There is no doubt that Chinese WS is in decline. http://www.badzine.net/features/has-china’s-women’s-singles-supremacy-ended/34317/ The question is: why? 1. It's Chen Jin's fault 2. It's Zhang Ning's Fault 3. It's LYB's fault 4. It's the players' fault, especially LXR. 5. It's not their fault. Rest of the world has caught up.
I think one of the factor rarely mentioned is that after OLY 12, LYB said there is no need anymore to win all the titles at all tourneys. Give some room for the players to relax, and give some room for other nations as well. I believe some of the players had been doing just that, slowing down on their training and engagement in tourneys, doing well by spell then taking it easy. This, combined with 1 and 5, can explain the situation I think.
I don't think it's a decline on behalf of the Chinese players, but more of an incline of the standard of players around the top 10 in WS. Other nations have seriously advanced in WS lately and comparatively, the chinese WS players look worse.
Why would somebody do this? Generosity? I think point 5 is definitely true. Can't comment on the coaches as I don't have inside information.
I think , point 5 would go perfectly with this situation. Top 10 players in WS are almost equal in strengths (Even i tend to agree even if it top 15)
if the rest of world has caught up in Women's Singles, why the rest of the world has not caught up in MS, WD or XD?
No, because to get titles like they did in the past, you have to train like hell and the coach have to be tyrannical, set impossible goals and give pressure to players. The results have been titles but also players seriously damaged. So they might have stopped giving so much pressure to the players and slow down the training. Of course this does not tell whi LXR lost in the WC finals. That she lost in those match is not an indication of CHN WS's decline
Very difficult to predict the outcomes now. I still believe that the Chinese women singles will bounce back in time to win the Olympic gold medals. I think sign of decline has shown but it is not overall that worrying. Sign of decline I guess happens all the time. Consistency will help the Chinese women singles to win their matches again.
Chinese WS have been known for not able to last long and need to retire early. WYH, WSX and LXR have been playing for so long, and the coaches still could not find their replacement. Other than WSX, most Chinese WS relies on speed and power. Now Tai Tzu Ying, Saina Nehwal and Sindhu can match them, and their skill and getting better and better. And now there is a Marin who is even faster and stronger. Chinese WS really don't look good.
Maybe because female badminton players can easily train with players better than themselves: male players.
Chinese WS will start to decline if the youngsters don't step up their games and replace their seniors. So far, other than Sun Yu who looks promising enough, the rest still have a long way to go to match their seniors. In the past, it used to be these juniors would simply play lower level tournaments and move up to A team and maintain it. Now, the juniors have trouble even at lower level tournaments and are still stuck at the B team and not moving up fast enough to the A team. As for the seniors, they can no longer rely on their unique strengths any more, i.e. speed, power and strength to beat their opponents. The rest of the world have improved and matched them and some of them could even play deceptive games, which troubles the straightforward games played by majority of them. The only exception is Wang Shixian, whose strength is control and deceptive play, but lacks a killer instinct. The seniors still have a bit of room for breakthroughs, but whether they will be able to apply it is something that remains to be seen. In particular, the changes in Wang Yihan is the most noticeable, but doesn't appear to be producing results, but workable at some levels. Looks like the coaches may be doing things right, but there are a lot of rough edges to polish. Not sure whether they will have enough time to polish the edges as the Rio's timeline is very tight, unless they are going to forgo the Rio WS gold this time round. If they are going to forgo the Rio WS gold, I'm much more inclined to believe that Chinese WS will bounce back and get even stronger and will leave the rest of the world behind again.
I don't think it is in decline. I think it's other nations have seriously caught up and equalled the very high standards in skill and physique set by the chinese. I think Li Xuerui and Wang Shixian will represent China in Rio 2016 and I think Li Xuerui will defend her gold medal.
Perhaps they all (coaches, players, officials) realize that they cannot train pretty hard all the time in attempting to win all the titles for such training will cost them physically. So instead they just focus on those events that they deem as the most significant ones. The WC in Aug will be interesting to see. I am looking forward to seeing the bright outcome there, and in the remaining year. Then of course the 2016 Rio. So, from above list, #5 is closer to reality.
