Which is exactly what with HyoJung. JJS was also older and did his own thing. After that it was a different dynamic.
Yeah I think YYS was more willing to stand his ground than Ko who seemed to listen to everything LYD said
Ahsan don't have strong smash but his mad angle is too much for the opponent. That's what make their partnership success. YYS have a good smash though..
Ahsan's angle wasn't good at all. What was good about him imop is similar to what makes Gideon effective - strong lateral movement, relentless attack, the ability to smash quickly 3-4 times to get the shuttle shorter and shorter until the defense makes the mistake of playing into his partner's range. Both Ahsan and Gideon are players that can really drag the pace up, usually above something their opponents are comfortable with, and open up opportunities for their partner to vary the pace by playing a soft shot into the right place. The two pairs are incredibly similar in their roles, with the difference being mainly that KSS enjoys a higher pace and plays more extravagantly than HS, whereas HS has such a good feel for the game and great anticipation so that he just seems to stand in the right place almost all the time. YYS's smash was good, no doubt about it, but not a mad Top5 smash. FHF, KSH, even Xu Chen - all harder smashers. He had a very good smash, but other strengths as well which made him a good partner for LYD in an Era where the service situation and flat play were incredibly important. Also solid defense against fast drives, made him good against Ahsan/Setiawan as Ahsan plays with little variation.
ahsan's smash angle are quite good but his variation from the back was IMO his best attribute. ahsan/setiawan never really use power to break lyd/yys defense, more of constantly changing the pace in their attack. I think ahsan/setiawan are the pair who had the best record against lyd/yys (6-7) amongst any other pairs, correct me if im wrong.
I saw more of their other matches I guess, and Setiawan always had great variation in pace. When they started out, Ahsan definitely didn't vary the pace or placement a lot, just smashing smashing smashing...but he developed a more varied game, although I remember it to have been quite smash-heavy even at the end. Might be wrong about that though.
you should watch ahsan/setiawan match against lyd/yys in thomas cup 2016, ahsan playing with a lot of variation in that match...just beautiful attacking game.
You may find that varied pace inside Ahsan's smash. He didn't deliver his smash in a constant speed, sometime it maybe a half speed & power smash combined with the faster one, insert a dropshot in between his smashes to break the rhythm of the smash defender. Whenever it's a great chance to kill, Ahsan put his full smash to end the rally. The placement of his smash is also the another factor. You could also add the deception drive shots from Ahsan. Yeah, Setiawan present the variety of that pace in a easily way to notice since he's the playmaker. But as the smasher, Ahsan do his variety of pace in his own way. It's just a tactical thing to overcome the stronger physical pair. For some badminton fans, it would be great if they watch men's double matches featured many full smashes penetrating their opponent court. And suddenly, it's become not too interesting to watch when the strong physical pair having a match against contra tactical pair. As @melon94 said above, Thomas Cup 2016 is the example of that match.
Gideon’s strength is not just in his ability to smash hard, but his ability to smash hard continuously from any position. Ahsan had a strong first and second smash but would tire quickly after that. He wasn’t known for his angles admittedly but did vary his smash more than Gideon. Ahsan was also surprisingly useful at the net as well, as is Gideon. As we all know the king was FHF, primarily for his powerful smashes but as effective as it was, he did have some weaknesses which the Koreans exploited. He would often make mistakes while moving late towards his forehand side to smash – quite often into the net. He was actually more consistent on his round the head than he was late on the forehand side. Gideon on the other hand can smash from any position and has the stamina and speed to sustain it. The difference in power between FHF and Gideon’s smashes was not massive but Gideon puts a lot of effort into his smashes, giving it everything (like Ahsan does) whereas you can see that FHF doesn’t give it 100% particularly during his later years. YYS was always a bit of an dark horse in the smash department. We all talked about how good JJS’s smash was when he partnered LYD but as good as it was, it was arguably less effective than YYS’s smash in that YYS would usually do more damage with his first and second smashes whereas JJS would often need a few to be able to get LYD into play despite having good power. YYS has incredible accuracy with his smash he would often pinpoint his opponent’s hip from any position and this is the basis of its effectiveness imo. He had slightly better angles than JJS and would occasionally go for the lines but he could not sustain the heavy smashes for as long as JJS but was it as powerful as JJS’s smash? Difficult to say categorically as they were never measured side by side but it would be close imo. But JJS definitely had better “smash stamina” and could smash hard time after time, which KSH was also able to do. We also mustn’t forget that LYD when he started to partner YYS was a different player compared to the LYD when he partnered JJS. Not only was his smash far weaker and less effective with YYS, he was definitely slower and less consistent in the midcourt. During his time with JJS, he was like a brick wall, very rarely made unforced errors and had pretty much impenetrable defence and was much faster. And although we would all love to see LYD make a comeback, having seen his form decline gradually over the years and being out of training for so long, I personally do not feel he would be able to challenge the KSS/MG even if he re-joined the national team now.
JJS smash varied according to the days of the week Unreturnable on Friday Lethargic on Saturday Pretty menacing on Sunday and Slightly average on Monday.
the constant increase in speed of the game today makes a comeback too difficult for anybody. and his defense is the most underrated of all the great md players. his returns were always deep. Nor can I remember the last time I saw anybody smash through him or jam him at the hip.
You could see the '8 hrs a day practice' work in his defense even though he wasn't the most natural of defenders out there. But smash wise, he is up there with no one else.
Watch some FHF/CY vs LYD/JJS then, you'll see quite a bit of it there But in the later days, his defense was pretty damn great for someone who doesn't seem to be all that natural at it (other just seem to find places to block the shuttle effortlessly all the time)
Hmmm I'd say they were pretty even, JJS had some absolutely horrible plays in the net area as well at times, especially in the 2009 WC final iirc
This is where I feel YYS is underrated. He clearly isn't a natural at the net, but he is actually quite useful in not giving much away when at the net. His standard low serve return of dropping it back at the net is very consistent and often very tight. Which is good enough in order to maintain or get the attack in a sub-optimal formation. FHF was also a lot better in his last few years, no fancy shots at the net, just bog standard safe shots that doesn't give anything away.
