Hi, I watched the Sudirman cup last night ... and I think this girl has a potential ... The way she plays exactly the same like Susi Susanti ... She will have to improve her net skill + gain more experiece in order to beat China players ... If I am not wrong she is either 17 or 19 years old. I hope she is "THE ONE" ...
The real deal Yes, I think Chrstin is a real deal. I think she is faster than Susanti but still very green. PBSI needs to groom her properly in order to step on the footstep of Susanti or else it may just end up like another Mia, who of potential but not quite materialized. With Christin, Indonesia would have a chance to win in future Sudirman assuming Indonesia still can maintain its advantage in Men's double?
Just cursious, how come the women players in Indonesia and Malaysia are relatively weak compared to the powerful men's team. Is it because of culture, government or just simply there are other popular sports that women have more fun than badminton?
weak? weak in performance or weak in strength? prior to 1998, i think Indonesia women's team is not weak in performance nor strength. Susi has been very dominating and Mia was up and coming. however, somehow, after Susi's retirement and Mia moving to the Netherlands, there seems to be no promising players to mend the hole. and that's not just the women's team either, with the retirement of the current set of men's players, i see only a handful promising players who can fill up the space. Marleve, Hendrawan, Trikus, Bambang (is he still playing?) are already getting old. Sigit/Candra/Halim aren't exactly young either. the only current top player whom i expect to see playing for years to come will be Taufik. back to the women's team. i mentioned weak in strength. i said that for a reason, look at the Chinese women's team. all of the players are strong player who are at least of height 174cm (5ft 8-9in). esp the women's players, look at how big and strong Huang Sui / Wei Yili are, and how tall Zhou Mi, Zhang Ning are. GongRN is a bit shorter i believe, but still not small. that is the trend of the ladies games. i saw Maria in the SC, and she is a small girl. and there was also the previous SC, GongZC was already short, but INA fielded Yuli Marfuah, who is even shorter! INA is certainly running against the trend set by the Chinese. there may be a reason for it and we can try to guess it here. Asian ladies are genetically shorter than the western counterpart, China has a pool of 1 billion ppl to choose from and there bound to be a few tall and promising ones. INA may not have as large a pool. the other reason maybe INA does not believe in the taller is better trend. afterall, GongZC/Susi managed to beat many opponents. and honestly, from watching the ZhouMi vs. Maria match in the SC. Maria had a much easier time moving around the court while ZhouMi looked slow and clumsy.
Lack of talent Zhou Mi certainly has the contrasting style compare to Christin and was outplayed but still managed to win, however, I don't think Zhou can beat Christin on their next meet. The current China women team does not have player who's fast like Gong Zhichou and will have difficulty when facing Christin in near future. Malaysia does not have women elite player mainly due to lack of interest of governing body and lack of talent. The last Malaysian women player that I can recall is Sylvia Ng and it have been quite a while too. Unless BAM emphasize on women's team or else Malaysia can never win the Sudirman Cup(or have some current top men's players to go thru ***-change operation ) Of course, the legal way is importing players like Singapore ...
i think one problem with ZhouM is that she is too big. and that's why we feel that she is slower. momentum is momentum and one has a large build, one need enough muscles to support it. GongZC is fast partly because she is small. Maria also, she was always early to the shuttle when she played against ZhouM. we will see if INA will culture her into somebody.
erm.... do check if this is rite, I think Bambang is in New Zealand and he is giving private coaching. Also, there seems to be a pretty popular chinese play (lady) coaching our New Zealand team..
If Susi Susanti and Christin have the same style. Is Susi Susanti's coach (Leung ??) still in Indonesia coaching Christin?
it could be Susi herself. i remember reading from somewhere that Susi is now coaching the INA women singles players. i saw some elements of Susi in Yuli Marfuah, but less so in Maria.
If I am not wrong Christin is under Ivana Lee (ex Indonesian single in 80s) and the last time I went back, Susi is pregnant with her 3rd kid.
Well, the ugly truth about lack of women players in Msia and Ina is religion. Remember that 90 % and 70 % of Ina and Msia are Muslim. Women of that faith are not encouraged to participate in sports, if they are they have to be fully covered up, Ina is not so fussy as they are not so wealthy. Even men are supposed to be fully covered up and not allowed to expose their thighs. This leaves a very small pool of women to choose from for badminton.This small pool has so many other opportunities than to play badminton, they could be Michelle Yeoh or Ah Niu or whatever the name of that actress who won the HK Oscar recently.
One thing in favour of newer players is that they were never observed by opponents. In this case, Zhou Mi is a 'veteran' in the international scene and her play should have been thoroughly analyzed beforehand. Maria on the other hand has the element of surprise with an unknown style of play. Next encounter should be more interesting, in my opinion.
I have a different theory when talking about China players. I think their centralised training and professionalism emphasises too much on fitness and consisiency. and athletism. Denmark with it's club system and part time players are unable to sustain such consistency and fitness levels, they may make up for it by emphasising more on racquet skills and innovation. This may also be true of Ina.
Bbn, that's not true. I have been to Cipayung (Indonesia training centre) I can see the training is very intensive and they only allow you 1 day off (which is on Sunday) but for most of them, they are still coming in. One of my friend was under training at Djarum Kudus (one of the big clubs), he told me he used to be Heryanto Arbi sparing but 3 against 1 and heryanto must attack the three of them. While my coach told me that he had to wake up 4AM to do his own physical training. Once again ... racquet skills wont improve your game skills ... it's only a marketing strategy in order to get more people to buy high-end rackets.
Sorry, but I disagree. Can't see a single badminton powerhouse not putting emphasis on fitness. They could have different methods to do it.
do anyone know Lee Fong? she's currently coaching the Nz team. From wut I've heard she used to be a really good player... i don know anything bout her but see her all the time around in badminton hall. is she "that" good?
Well I've been proved wrong in respect of the scale of China badminton and also the intensity of Indonesian badminton. How about my 3rd statement that after watching Bao Chun Lai play Taufik in Sudirman cup that he has to be one of the most talented players ever to emerge from China , that he has at his age surpassed Chen Hong's achievements at the same age and that he is going to be a real world no.1 soon? Now what is unusual about Maria's playing style, it is typical of some ina players like Rony Agustinos, Mia , Taufik etc and could be linked to their club coaches and also Rudy Hartono.
When I watched the sudirman cup, I noticed that Maria doesnt use her left-hand for aiming on the shuttle, which I guess make her opponent quite difficult to see where the shuttle goes.
I prefer watching Lin Dan who has been injured for a long time.... Maybe I tend to enjoy watching the shorter players, being a person of short stature myself.
Cheung, i was watching last year's Korean Open the other night of Lin Dan. what amazing skills. Lin Dan was very sharp and his footwork was fast and effortless. the only part that i don't like about Lin Dan is that he drops his racket low on preparation. on Maria, yes, i think Maria has a funny overhead stroke. not only does she drop her left arm, she also hit many shots way behind her head. i was sitting on the left rear to the side so i was look down the base line. and it was very noticable. i agree with viver, Maria is still new and it will be interesting to watch how she performs in future clashes. swijaya, by "racket skills", Bbn meant the technique of controlling the racket, and not the racket itself..
