I watched Joko many times on the grand prix tournament against ong Yew Hock and Dong Joing He moves so effortlessly on the court, it seems he never exert himself!! One thing i noticed in the 2 matches he NEVER used 1 single time his backhand to clear, since his footwork is so good, he gets into position very quickly and easily to do round the head shots. When he is stranded at the back, the opponent at the net do a tight net shots, he still manage to reach the net on time, Even u try to flick when he rush for the net, he can still recover without problem. dong jiong in his match run of ideas, however dong joing smash is sharp. Joko variation of strokes is very good, especially drop shots in-between clears and smashes. Joko best weapon is his netting, so tight, it rolled over the net many times against Dong Jiong. People say his smashes are not very strong, but his technique and placement for his smash is very good. Anyone shared this opinion or anything to comment on his game style? Any good story about his career? Which player has the best winning record against him? Joko name is not as famous and well-known as Morten Frost, Yang Yang, Ramussen, JianHua, Sidek, Hartono, Siew King, but i think he deserve better recognition than this. What do you think?
I haven't checked the records but I think Joko has certainly been around as No. 1 for Indonesia for a relatively long time. As I recalled, he is a very patient player, uses his brains well and not shy of attacking when the opportunity lends itself. He certainly covered the court well. But perhaps his greatest contribution as Indonesia's badminton ambassador is his humility and sportsmanship. Hardly do you see him disputing line-calls or throwing his tantrums on court - a model player! That's why I was surprised to read that Taufik Hidayat was unable to get along with him when Joko was his coach. Maybe Joko is a disciplinarian and only Sony is able to obey Joko? Surprisingly, so far Sony looks to be a mirror image of Joko as far as court manners is concerned - certainly a well-mannered and well-disciplined player!
Some of Han Cheong's DVDs have matches involving Joko Suprianto 1998 Thomas Cup 1992 Thomas Cup 1990 All England
But if you are a Joko fan, don't watch the 1990 AE, you will be very disappointed, because Zhao Jian Hua made Joko look like an amateur.
I had the privilege to watch him play in India once. It was at Delhi. Can't remember the year though. It was in the 90's. I'm a big fan of Joko. The guy is brilliant. Is he still coaching Indonesian national team now?
Rather than disappointment seeing Joko fleeced by ZJH, perhaps that video displayed the brilliance of ZJH and every baddy fans should watch that video, in my opinion the best badminton performance by any one player ever!
everyone who were able to watch the match live(including myself) back then watched in awe at the shots that Zhao was able to conjur up. definitely the best classic match of the badminton era for everyone who watched it back then. To add to that, both players destroyed their semi final opponents, i.e. both were at their prime. Zhao brought the game of deception to another level as more than 80% of the shots Joko could not read.
"definitely the best classic match of the badminton era for everyone who watched it back then"...I would change it to say the "best baddy match EVER played in the history of baddy", even now there is no one game display nor any player that comes close to what ZJH done on that day, even the man himself ZJH could not reproduce that awesome feat...all we can say is thanks god that someone invented video and internet to enable us to see this game.
I have seen him play (video). I'm not that impressed with his play to be honest. He does move around the court well but so does Heryanto Arbi (sp?). He doesn't attack enough imo, and if you don't you will not win. I would rate someone like Heryanto Arbi higher than him who also moves around the court well and has very good attacking play and defense. However Joko's net play is far superior.
Probably majority of the people will say Arbi is better than Joko. But if we are talking about footwork only (this thread's title), Joko is definitely one of the best. Even ZJH might beat Joko 9 out of 10 times and Arbi might win 7 out of 10 times, I still think his footwork is better and smoother than both of them.
As I say, he's footwork is good. But he is certainly not the fastest around the court. I compared him with Arbi because he is (imo) faster around the court than Joko although he doesn't have the best footwork. Technique is important but only if it helps you win. There are lots of players with less than orthadox techniques and still get by very well.
Is there a place where I can see the 1990 game between ZJH and Joko? I have seen a lot of the ZJH teaching videos and would like to see a match where he was younger and in his prime
It may come as a surprise that watching players play, in the normal way we watch the players' court movements, may not be the best way to watch the efficiency (pls note emphasis on efficiency) of good footwork. Try to watch just the players' footwork by ignoring their upper body movements-it might open your eyes to judge what real quality footwork is all about.
I used to think the old 80-90's men's singles players had better footwork than those of today. However, smooth doesn't mean better I found out. Modern footwork takes many more shortcuts, and doesn't look as impressive. But is definitely much more effective with the introduction of faster, lighter rackets, which let players play at a much faster pace. Again, new speed and power play > tactical old style of play. Not that it wasn't fast back then, don't get me wrong, they'd smoke me any day of the week, and people who play the old style were pretty fast, but the modern footwork is covers more situations. Joko could probably be a top player still in the 2nd tier badminton countries, if he played the way he did in his prime, but nobody in the top tier countries plays like that anymore. I'd love to see a lee chong wei / lin dan vs any of the retired legends (ie. zjh, lsk, morten frost). Then we can really compare how badminton has changed.
Off topic-Hmm.. ..i visited that website a couple times or so, and it has this eerily similar format as our BadmintonCentral.com; almost like it's BadmintonCentral.com's twin/sister site..
