By latest batch you mean among Chen Long and Tian's batch (the newly crowned WJC & AJC)? I saw many new names among young CHina MS but havent seen most of them in play.
I disagree. First, if LD today (at age 26) is physically much stronger/faster than he was in 2004 (at age 21), then there must be something exceptional with his gene. Can you think of any other player that is physically much stronger/faster at 26 than at 21? I cannot. So the rational attitude should be first putting this possibility aside and look for other, more common, ones. Second, LD had difficulty playing Taufik in 2004-05 because of two reasons. First, Taufik is physically almost on par with him, and thus can keep up with his wild pace; Second, at this wild pace, Taufik has a finer touch. As a consequence, LD felt powerless and was lost on court. Nowadays, the first reason is no longer there. And we all know that if you cannot keep up with your opponent's pace, finer touch is useless. As I said, LD's not losing to lesser players today can be explained by experience and the luxury of choosing tournaments to attend. Let's analyze his previous losses. - 2004 OG to Susilo (inexperience), - 2004 and 2007 Malaysia to PSH (in SEA), - 2007 Swiss to Simon (3rd tournament in a row, too tired, triggered injury), - 2007 Singapore to Boonsak (in SEA) As you can see, all these losses can be prevented if LD has more experience and choose not to attend too many tournaments, and not to go to SEA -- And LD indeed has been doing these since 2008! On the other hand, how has LD been doing against top level opponents? Is there a big difference between <2008 and >2008? If he indeed improved much in every catagory, there must be. Let's see. Against LCW? No. Against Sony? No. Against CJ? No. Against PG? No. Against LHI? No. Against TH? Yes. But at the same time LCW (and quite a few other players) also did better and better against TH starting 2007-08. Therefore the reason must be TH getting weaker. (Yes, between 10 players improving significantly and 1 player -- who's getting old by the way -- getting weaker, I choose the latter due to Occam's razor principle) Summary: LD is more complete and overall stronger for sure. But I don't think there is significant improvement in either power/speed or technique.
before i start the course meal of ripping the shred of the content, let me enjoy the entree dish first. you see above quote, ye333 don't believe a 26 year old be stronger and faster than a 21 LD. Then he concluded that LD is overall stronger for sure. Then he said he didnt see significant improvement (power/speed) either. 1. can't see LD be stronger/faster 2. LD is overall better and stronger and faster 3. LD is maybe somewhat in between not so significantly better what's the beef here?
LD is overall stronger because: 1. He keeps the same level of power/speed (although my opinion is that his stamina is not as good) as when he was 21; 2. He improved slightly in technique; 3. He improved a lot in confidence and patience; 4. He improved somewhat in strategy and tactics; 5. He is much more experienced now. Is it clear now?
LCW. Lets eliminate the technical aspects of badminton and just take example from sports that are mainly physical. The 100m sprint record is held by Usain Bolt (record set at age 23 this year). I'm quite certain Usain will best his record in the coming years. If you look back at the records, you find Carl Lewis's personal best was when he was 30, and the average age tends to be closer to mid-20 than early 20. Current fastest marathoner is Haile Gebrselassie (record set at age 35 last year). Marathoners peak between late 20's to early 30's. You find similar trend in other physical sports like swimming, cycling and triathletes. Unless the genes of a badminton player is significantly different from other professional athletes, LD need not be genetically different to be faster/stronger now than when he was 21. OTOH, professional athletes may be genetically different from the rest of us. On top of that, they continue to train when the rest of us slack and choose to focus on our careers.
1. how can u say that. He is so over the top on his competitors that his stamina is rarely tested. Not seeing something doesn't mean it doesn't exist If u can agree, LD is doing much more long rallying than before, isn't this a sign that he has great confidence in his stamina??????? 2. hahaha, are u referring to his racket throwing technique?yes, i agree, liittle improvement in that dept. 3. yes, he is now immune to lcw, TH, PG, PSH, SDK. 4. Which gear of LD are u referring to, 1st gear or somewhat between 1st and 2nd gear? 5. experience correlate to amount time and tournament played. I view that lcw is more experienced than LD. LCW played so much his knees is creaky now. PG is older, more experienced than LD. WCH, lot more experience than LD. TH played less than LD but someone told me he is blessed/gifted with talent and experience so amount of play time to gain experience is not required. See, these competitors have alot more experience than LD
In my opinion, Lin dan doesnt bother be World No 1 anymore, yes i agreed now he is more all rounder player, certainly i believe he is even better than Yang Yang , zhao jianhua & Sun Jun now. From What i see , he is more targeting major 5 star tournaments like Suirdraman tournament, All England, Thomas Cup, World Championship and China Masters Li ning Open, Olypimics . The rest of the tournament he can let his team mates like Chen Jin , Chen Long, Bao Chun Lai go for the grabs...
Substance = having all the big titles nicely arranged in one's trophy cabinet. Syiok sendiri = having no big titles in one's trophy cabinet except for a voucher from BWF stating that you are the MS WR#1.
I have said that many posts before i.e. LD is saving his leg mileage for the biggies and set a bar so high that would be very difficult for anyone to even come close to in future...the way I see, LD has a 1-2 year window of ruling supreme...WC, AE, OG are his in the next year or 2, OLY a maybe as he will be 3 years older and still a force to reckon with if LD plays OLY12...the real challenge is not from the rest of the world but from his teammates...much like table tennis where the current top 5 are all from CHN, and there is fierce fight among them with open warfare, no fixing and who knows, there may be many more great TT players from CHN that we have not known yet. Badminton is heading the same path as TT, i.e. CHN domination.
There is nothing much to argue , Lin Dan is currently the best player in the world and will be for the next few years at least ! PG,WCH ,TH , LCW they are all competitors but they just are not as good as Lin Dan
LOL, thats a good one mate ! The only thing that determine how good a player is is how well they perform in Major tourneys !! WR#1 who cares , all you need to do to get your ranking high up is to play more tourney (especially the smaller events) than the other players and get mediocre results shocking how the ranking system is based upon on
LD is now 1000+ points behind LCW. According to BWF website current ranking, LCW ranked first with 80371.06 pts whereas LD ranked second with 79144.58 pts. If LD were able to grab the HKO and CO title, I think he can get back his WR#1 before 2009 end. Haha... LD jia you. Hope you can get back you WR#1 before 2010 comes.
that's me when LD wins a title, LD can't stop bwf adding points to him.......it is just one unpleasant side effect of winning
I know he doesn't care, haha.. but I care. No la, just joking. Even he dropped out to WR#100, he is still the WR#1 in my heart. He just could not be replaced by anyone currently.
