anybody else watched the China Open '03 match between Lin Dan and WongCH in details? has anyone noticed the differences between that game and other typical MS games? from the outset, i noticed that hey, Lin isn't really playing too seriously, he didn't look like he was too into the game, as if he wasn't too interested. on top of that, i think he was a little bit show off and arrogant in some of the shots, he wasn't too keen on chasing down some shots, and also made a lot of really extravagant and outrageously brave moves. it was as if he didn't cared and was just screwing around. but yet, the more i watched the match, the more i noticed, but he does care, he still does his signature Lin Dan type dives and whenever he decides to smash, most of the time it was devastating. and while he looked as if he was just strolling around the park, it may be a disguise to his really fast footwork and very sharp anticipation. in fact, in many rallies, he was making Wong dash from corner to corner while he looked like he was only leisurely pacing around the court. then i realize, this may well be a new tactic. it is a psychological move. Lin was just playing with Wong's mind. he posed as if he didn't care, too much, making extravagant shots and arrogantly lifting way way high shots for Wong to smash, giving him some sort of attitude. however, in between the very relaxed and leisure movement of Lin, sometimes he will in a split second with immense speed, rush behind the shuttle, and nail the shuttle to the ground. a few years ago, we noticed that Chen Hong has something similar, he will make a run of points from a few rallies, but will then slow down, lose a few more points, and then he makes some runs of points again. Lin appeared to have brought the concept, further, he varied his pace within a rally from a leisure stroll to sudden acceleration and power. whenever he sees an opportunity, he will suddenly flick on the switch and wham. and then he will flick it off again. he was playing with Wong's mind, with suddenly speeding up and slowing down of the pace of the game, in fact, not just the pace of the game, it was almost like a sudden change of attitude towards the rally, but it'd suddenly change in mid-rally. he seems to be making Wong constantly guessing, will he be suddenly accelerating, or just play those simple don't care shots? what happens if i lift now? on top of that, he is playing more psychological game, he contested at least half of the shuttle change that Wong requested. whenever he is supposed to pick up the birdie, he will let Wong do it instead, and or he will flick it real high up in the air to return the birdie. but full credit to Wong, he wasn't too bothered by it. he keeps his usual poker face throughout the game and acted just like a gentlemen, without the smile, but gentlemen none-the-less. throughout most of the game, Wong was playing his usual rush rush smash game, but in a few rallies, i did noticed perhaps Wong was affected by Lin, he too started playing some dont' care shots. the linesmen and service judge wasn't helping Wong either, calling his service fault in a few crucial moments. if i am right with my observation, perhaps Lin and/or the Chinese coaches are now playing with a new tactic. a psychological variation and not just changing the pace of the movement, but changing the pace of the mind instantly in a short moment of notice. this keeps the opponent guessing. and if the opponent catch it wrong, then he falls into the trap. his rhythm has effectively been destroyed by his observation of his opponent. but it doesn't come for free either, one must have very good racket skill and very very strong fundamentals. Lin's movement around the court and his anticipation is one of the best, and when he actually accelerate, his attack is lethal, he also has a lot of variation. without which, i don't think he would be able to pull off such tactics. or am i just completely out of my mind?
Interesting analysis!! I've not seen the whole game but from what I saw, Lin Dan was very good at changing the pace and intensity of the game. I've already used this sort of tactic as a player (when I used to play regularly in singles), against a young and psychologically weak opponent : Looking like you're playing it easy, without bothering (and getting your opponent to run as much as possible), but accelerating the points whenever it is necessary (at the moments when your opponents loses concentration for ex). In the first place, I started losing a big serie of points because my opponent was very concentrated and playing very good offensive play. Once I started "reading" his shots better, I started alternating "easy" defensive play (as if it were a routine, making him run from one corner to another) with sudden accelerations at the moments where he seemed to lose concentration. The match was very long but in the end, he was completely demoralized and I finished by winning the last points without any difficulty! You need a very good defensive game though, and good anticipation. Otherwise, this tactic may be catastrophic!!
mm well..i must say i like your observation even if its a little off.. i think i have learnt something new from this topic.. something which i can use in my game as well.. thx..haha~ yeahah!!! im the next lin dan~
So, who won? I personally don't like unsportsmanlike behavior like contesting a shuttle change or not picking up the shuttle. Very bad form. Badminton used to be a gentleman's sport, think of the players in the 70's - 80's. I just saw some old videos of Liem Swie King, Prakash Padukone and Morten Frost. Watching them makes me long for the good old days.
- Did you happen to watch the 1981 AE between LSK and Prakash? I have seen a short clip of the 1980 final betwen the 2 which was never shown on BBC. All that is available of LSK today is showing him at his worst after 1981, history has never done him justice.
Lin Dan is good enough to beat Wong Choon Han without playing any mind games. His weak point is that he is relatively inexperienced at the very top level, but this will improve with time. Lin Dan, Xia, and a few younger players in the Chinese team are the new batch of young players specifically coached by the great maestro master Tong. Lin Dan's game against Wong was based on Tong's game plan, but not the antics which are Lin's natural personalty. Lin's victory salute reflects his military background as he is a Chinese PLA soldier. Did you notice that most of the Chinese singles players of the 2000 Olympics have been dumped and replaced by new and younger players? Indonesia used to have great singles players but not anymore. Master Tong was at one time the singles coach for Indonesia until a few years back. Tong was an overseas Indonesian who returned to China in the 60s and formed an all conquering team that literally put to shame the great Danes of the day, like Earland Kops and Sven Pri with scores of 15-0, 15-0. Without him Indonesia will be left behind by the Chinese in singles.
actually kwun, i kind of noticed a similar devil-may-care, swashbuckling attitude from Lin dan in the HK open final against boonsak polsana... in the first set, lin played at a very intense pace that polsana was unable to follow and quickly won it 15-4. however in the second set he looked bery complacent, just let some shuttles go, played some fancy shots and kept swithing his racket (changed at least 4 times in the course of the game) as a result, polsana took advantage of this to level the score in the third set, lin was more stop-and-start, like against wong ch in the china open, sometimes strolling, yet instantly punished polsana for any slack lifts etc, and won the game overall. I think it may be a combination of lin's showman attitude and the tactics of hte coaching staff... however, i remember in the japan open final 2003, lin vs xia, and it was xia toying around with lin then, winning a string of points, then relaxing to give lin a few points, then tightening up again, so i'm really not too sure about whether lin adopted the same attitude later on as a result..
The Lin Dan vs Boonsak Polsana final in the HK open shows up Lin's inexperience. Boonsak Polsana is a great defensive player and the only way you can beat him is to play an extremely fast game to. After Lin lost the 2nd set he was ticked off by his coach master Tong and told to play a fast and furious game in the deciding set. This he did and Boonsak was completely exhausted and outplayed in the decider. Lin has to control or temper his flamboyance and instinct to be a little of a crowd-pleaser. But then this what the fans come for!
taneepak, Tong is no longer coaching the singles players. he is now focusing on the doubles players instead. Li Yongbo wants him to revive China's weakness which is men's doubles. the current coach for singles is Zhong Bo. you see him sitting next to Li Yongbo on matches. but in general, agree, Tong is a magician.
When did this happen? No wonder the Chinese are showing real improvements in doubles. But Tong is not known as a doubles coach. In fact Li Yongbo, presumably, has better credentials than Tong as a doubles coach. Maybe they will need him to fix their mixed doubles too, as the Chinese are now being whitewashed by South Korea time and again.
Tong Xin Fu started to coach men doubles about one and half year ago. Coaching doubles is not new to him, if you remember ladies doubles Lin Ying/Wu Dixi, Xu Rong/??, Ling Ying/Guan Weijing and also the Indonesian ladies doubles around 93 - 96. As a player, I believe you should have watched him winning the doubles title in HK Invitational back in the 70's with Lin Shiquan. Also together with Lin also won other tournaments such as Asia Championship also back in the late 70's. The Lin/Wong singles match watched some highlights. What Lin impressed me is in my opinion his maturity. He played a very patient game moving Wong around and only going for the kill when he felt suitable.
da ding, interesting you mentioned the Japan Open match. that was a great match. one of my favorite.both players showed their power, speed, control, one of the best matches with all the elements of the best men's singles. as for Lin Dan, i felt that he held back, somehow he just wasn't paying 100%. neither physically nor mentally, as if something was bothering him. i could not tell if that was deliberate or not however, the China Open, it was more obvious that he was indeed trying to not try. Xia's performance in Japan Open was just Xia, very fancy, full of style and power. i felt that he may not have won that match if Lin was more into the match... still a mystery to me.
The Chinese team has been accused of being unsportsman-like, especially when 2 Chinese players have to battle each other in the quarter or semi-finals to meet a non-Chinese player in the next round. One of the 2 Chinese players will be asked to throw away his match so that the chosen one will be fresh and ready for his next round non-Chinese opponent, who will probably be exhausted in his previous battle. But there are no rules against such game plans.
Never seen Lin Dan play before...heard alot of good talk about him, hope to see him in the AE this year.
taneepak, the unsportman-ness you mentioned among Chinese players happened majorly in the old days. Back then there were instances that a player (or a pair, say to speak) was asked to give up a match for a better results from the whole team. This happened across the spectrum: not only in the badminton arena, also in other sports too, such as Ping Pong. However, it stopped at least ten years back. Maybe not completely, but that's when the "wind" started to change so individual players were paid more attention to and given more credits. I have not seen this happen for a long time.
The incident I referred to happened in last year's World Championship which was won by China's Xia. Some participating countries voiced their discontent.
In WC2003 the Chinese were not only accused but found guilty and fined. That was for the Women's Doubles though. But as you mention Xia, he did have an easy looking win over Lin Dan (15-10? 15-3)on his way to victory. I'm not trying to take anything away from him, because he played some marvelous badminton to win the title.
