I Still say Mental strength cannot be remedied. Yes it can be bypassed and helped to forget, but it will still be there underlying it. It is interesting that this ARG tennis player couldn't win anymore majors - perhaps his mental battle could not be continually fought? I think having a sports psychologist is very important to be a team as at the top level this is what makes the difference.
Mental strength is like Talent... If you have 10 out 100 mental strength, psychologist might help you to 20/100. not that they can help you to 100/100
if talking about mental strength, isn't LCW's case similar to David Nalbandian, the Argentinian tennis player, can beat the world No.1 on his day, win Masters Series titles, but comes to the Grand Slams, fizzles out...
Problem is with BAM for employing psychologist, mixing east with west culture didn't fit well for LCW. Employs "DUKUN" like the Indonesian used to in many sporting event.
Come on...pls dont insult INA....we do not use Black magic to win golds...if we do, we will sweep all titles..... In this case, Thailand and Jamaica will win many titles....
Cool Technique??? it means Black Magic or Voodoo....thats an insult as MAS could not win more medals than INA....may be INA is more inteligent in this case.....
ohhh, lol. I better step aside between u 2 then I'm seeing 2 powerful forces colliding, boleh versus dukun !!
Tine is just a challenger, she just needs to fight. PG is not a challenger. What PG needed is the experience of winning big finals. That's the way to build inner confidence. You have to "been there done that" to be truly confident. Li Lingwei once said, if she knew Susi would be so dominant, she should not retire that soon and should try to "hold" Susi for a few more years so that new Chinese WSs can mature. But in reality she retired and Susi got the chance to reach the top of the world and developed the confidence of a true champion.
I didn't understand the first (bold) part of your post....sorry not very bright It is Chicken and egg though, If PG can't win because of mental weakness, then how can he win to overcome it?
When you are a "challenger", it's easy to know what to do (easier to set goals, easier to measure improvement now and then, etc.). Just train hard, fight hard, try your best to beat this guy, that guy, blahblah. But for PG, he was long time world No.1, he beat all the major opponents now and then, sometimes even beat the hell out of them. But in matches of great importance, he lost no matter how hard he tried. What's wrong? He didn't know. On the other hand no one else could possibly figure this out for him. Yes it is kind of a loop. If you are not a champion, you don't have the heart of a champion; But if you don't have the heart of a champion, it's hard to be the champion -- but not impossible. Here is where "luck" plays a role, it pushes some people up while drags other people down (For example, CY/FHF didn't meet any of their nemesis in 06 WC -- MK/HS lost to the English pair, and CCM's father passed away; Also we all have seen many people argue "what if TH met BCL in 04OG".). Also, when I call PG's injury an unlucky event, I was not saying it makes him weaker (although it in fact did). I was saying this injury prevents him to utilize 01-03, the period when Hendrawan was retiring, TH was injured (and then bickered with PBSI), and LD hadn't appeared yet. This is a precious time slot for PG to complete himself but unfortunately he got injured.
I see what you mean about challenger now. Sorry. So now Peter G is now a challenger he should be able to win the WC, AE, OG then? Since he is a way off the top players. I agree about 200-2003 being pretty void of talent. Hendrawan was on the wane (and as much as I love him as a player he was not a fantastic standard compared with now and pre 2000), there were no CHN players to speak of and INA players were in transition. But are we then saying PG had to exploit this time to win? If so then he can't be classed as a great (Which IMO he isn't anyway, but there you go).
Yes PG is now a challenger. I don't think he is worrying about his "choking in big finals" problem anymore. And being a challenger doesn't mean you can win, it just means what you need to do is less elusive. What I am saying is that such a "vacuum period" is a chance for PG to change from good to great, but unfortunately he got injured and was not able to even give it a try. If he tried and failed, then we kind of know for sure that he does not have the heart of a champion. In fact, LD enjoyed a relative "vacuum" period in 06 and 07. Especially in 07 when TH and LCW thinking about retiring (and LHI indeed retired!) and CH left the national squad (which means his level of training dropped severely). LD took this chance, won his 2nd WC and finally got the heart of a true champion. Similarly, Susi took advantage of the "vacuum" period after LLW's retirement. IMHO people needs a bit of luck to finish the final step and reach their true potential. If TH chose to train hard after 05WC for one more year, LD may still be frustrated by his "weak mental"; Suppose TH met BCL in OG04 and lost, maybe he would just retire without any big title.
I mean if they use it....as jamaican/Thailand has more powerful Black Magic......then they will win big time...thats not irony...
The match reminds me of Serena Williams vs Maria Sharapova @ Australian Open 2007 Final. Serena was totally on top form and there's nothing much Maria could do to prevent the inevitable beatdown.
The problem of mentality among the badminton players in Malaysia is nothing new. Its the same problem that Soon Kit and Kim Hock faced during their Olympic final match... we know the problem but yet until today most players are not aware of the importance of psychology in badminton. Basically, the coaches do not have these knowledge and skills on how to help the players to achieve peak performance and handle pressure. I mean, they should start from young , it's very hard to change the player's mentality (pattern of thinking) when they have matured.... especially those who outstanding players. They don't believe in sport psychology and they thought that it is useless because they can reach a high level without it. Sometimes, the psychology mental trainer might have the knodledge but they fail to relate to the athlete's experience and emphathize their feelings. The player's personality development is very much influenced by their experiences and sometimes positive and negative rewards can motivate/ demotivate them. Of course, there are other factors in developing a person's personality but it's a pity that for some reason, coaches might not care if the player's attitude and behavior turn good or bad with these experiences. They just want result and have this mentality "sacrifice 10 in order to produce a champion". The bottomline is... educate the coaches first and teach the players the important of sport psychology in reaching peak performance from a young age. Mental strength is not the only problem we have. Look at the team spirit of other country and compared it with Malaysia... we are too individualistic. How come? Because the association employed too many "sacrifice 10 in order to produce a champion" coaches that wouldn't care about the rights of these players to reach their fullest potentials. Look at how the current state of the national team... they don't even train together. There are ugliness of bribery and corruption as well among the coaches and it is nothing new. Some even involved with the bookies. One would argue that these problems also existed in other countries as well. These arguments is liken the comparison of petrol prices in Malaysia and any other oil producing country. It does not justify any excuses but will blind us from the truth. Many problems remain unsolve because the players still producing results. So they assumed that there is no problem. The involvement of politician in the association is not good for the sport. If we look at the bigger picture, there are many things (weaknesses) they are trying to cover and they cannot accept criticism. Sounds familiar? Problems cannot solve- leave it or just pretend it is okay. I won't be surprise if Chong Wei appear together with the politicians in Permatang Pauh for election campaign. It's very hard to change unless they come out with a systematic development plan for the future players.
