Arrr....Groupies, China Girls....the latter you do not need to find them, they find you, lots of them already in MAS as I was told stories by my folks back home Okay back to 100 - 200 years tourney, we have that in Canada, heard that it was fun and some of my friends here fly out to play.
and WO That is what Camilla Partin said ...the 'China Wall' and add one my obstacle...match fixing and WO, that makes it even harder to beat CHN.
No one other than WZM that I am aware of. A correction on He BingJiao: she is now 15, not 14. She is the current national junior championship in the under 17 class. She joined the national junior team for training last September.
The incentives must be attractive enough to entice the most talented to turn professional, especially those from the developed and advanced countries. Otherwise it will continue to be a slow process. China is still able to do it because of the great disparity of income between the rural and urban sectors, I suppose. Similarly, Indonesia should still be able to lure talents into badminton as it has a sizeable population. India too for that matter. To churn out top professionals takes a long time, more than a decade in general! How many parents are willing to take that risk against a safer academic route for their children? As in tennis, prize monies and sponsorships must be such that parents consider it worth taking the risk for their talented children. Remember sports professionals have a relatively short working life to earn their 'fortunes' and not many can make it to the top like LD, LCW, Federal and Nadal. Hopefully, as sports continue to become an excellent source of entertainment and national glory, more governments and corporations will pump in greater amounts of dollars to spice up the scene. Eventually we may have more of the likes of LD, LCW, TH and PG appearing in the limelight. Then even the rich and advance nations will want a share of the action. One could now witness the popularity and attractiveness of UEFA Euro 2012 that has just started to gain an insight into what it all means with big bucks!
Apparently, China's phenomenal,unprecedented success and domination is beginning to breed some resentment in her rivals and their fans (more so) going by what's expressed in this forum as if it's China's fault. But before they gripe and grouse, they have to ask themselves whether they want a levelling up or down in standards, in other words,do they want the rest of the world to rise to China's standard or China to come down to their standards?
Success is not the main cause of resentment. We shouldn't care about people who resent success anyway. The resentment is mainly from the extracurricular activities by LYB such that even if the great Chinese players show up, there is always a big question mark on whether they will perform, especially when matches are between Chinese teammates. That pretty much destroys, or projects a shadow over, the integrity of the game.
Resentment may come from their own player's failure. But they may have to get used to it because I think China will become even stronger in Badminton just like Table tennis. The golden era has not come yet. Because of the economic success, more people are attracted to badminton. How much money Zhao Jianhua, Yangyang earned and how much LD earned? ZJH had to go to Singapore to open a food store. Is it sad? I'm glad he get a coach position in Guangxi.
OK, I did my little encapsulations for MS, WS and MD. Next comes WD. Golden Era: WD It is really difficult to say how long China will continue ruling the WD format, but everything else being equal, I'd say they are good to rule for another 2-3 years at least. WXL/YY can probably beat a few of the top-15 MD teams if they're in a mean mood, and though ZYL/TQ don't quite possess the same firepower and speed and ability to hunt as remosrelessly as the #1 pair, still and all, the #2 pair are no slouches! Personally, I think ZYL is well on her way to becoming one of the legendary players of China. Almost all of them are around 26 years old. The #1 pair only play WD, they don't do XD. That gives them a huge advantage over quite a few other players of this format (who play both formats) and so they will probably maintain their awesome form for longer than many others. ZYL is possibly the first one who will feel the burden of playing both formats so actively (she is #1 in XD; a huge responsibility on her shoulders) but if ever the China team are in some major difficulty, guess what: they still have emergency rations available in the form of the deadly Ma Jin! Truly an embarrasment of riches. But realistically, all of them will be on their farewell tour in another 2-3 years. So, who takes their place? The top Korea/Japanese teams are also the same age (around 26) and that means they will join the top China teams in farewell. Which means it is down to which of the young teams progress more over the next 2 years. I get the feeling that the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese are almost all on the same level, with the Koreans in fact having an edge at the moment. Also, the Japanese and Koreans seem to heve got it right now, and are churning out some very impressive talent at the top level in doubles. And don't forget, the Thai girls are making themselves known, and could be serious players in the top bracket in the next 2-3 years. If age were to be the main factor, I'd say they have a long-term edge over almost all the other teams! But I guess its is also down to their training/coaching infrastructure, which seems to be steadily improving. Bottom line: I don't want to commit but if forced to make a pick, I'd go for Korea 3 years from now. China seem a bit thin beyod the top 2 pairs, even though I love watching BYX/ZQX playing! It is too early (but tempting) to talk about the Philippines. Maybe they will be in the mix in another 6-8 years. If Rexy remains there!
If I'm not mistaken, ZJH first came to Singapore to study business management partime and work with the See Hoy Chan group at the same time. Because of his badminton background, he was roped in to coach the national team to prepare for the Thomas Cup at that time and also to play for Singapore. His foray into the food business was just a small investment in a chicken rice stall together with his fellow badminton friends. Maybe he wanted to try out what he had learnt from his management course. He even got married and had a son but his wife wanted to return to China so that her mother could also help look after the grandson. His short sojourn in Singapore must have given him the rare experience of working and living in a largely English and Mandarin speaking business and social community. He must have made many friends and his short stint as national coach could have encouraged him to continue working as a coach in China now. So ZJH did not come to Singapore just 'to open a food store". He might be telling himself now that he was happy that he took the courage to work overseas when few Chinese coaches would want or permitted to venture abroad during his time.
Thanks,Uncle Loh,for telling us the above,hope you've even more to say about his sojourn in Singapore. Did he ever play for Singapore,not that I know of? Glad to know he got a coaching job in Guanxi, how come not at the national level,he has the credentials,I believe?
thanks for loh's explainantion of ZJH's business experience. When I saw the photo I was really feel sad for him .
The do have potential to beat China WS. But the probability to beat two is small. Saina is the highest ranked non China player (no necessary the best one), but her head to head win rate to any of the top 4 Chinese players are lower than 30% (?correct). Her chance of beating two China WS will be less than 10%.
yup, to beat any chinese WS is nothing impossible, but to win a tournament with 4 or more china WS players in it, that's what nearly impossible. and would be great if any WS can do it!
At least he is way better than all these ex NBA NFL players making hundreds of millions in their career and now owes millions in debt.
I have posted in the ZJH thread before but I couldn't locate it now. When he arrived in Singapore, probably in this 30's, our club arranged to have him play a demonstration match with a young Indonesian player, who was some sort of an ex-junior champion. This Indonesian who was recently married, is still in Singapore working as a coach to one well known school. Many older Singapore fans have seen ZJH in action a number of times in Singapore during his hey days. He was very popular and well admired for his skills. He was very deceptive and his overhead forehand reverse sliced drop was his trademark. Naturally after his demonstration our club members rushed for his autograph. I got a new shuttle and had him sign on the cork. However, ZJH might not have been as popular with the Chinese coaches as he was thought to be a little lazy and ill-disciplined. Indeed LYB might find him out of place. But ZJH struck a relatively harmonious chord with our badminton officials, club players and fans. Before he left Singapore, he donated a ZJH Challenge Trophy to be competed as an inter-club tournament. Unfortunately, little is known of this trophy and the tournament, which must have died a natural death.
Zhao Jianhua's autograph some 18 years ago in 1994 I managed to find that 'special shuttlecock' which has ZJH's autograph on it. The brand is "Masuka", which I can't remember having played with this shuttle before, and it has been kept quite intact even after 18 years. Now I wonder whether ZJH took the trouble to train his son to be a badminton player as I don't see any male talent from China with the surname of Zhao in the current batch of around 16-years-old.
