Jiangsu v BC at RichmondPro pics

Discussion in 'RichmondPro Badminton Centre' started by madbad, Feb 7, 2007.

  1. madbad

    madbad Regular Member

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    MS pics

    As promised more pics...
     

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  2. madbad

    madbad Regular Member

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    Match report by wood_22_chuck

    Report graciously provided by wood_22_chuck. Thanks :)

    Jiangsu Team Visit: RichmondPro
    This was my first glimpse of the “superteam” from China. Sun Jun’s team. Jiangsu Provincial team. The promise was that you would be dazzled by superb skill and athleticism.

    RichmondPro’s schedule for the Jiangsu Team exhibition was from 6pm to 9pm. Driving into the parking lot, I couldn’t help noticing the CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) van parked off to the side. Wow! News coverage? For badminton? Maybe they’re lost looking for the hockey rink, was the thought going through my head.

    I put money into the donation box, and walked over to courts 9 and 10 in the middle of the hall. The Canada Winter Team was warming up, and Sarah Kong was being interviewed by the CBC reporter. A little later, while she was warming up with overheads and lunging for drops, the CBC crew was following her back and forth with a large handheld TV camera. Uhmmm, you should be pointing the camera at the Jiangsu team, dude. That’s Sun Jun courtside behind you, Mr. Reporter.

    That’s when the Jiangsu Team showed up on the far side of the hall and starting sparring and warming up. The Team consisted of 6 men, and 3 women players. Since I don’t know their names, I’ll make up something up to refer to them:
    CurvyLady: I use this because it’s a euphemism (I Googled) for “chubby.” By the same token, you can call me “curvy” woodchuck.
    GraciousSmileLady: Always ready to smile and gracious at every opportunity, like when hitting a frame shot, or making a mistake on court.
    SinglesLady: Movement, physical build very suited for Women’s Single.

    CurvyLady and GraciousSmileLady are clearly doubles players and partners, since their physical stature, movement and strategies are doubles-oriented.

    Now for the men:
    DoublesRightHanded
    DoublesLeftHanded
    SpringyShort
    SpringyTall
    SinglesShort
    SinglesTall

    It’s quite remarkable to see that the players’ physical build matches up to their specialty. Both DoublesRightHanded and DoublesLeftHanded are big, stocky and muscular.

    SpringyShort and SpringTall are also doubles players and partners, although they are different because physically, they resemble Lee Chong Wei, tall, skinny but very, very, very, very, very, very, very quick and fast. Did I mention they were quick and fast?

    SinglesShort: what can I say, he plays singles, and he’s short, 5 foot 8 (170 cm) but covers the court well with speed.

    SinglesTall: One step to anywhere. Plays very fluid, and very relaxed in all shots, even smashes. A joy to watch. If you ever want to watch grace in strokes and perfect technique, put out a request to anyone who recorded this guy in action and post up on any one of the public video hosting site, like YouTube or GoogleVideo.

    Man, I wish I could hit like they do, the girls and guys of the Jiangsu Team. Effortless and graceful. But anyone can look great during warm-ups. On to the games.

    After the introductions, things finally got underway by 7 pm. The format was:

    Two Women’s Singles
    1. Sarah Kong vs CurvyLady
    2. Alice Man vs SinglesLady

    Two Men’s Singles
    1. Tim Ma vs SinglesTall
    2. Richard Liang vs SinglesShort

    One Women’s Doubles
    1. Phyllis Chan & Melody Chang (unsure of last name) vs CurvyLady and GraciousSmileLady

    Two Men’s Doubles
    1. Alvin Lau & Toby Ng vs DoublesRightHanded & DoublesLeftHanded
    2. Derrick Ng & Kyle Holoboff vs SpringyShort and SpringyTall

    Two Mixed Doubles
    1. Don’t know. Didn’t stay to watch.
    2. Don’t know. Didn’t stay to watch.


    Women’s Singles
    Both the Jiangsu Team members, CurvyLady and SinglesLady were not in any trouble at all by either Alice nor Sarah. CurvyLady and SinglesLady did not experience any pressure situation at all, having possess the power, skill, fitness, strategy-mindedness of any shots that Alice or Sarah attempted.

    I’m sorry to say, the difference is like night and day. If they wanted to, they could’ve chosen to close out the singles matches very easily. But I’ll say what’s on most viewers mind. The Jiangsu Team must be under orders to provide a “good exhibition” or some sorts, as they held back on plenty of opportunities. Look for my next report on the VRC exhibition for one Jiangsu player that must have missed the briefing or instructions.

    The fast clears, followed by sharp drops, then the back-breaking low push or clear regiment that seems to be the staple or method adopted by the Canada team posed no threat at all. But CurvyLady and SinglesLady court coverage were excellent, not to mention their superior fitness. Whatever Sarah and Alice could do, they could do better, and in addition, incorporated deception and variety-of-shots to their game.

    And if that wasn’t enough, CurvyLady and SinglesLady could smash at will. Their fitness saw to that.

    Men’s Singles
    Team Canada won both their singles game. Why? I would hazard a guess that both SinglesShort and SinglesTall are inexperienced or the most junior of the Jiangsu Team.

    I’ll say this though. Richard Liang was pushed to his absolute limits againsts SinglesShort. Three sets. Three close sets. SinglesShort fitness is again superior (surprise, surprise) pulling out smashes whenever he wanted to. Both players were playing in rhythm, and kudos to Richang Liang for being able to neutralize SinglesShort smashes with nice blocks to the net and keeping the rally alive.

    Second singles. Now this was surprising. SinglesTall had very nice strokes and techniques, but somehow lost both games to Tim Ma. Tim looked like the more experienced player in this game. Not much I can write about this game since this was played on the far court, and I was concentrating to Richard vs SinglesShort game. SinglesTall had a lot of unforced error which was quite uncharacteristic given the hype of super-team of Jiangsu Province. Sun Jun’s Team. I think there’s a lot more room for improvement for SinglesTall, and he comes across as a player-in-training.

    Women’s Doubles
    Melody has the power, but not the agility, so catch her out of position, and wait for the barbeque pork/meat/whatever to be served up.

    Phyllis has the speed but not the power, so catch her out of position, and wait for the barbeque pork/meat/whatever to be served up.

    Which is exactly what the CurvyLady and GraciousSmileLady did, with predictable results.

    A rout, no fight.

    Men’s Doubles
    The most exciting and anticipated game of the night. DoublesLeftHanded and DoublesRightHanded vs Toby and Alvin. Boy, are the Jiangsu Team Doubles tough or what.

    What stood out the most, again, was how reserved DoublesLeftHanded and DoubleRightHanded were. These guys were absolutely sticking to the “don’t embarrass the Canadian Team; don’t smash; make it a good game” briefing or something. To see players of this calibre at this fitness level and with muscles (DoublesLeftHanded) NOT SMASH or half-smash is painful, sinful or not fulfilling a duty, seems like. Anyway this is my opinion. Disclaimers at the end of this post.

    At every serve that Toby or Alvin did, these guys were right there, stepping up and meeting the shuttlecock more than halfway between the service-line and the net, but all, read this, ALL their returns where soft pushes off the the side. No sharp punches downward.

    Again, these guys were under no presure at all from Toby and Alvin. The reflexes of DoublesRightHanded and DoublesLeftHanded were superb. Calmly meeting and short-swinging any pushes, or smashes directed at them and pushing the shuttle down the sides.

    Any high lobs directed at DoublesLeftHanded and DoublesRightHanded were half-smashed down, and one or twice a “hard” smash was performed. I think I counted like four of them in the entire two sets they played.

    Second doubles on the far court. I’m sorry to say this, but Derrick had his work cut out for him, as his partner’s shots were sub-par for a competition of that level, court coverage was poor, neither covering his section well, nor covering Derrick’s when out-of-position. Derrick was playing against three in that game. Results? Predictable.

    SpringyShort and SpringyTall are amazingly quick, but lacking power compared to DoublesLeftHanded and DoublesRightHanded. These were doubles-in-training squad, whereas DoublesLeftHanded and partner were bona-fide players. I cannot stress how fast the Springy duo are. But read my upcoming VRC report of how SpringyShort completely destroyed and decimated Richard Liang the next night.

    Mixed
    Didn’t stay to watch, since I had seen all the Jiangsu Team members play, and unless Sun Jun was stepping up to play, I figured I’ll watch the mixed game the next night at VRC.

    Disclaimer
    The badminton community in Vancouver is small and familiar. I also understand that members of the Canada Winter Games Team read this forum, and that some items I wrote about reflects negatively on them. Also, parents of the Canada Team are active, contributing members of the forum who might not like some things written here, or the accuracy of my account.

    So flame on.

    “Dave, I’ve seen you play. You suck compared to (any member of Canada Team).”
    Yes, I’m well aware of this. But I’m not playing against the Jiangsu Team anytime soon.

    “What gives you the right to comment negatively on (this member of Canada Team)?”
    When you play publicly, your game shows up publicly. Good or bad.

    “Show me proof that the Jiangsu Team is holding back.”
    Sure, let me open up your eyelids.
     
  3. azn_123

    azn_123 Regular Member

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    Amazing pictures!!!! I wished cbc filmed ALL the matches but I highly doubt it.:(
     
  4. madbad

    madbad Regular Member

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    More pics–WD and MD matches
     

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  5. chickenpoodle

    chickenpoodle Regular Member

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    i recognize two individuals.

    Ruan Rui Feng and Jiang Wei Hao.

    we can see them post #4 by MadBad
    one is the guy in the black yonex shirt (first photo), and the one sitting down against the wall (second photo).

    don't ask me who is who... but they're both supposedly doubles players.

    interesting to see how the one in the black shirt is playing singles... (maybe explains why people thought he was a player in training? a specialized doubles player dont' often excel in singles... but interestingly enough, he did dominate at VRC the following night?)
     
  6. Growler

    Growler Regular Member

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    If you're talking about the one in the black shirt (Post #4, first pic, his back to the camera, looking to the right), that's the one wood_22_chuck called SinglesTall. He lost his match to Tim Ma at Richmond Pro, and didn't play singles at VRC the next night.

    The one sitting against the wall (Post #4, second pic, fingers interlaced over his knees, looking to his right) is SpringyShort. He's the guy that beat Richard Liang in what was undoubtedly the match of the night at VRC.

    -j
     
  7. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Good that you put this disclaimer in. Ahh, it's no shame to know your level and know areas of weaknesses to work on. China used to send their junior squad (or was it their B squad) to play friendlies in England. Usual result was China winning the series against the senior England squad.

    Interesting report - I quite enjoyed it.:)
     
  8. westwood_13

    westwood_13 Regular Member

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    Loooove those photos.

    I was looking for my friends who were there in the crowd, but alas, could not find them. Although, they should've stuck out, given that they aren't asian, heh. I'm jealous that they got to see those matches!
     

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