Because single players are more capable, and more competitive. As a single player, you have to take care of the whole court, while the doubles, just to protect the half. Single has to develop your own strategy, while double just follow the shuttlecock quickly. So when you play single, you have to use you brain, while for double, you need your eyes. So when you play single, you are like the commander at battlefield, while for double, you have to be a diligent soldier. A lot of top double players are converted from 2nd class single players with no future in single. Such as Cai Yun, Sun Yang, Zheng Bo, Fu H...... Sun Jun claimed several national double titles after retired from single, now Xia XZ will play doubles too. Koreans play doubles early, so that's the trick they succeed. That's good, but most people want to be the hero himself, it is very difficult to convince them to play doubles. Koreans like to obey orders, I guess.
I think your battlefield analogy is far-fetched and overwrought. I know a lot of very smart doubles players. The best are very good at anticipation and this is much harder in doubles than in singles because you have to anticipate the movements of two players. In singles, you can see your opponent and you know that if you hit the shuttle to where he's not, he's going to move there. That sort of real-time strategizing is much more complicated in doubles. You could look for reasons in Korea's legendary collectivist culture and say they play doubles better for the same reasons that they never split the bill in a restaurant or that badminton teams spontaneously do unison responsive cheers for themselves even when all the players in the gym are engaged in 8 different drills. On the other hand, you could just say that they have a tradition in doubles and not in singles. Maybe Korea produces better doubles players than singles for the same reasons that they produce better soccer players than basketball players.
Well explained event. Now the Koreans are actually find ways to produce more better Singles players. But of course we will not be able to see the results to far. In time we will.
actually, tactics in doubles are múch harder...you ahve to think double as much as in singles, in half the time.. doubles isn't just 'sissy-singles' or anything..it requires more tactics, speed, explosiveness and power... singles and doubles are worlds apart...andactually, I've met a lot of people who like doubles more than singles. (though I'm not one of them)
I think it is also partially matter of bad luck. I think Shon Seung Mo is a player with great potential of being top 10 if not top 5, however he seems to decline ever since the Olympics due to injuries if I'm not wrong. We also can't ignore Lee Hyun Il, formerly world no.1 and currently no.7 Probably becoming top Singles player is also great deal depends on the person himself and his personal motivation and that's why it's not fully in the control of any nation to produde top Singles stars, when in doubles hard practice seems to be a key factor. Maybe it also has scientific reasons like Koreans have better reflexes
