needed as and when called for. As for her proneness to errors, I hope to see her mature as a player and grow out of it soon just as Tai Tzu Ying has done the past one year after the initial years of her career during which she was also very prone to errors. Consistency is key to success at the top. Frankly, I like to watch HBJ play very much and consider her highly gifted but her lack of consistency as exhibited in her propensity for error at this stage of her young career is a serious concern, if the shortcoming is not addressed as soon as possible and with the competition in Team China so keen, I'm afraid she may be crowded out by her fellow teammates several of whom are very promising, such as Chen Yufei esp, Chen Xiaoxin, Cai Yanyan, Gao Fangjie, Zhang Yiman, Han Yue, Ji Shuting, Wang Zhiyi, and, who knows who else may emerge anytime. That would be such a waste of her talents and opportunities. Don't forget, her renowned compatriot, Li Xuerui, is intent on making a comeback next year, and so does Sun Yu who is presently rehabilitating from her injury therapy,particularly it bears repeating there are only two Olympic tickets to Tokyo 2020. He Bingjiao, time and tide wait for no one, strike while the iron is hot, make the most of your youth and talents. Live with no regrets. Go for it. You can do it. All the best. Jiayou !
Allow me to say this, He Bingjiao is slower than Marin because of their respective build, HBJ is bigger and heavier while Marin is thinner and lighter, which means HBJ has to train harder on her physique to become leaner and stronger, hence able to move faster.
See that, He Bingjiao ? Chen Yufei already threatening your position, then last week we've Cai Yanyan showing her potential, now it's Gao Fangjie, first disposing of Sindhu then Marin whom you came near to beating, at the rate these two junior teammates are going, you will soon be relegated to 4th place in the national team. What about the rest of your fellow juniors? I say, your situation is getting precarious if you don't pull up your socks soon. You've been forewarned.
What talking you, HBJ already won two last year. At her age 20, don't be too quick to write her off as her talents are unmistakable. Even Tai Tzu Ying in her early years were very error-prone and inconsistent until the last one year or so when she matures to what she is today. Let the future tell for HBJ.
XS?. Xue song was a good player. I would have added Qiao bin instead of xue song. SY is ok. But she lacks that x factor to take titles. She has beaten everybody . When she won against Saina last time after losing so many times against her, she was in tears. That's called dedication. THW , after seeing against LCW , I thought his career is over. He definitely not in the league of top players but because of his consistency , he is staying in top 10 for long time. Sent from my SM-G600FY using Tapatalk
If Lin Dan and Chen Long go to Tokyo 2020, I guess Shi YQ, Huang YX and Qiao Bin can retire next year too.
I have a feeling He Bingjiao has no sense that badminton is her professional career, not just an ordinary job to earn a living where she simply report for work every day as required to fulfil her duties and responsibilities. If she is not clear about her aspirations and lack ambitions, I'm afraid she's not going to make any more breakthroughs after having done so last year when she grabbed three titles in two months, that is two SS and one GPG, until she realizes what she really wants in life. Just look at Zhang Nan, a veteran already already and so accomplished, yet he never ceases to learn and still as demanding of himself as ever; every time he makes a mistake, he will chide himself as I've seen him doing so on court several times. Having the right attitude and self-awareness is , in my humble opinion, what she needs to do most as she is clearly a highly gifted player. Let's hope she doesn't wear her coaches' patience thin. And if she carries on like this being so inconsistent and error-prone as well as somewhat lacking in speed and stamina, it won't be long before she is overtaken by a few of her up-and-coming fellow juniors. As it is, I opine that she's being surpassed by Chen Yufei and Gao Fangjie, and, don't be surprised, soon a couple others like Chen Xiaoxin, Cai Yanyan, Zhang Yiman, and even Han Yue, Wang Zhiyi and Ji Shuting, not to mention the 16-year-old Zhou Meng, all of whom are one to three years younger than her. He Bingjiao, high time to do some serious soul-searching, deeply reflect on yourself, and once you find the answer, strive on with diligence and in relentless pursuit of your goals in life with single-mindedness of purpose.
He Bingjiao had better cherish the opportunities given by CBA, esp Zhang Ning who is still very keen on grooming her to be a top player as she acknowledges her talent. I suddenly remember how Li Yongbo got to know He Bingjiao when she was just a 15-year-old girl playing at the province of Jiangsu. He and her parents are golf club members and personal acquaintances and once watched HBJ played badminton and found her to be very good at it. My point is HBJ's parents must be considered well-to-do for being able to take up golf as a recreation or leisure activity or , perhaps, for business networking purposes, for I doubt the average person can afford such a relatively expensive sport even in China, the second largest economy in the world. So, it might be, I'm guessing, there's no grave concern nor sense of urgency for HBJ, the only child, to do very well in her sports career for , who knows, her parents may be business owners who can well afford to let her dabble in the sport for a few years out of passion than anything, with a position in their company ready for her in future to fall back on. Just saying and speculating. CMIIW.
At the MAS Open'18 WTS750 Quarterfinals today, He Bingjiao was as much as 17-5 up in G1 and almost screwed it as she allowed Akane to chase back to 18-17, merely one miserable point behind ! Luckily it's Xia Xuanze alone sitting on the coach's bench, if it were me, my blood pressure would shoot up with me seeing stars and in a fainting fit. Nah, just kidding, not worth letting her undermine my health, have better things to do in life. I supposed Xia Xuanze is personally taking charge of her and, perhaps, giving her an ultimatum - shape up or ship out. Zhang Ning probably surrendered hence her absence here, not sure what Luo Yigang can do when she and previously Chen Jin couldn't. The way I see it, HBJ's problems - inconsistency and proneness to unforced errors and/or lack of focus - a stumbling block in her career, lie more with herself than anything, which I attribute mostly to do with her mindset and related physical conditioning. While she may be still young, relatively speaking, at age 21, if she carries on for too long without addressing the root of the problem, it will stymie her progress and even cut short her career, a wasted talent, that's all. I recall that the first time she made the badminton world stood up and noticed her in the pro circuit was in 2016 when, aged 19, she captured three titles in two months, viz., the JPN Open SS, the French Open SS and the Bitburger Open GPG, and then , all of a sudden, she fizzled out, lost her mojo and went without another title for almost two years now. All I can say is, her destiny is in her own hands , not her coaches or anybody else's. May she make the most of her chances at the ongoing MAS Open'18 where she overcame the formidable Akane Yamaguchi today to advance to the semifinals and go on to achieve another big breakthrough in her career. All the best, He Bingjiao. Jiayou !
Well. well, He Bingjiao , you raised my hopes again. Yesterday , you beat Akane in two straight games, today you did the same to Intanon Ratchanok in the semifinals. What about tomorrow against Tai TY, presently the best WS in the world ? Just one more step to lift the MAS Open trophy and you're on your way to better things to come, I believe. Go for it ! Jiayou !
HBJ's performance on court are like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. You literally have no clue what you will get. I wouldn't have bet a penny on her reaching the finals with that tough draw ahead of her. Her only chance against TTY tomorrow will be to beat her in straight games. If she loses one game, that will be it. No way she has enough gas in the tank to be able to seriously pressure TTY throughout three games.
Yes, she can't afford a three-setter against TTY. As Steen Pedersen commented, which I fully agree, she has to improve her physique by at least 5 - 10 % (more preferably, imo) and coupled with the fact she's still improving, that's the scary part, I hope he's right on that aspect too. I believe if she has the discipline, motivation and ambition to be World and Olympic Champion, then we should see her scaling the summit in good time as she is such a natural talent and only needed hard work to achieve astonishing accomplishments.
He Bingjiao, after dropping G1 when holding three gamepoints to lose 5 straight points to TTY in the final today, was pathetic in G2, a pale shadow of what she was the previous rounds, overcoming Akane Yamaguchi and Intanon Ratchanok in two straight sets each. She was a spent force and went down tamely in humiliating fashion, 11-21, would've been worse if not for TTY going easy on her. If I were the coach, unlike XXZ, it's no use talking to HBJ about tactics in G2 when I knew she's drained - so what , her mind understands but her body is weak. I'd rather assign a physical trainer to personally work on her physique and report to me on her progress. Having a physical trainer in charge of a group of players working out together is not good enough. Even Lin Dan at his current age has his own personal trainer. Still he sometimes struggles, particularly in the later rounds. However, a personal trainer paid for out of his own pockets can't be too hard on him. But for one paid for by CBA and takes instructions from the Head Coach, it's a different story. Even then, I've admit, it's ultimately up to the athlete herself. If a personal coach is assigned to her and she is still not willing to work hard or sometimes skive, what can the coach do ? Kick her out? I mean , when the only thing holding HBJ back is her shortcoming in physicality, what's CBA waiting for ? A shame, such a glaring weakness, and almost unthinkable that the CHN coaches let her get away with her suspect fitness for so long, about two years since she transitioned from junior to pro circuit. Either they overlooked it when she started doing quite well at age 19 in 2016 when she actually captured three titles, 2 SS and 1 GPG, in two consecutive months, or they thought she's still young and give her more time to self-reflect and get over it herself; whatever it's not improving, in fact, it's become almost a bad habit of hers struggling with fitness issue which actually stymied her progress. It's high time the coaches put their foot down and go to the root of her problem and resolve it once and for all. No more excuses for her, it's both the coaches' and her responsibilities to tackle it finally.
To be honest and fair, I have mixed feelings for He Bingjiao's defeat to Tai Tzu Ying in the final of the MAS Open '18. OTOH, HBJ proved she has the game to beat TTY in G1 despite losing the deuce after being three gamepoints up. OTOH, HBJ's lack of fitness and stamina was clearly evident as she went down pathetically in a lop-sided G2, 11-21. Just look how fit Tai Tzu Ying is, which I consider largely attributed, at least 50%, to her spectacular rise to the top these two years. Her remarkable improvement in physique contributed to her considerable increase in consistency, accuracy in shot making with remarkably low rate of unforced errors, excellent court coverage and retrieving ability, incisive attacking shots and quick follow-up, overall demonstrable self-confidence and inner belief. Remember the past when TTY used to make all sorts of easy and unforced mistakes, and retire or withdraw from or during matches and tournaments once too often, as a result her tournament records leave much to be desired even though she was considered a child prodigy. Now what a transformation has come over her as she developed her physicality and mature as a player to reach at or near the summit of her career at age 24, which promises to stretch further for a few more years to come. As for He Bingjiao , I see no reason why she can't do the same for she is just as naturally gifted and the only thing holding her back is her less than optimal physique, a drawback that time and again hindered her progress and prevented the realization of her fullest potential. That said, the ball is her court.
