I watched the French Open tennis final between Nadal & Federer and I was simply blown away by Rafa's attitude and drive on his way to capture his 3rd successive French Open title while at the young age of 21. And I sincerely think our Malaysian badminton players and sportsmen in general should emulate and learn from a top notch guy like Rafa. Rafa has won 3 grand slam titles so far and have been in a total 31 finals and have won 22 of it, and he is still as hungry as ever. The boy is very young, won numerous titles, has lot of money and yet he is as level headed as ever. He is all business when on court, no matter who he is playing against, you will never see him playing to the gallery. I personally feel sick in the stomach when I see for example our KKK losing his focus after winning a few titles. I guess it is a Malaysian disease - whenever any of our sportsmen/women win something big, they get showered with praises, given titles and the end results is always them losing concentration and then fizzling out. We just never, never learn. Is it a Malaysian mentality thing? In badminton, the WC is just around the corner while the Olympics is less than 12 months away. Do we actually have a serious contender for that elusive Olympic gold?? Just my 2sen ...
Oh yea man, Rafa rocks...the key is motivation. The willingness to give up everything and want to do well...not just well, but take it the whole nine yards and wanting to do the very best. Training and coaches can only do so much but it is the heart and spirit of the fighter that makes the difference. rafa faced one of the best tennis players of our time, some say, in Fed ex and showed no fear. Just the look in the eyes in rafa tells us so much, the dude was all fired up. Then u have some of our players who goes tru the motion of the game. NOw, I did not watch the resent match between mas and eng mens doubles, but the scores showed a fight, nor am i acctually refering to just them, but malaysian badminton players in general could do no wrong watching nadal's semi finals and final matches in the french open. (Yep I am a Rafa fan)
how the heck do you play to the gallery in tennis anyway? double motion? come on you have to think rationally not just blurt out anything.
Playing to the gallery means showboating. You underestimate certain 'weaker opponents'. Agree with your 'think rationally not just blurt out anything' theory. As such, suggest you do likewise.
Wat r u referring to? Did u watch the match btw our boys vs england anyway? According to YKH, KKK/TBH did not played badly nor playing to the gallery, but the Eng pair just outperformed them, thx to Tam Kim Her.
Duno about the sudirman cup, but i saw most of the matches KKK/TBH played from the asian games to the all england....recently the seem to lose the fire that took the badminton world by storm a few months ago. While ppl like Rafa or Fed Ex seem to be fired up to win all the time. THAT may be what Pemuda was tring to point out. The inner fire is what seperates winners and champions.
I dont think anyone did say KKK/TBH played to show off during the Sudirman CUp. SHOW OFF or play to the Gallery have no association with KKK/TBH.
come on, guys... try look at it on different view... how many times did kkk/tbh beat cy/fhf...doha, AE, SO...three times in a row..in MO, cy/fhf was beaten by another MAS double (i'm not really sure what their names are)... did chinese people blame cy/fhf personally? i dun think so...and now look at them..back in shape again... we won't win all the time, and we won't lose all the time, as well... look at chong wei...he's trying very hard to be in his best form again.. even lin dan was beaten by simon santoso... see my points? its a matter of strategy...i think what we should do is support kkk/tbh all the way, and hopes that they would think of something to improve their games...like what cai yun and fu haifeng did... besides, talking about losing and winning...when cai yun and fu haifeng lost to kkk/tbh, kkk/tbh were not even the top 20 doubles... now, kkk/tbh lost to ENG's pairs who are the runner up of World Champ, rite... it's not because kkk/tbh lack of determination, it was because the ENG double is finally living up to their names and achievements... so, kkk/tbh needs to work harder...practice makes perfect....
I've the chance to work with Asian & Europen. I must admit there are certain quality of profesionalism that european has that we asian lack. When they do their job... they really focus on it. I guess it goes same also as they involvement in sports. and there are not usually affected by the public comments. I am not a scientist not sure if it goes with their genes or their upbringing? That's why u always see wonderkid from the west but not from the east. Maradona, Pele, LJames, Messi, & etc. but we also have our TH. I see Japan & Korea are catching up in the mental departments but other Azn country still thinking abt physical improvement. My initial thought was that we Asian are moderate ppl, we are not actsy & We lack self believe but self believe is very essential to be successful in sport. We need some LCLY players to be BIG! The players doesnt need to talk BIG but must believe he is the VERY BEST!! JUst my 2cents.. Cheers
not all malaysian players starts losing focus. look at nicol david. yeah, she hit a slump for a while. every athlete have to go through that sometimes. but she is back. she is focused. and our diving athletes are focused and show good results on a regular basis. maybe not winners like china, but they have been contender all the same. and i think KKK/TBH will get over this slump. as long as they work hard, losing is not the end. only when they play like they would rather be somewhere else, will i be throwing in my towel on them. malaysia's sportsmen and sportswomen frequently disappoint us fans, but i will still be behind them. just maybe, not cheering so much as standing with my head down. but behind them nonetheless. nadal, well, he deserves the win as any hardworking athlete does. and hardworking he is.
I am saying that our badminton players and sportsmen/women should take a leaf out of Nadal and emulate his success. In short, there is no short cut to success. You dont just take the foot off the pedal after one win. You need to be level headed, focused and driven to stay on top. I did not watch the game between Msia and England. But the fact is given our badminton history, funding and infrastructure for the game in Msia, we should have beaten off England. In short, in football we are not expected to beat England but in badminton, we are EXPECTED to beat England. Now for KKK/TBH, lets me clear here. After their win at the Swiss Open, cant you not see their performances have dipped tremendously??
Maybe when the govt and public stop showering our winners with gifts and praises then they wil start to be more professional......msian public truly have the 'lalang' effect.....when they win, lots of support....but a few losses and they are shite and get criticised.... now tht NSC is thinkin of cutting the govt sponsorship which i fully support, i think tht will spur them on..... the reason the tennis players(and golf) are so focused is bcoz winning is their bread and butter...its their one and only career.....if our badminton players dont win tournaments, they are stil getting paid.....so unless the govt and public do somthin, we hav ourselves to blame
Nicol David is a top class squash player. She is world class. But for a sports loving country like Msia with excellent infrastructure and government funding, dont you think we should have a couple more like Nicol Davids?? Look at our national football team, we are like at the bottom of the bottom. We used to beat Japan & S Korea in the 70s and early 80s, now look at us and Japan/S Korea! Even war torn countries like Ivory Coast made it to the WC and we are struggling to beat minnows like Laos. Look at what happened to our badminton players after the Thomas Cup win in KL in 91. Some of the players even went bankrupt. We dont have a Thomas Cup to show nor a WC title or an Olympic Gold. Even USA won the WC men's doubles. Even sepak takraw, we cant even beat Thailand and are finding it hard to fend off Vietnam even. Hockey?? I wont even want to get into that. Why are we so bad?? I believe, as long as we, Msians continue to accept poor results and then coming out with excuses, we will continue to lag behind.
well pemuda....before you start blaming the athletes, you have to look at the people behind it ....sports is now a business .....unless it is run properly, a lot wont happen.... you also have to look at the culture 20-30 years ago and the culture now...i dont believe malaysians accept poor results but is anything done after the poor results....i knw the malaysian govt have loads of plan but is it executed properly.....it is all abt execution.... I sincerely believe if malaysian is to be a world beater in sports, you need professionals to run the sports associations and not politicians or people that dont even kwn the ins and outs of the industry.....sports is now a billion dollar industry....
I agree with you on the professionalism but I will add one more thing called desire. Money is important, make no doubts about it. But when top class athletes like Federer, Nadal, Maradona, Lin Dan are out competing I believe, they want to win titles/trophies first. And if you win them, the money will come along. Last Sunday, when NAdal played Federer, I am sure whats on Nadal mind then was to win that French Open so that he can be amongst the greats i.e. winning it 3 times in a row. He was not thinking about the millions of USD. He knows the money will come later after the win. And the best thing about true champions like Nadal is that despite having millions of USD in his bank, he will still come onto court hungry as ever. And this is what our Msian sportsmen/women should learn.
Well badking, why are we having politicians running our sports associations and not professionals managing it?? I tell you why, it is because we, Malaysians allow this to happen by continuing accepting poor results, poor management and favourtism. As long as we continue to vote in these politicians , what do you expect? What do you get when you put a couple of monkeys in a cage = you get monkey business Agree sports is now big business and it is a jungle out there, meaning we got to be competitive or else we will be eaten alive. In badminton, for all the money poured in to develop the game dont you think it is a little poor showing as we still dont have an Olympic gold and the last Thomas Cup win was like 15 years ago??
yes, i agree that we should have more nicol david since our sports facilities are one of the best in the region. but you see, the people running these facilities are mainly sports uneducated politicians. and by sports uneducated i mean they are not trained to make good judgements in sports administrations. i agree that politicians runs sports bodies all over the world but in malaysia, it seems that these politicians pay more attention to building the best sports facilities rather than building sports talents. so more show than substance. what we need is sports development in the earlier stages. school kids. groomed from young. build up their passion. train them to focus and not just to win money. our footballer back then played their hearts out for their country. i guess some of our players now also play for their country more than for the money, but i think very few of them exists. what we need are athletes that love the game, trained well from young, athletes that will want to sang the NEGARAKU at olympics and work hard towards it. Australia was once not a great sporting nation but they have a solid sports development programme now. and look at their athletes. competing with the best of them. so in conclusion, world class facilities will just remain as beautiful buildings until we do something about putting world class athletes in there. and sports mad nation will just be another sports mad nation and not a champion until we put sports interest well and above personal interest and political moves. how about we put former athletes and coaches in charge of sport in malaysia. how about giving them a chance to plan our sports' future minus the heavy-handed interference from politics minds. give them 10 years. give them support in this period. let them do what they think is best and see the result. if we are still at our current level after 10 years, then we should let the politicians take over again. and accept the facts that we will never be champions or at least a world contender.
Sport = Money Long has gone when the time sport = passions! I mean profesional sports. Now is all about money. Why we got politician running our sport body? IMHO Govrnment subsidy sport development, so there is a way for them to channel the money for their own use. Msian is sport crazy, by being head of some sporting assocation, politician are better known. More effort is put into facilities than atheltes because you can suck money from construction of facilities but u cant suck from athletes..
