Yeah, I think nothing beats experience. Maybe the people around him should not shield him against the public criticisms. Let him experience more of those and sooner or later, instead of being a troubling experience, it's a just a numbing experience. Same as all the accolades he will get. Instead of a glorifying experience, it should be a nuisance to him, like all those Hollywood stars under public glare.
Yes don't shield them from anything. TBH was making a lot of mistakes -- his attacks seemed strong at times (I guess inconsistency). Somehow KKK-TBH seemed to play periods of good and bad badminton.
They are not a strong team in my mind --- still a year or two away from being better. In the Olympics, we may still have to rely on CTF-LWW.
Dangerous game, relying on the oldies. They are pretty good, but now very injury prone. In China, they were doing well until semis, when one of them got some injury. Last Thomas Cup, we got derailed by WCH's injury. Had he not had the achilles trouble, I am sure we would have made the final at least, 'cos Hafiz instead of KBH would have been in 3rd singles and probably still be too good for Persson. WCH himself would have even chance against Jonassen. Good balance matters. It's not about having the strongest singles and doubles, at most they can only contribute 2 pts. At minimum Teams have to have 4 of 5 matches where they are competitive to even think of winning the cup. Koo's despair was clearly shown last night, wasn't too happy with the way they are playing and probably still not trusting TBH that much. It was like night and day, between this performance and their All-England winning form last year.
I agree with what you say about relying on the oldies. Unfortunately, I have watched Zakry-Fairuz playing for a long time now. Although I have seen some improvement in Fairuz, I still see a lot of inconsistency in their play. I am coming to terms with the fact that it is something that you cannot rush -- I have learned that players don't just become good. It is a lot of hard work practicing to be perfect (or at least consistent). Hence, my comment that LWW-CTF is still be be relied on in the Olympics, not the two youngies (it is too soon to expect too much from them).
And TBh gets more nervous if KKK is pissed off at him. So.....both of them need to work it out, hopefully improve some bf OG. And hopefully TBH doesnt take 3 to 4 years to get used to the pressure & criticism. It's a matter of getting back the old TBH.
Forgot to comment on the MAS girls performances. Very heartwarming, to say the least. Much like the TC teams of 1986-1992 and 2002. Players from different camps (BAM and KLRC) combined very well together despite not much training together, and compensate for losses to key players. Major credit to Julia Wong for keeping a clean slate. But it was still a scrappy match vs Kaori Mori. At least she and WMC have big gains in mental capacity at critical moments. Youngsters need to have a steep learning curve, Lydia and Goh especially. Not hoping much, but I expect them to holdout for a fighting performance in Jakarta.
Actually i was rather hoping that MAS will tie with Korea at 2-2 to watch the 3rd MS. For LYD playing MS and to see how Hafiz is doing after all the circus show between him, Nusa, KLRC, NSC and BAM.
Maybe Rexy has already pre recorded for his interview later with the press, stating of his resignation......... Few versions in standby mode too, for AE, for OG.......
Hard to gauge as LYD is not a singles player - showed some strong smashes in the 1st but one could see he was running out of steam at the end.
i stayed up till 3 am this morning to watch the delayed telecast of the thomas cup match between malaysia and korea. i must say korea was the real winner in that match. only LCW had no problem in his match. KKK/TBH was all over the place. shots keep hitting the net. defense seems a bit weak. they were affected by the bad shots, unforced errors. and all this against a scratch pair. not saying that korea was weak because they have very good players who are capable of playing with different partners and all. but really, it was a big disappointment to me. next up, WCH. he won straight sets but not convincingly. the second set showed the youngster giving a good fight. korea must be happy that they have a very promising young player. second men's double. again. huge disappointment. and more embarassing against a scratch pair that includes one singles player. what a shocker. both zakry and fairuz was not calm enough to play their game and got pushed into making mistakes and giving easy points to the korea. defeat in straight sets was humiliating especially against a pair that does not even have a ranking. hafiz might have clinched the winner but he was playing like he was training. understandably he might have thought lee young dae was easy meat but the result showed that lee gave a good fight too. hafiz might have not played to the best of his ability but i see him play like that against other well known player too. so if that is true, that is not very promising indeed when we come up against the likes of indonesia and china. korea was indeed the winner since : 1. they prove that when push comes to shove, they could rely on all their players (in case of injury or anything) to go against higher ranking players such was the case in the malaysia vs korea match. and if they had put their best singles in play, malaysia might have lost that match. 2. they get to keep the level of their strength a secret since they did not field the best combo against malaysia. china and indonesia will be left guessing a bit and frankly korea have been known to do very well in team events due to their high team spirit. and showing that even an understrength combo could give malaysia a good fight, they are saying that they can be a lot stronger than that. i really hope it was a strategy of some sort by the malaysian camp to show weakness so that we will be underestimated but somehow looking at the players' faces yesterday, the panic and the frustration looks so real. boon heong was not even smiling in the pictures after the matches ended. if this is the case, thomas cup is as good as out of our hands.
It seems that it's not just me that is waiting for Pemuda to take action. MOOOOORE to come from him for sure, from Mr. anti-blonde/rings/accessories/KKK.
Even if the whole world is against you, your partner should be at your side. Because win or lose, you do it together. This is what KKK must learn. KKK has some good qualities. He makes mistakes but he forgets about it before the next rally begins. This forgetfulness is very useful. He should try to impart this on TBH.
From the trophy presentation photo (thanks to whoever posted it), I notice that the only one not enjoying himself is TBH. That is part of his weak-mindedness. Enjoy the present. Do the best for the present. The past cannot be reclaimed. And the future will come no matter how you feel now. Also, Rexy is not there. Maybe only the chief coaches are present.
I can't name all the Korean & Japanese girls in the photo (see bottom http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=52597&page=29). Can someone fill in the blanks or correct me? KOR: (top left to right) Coach, Lee Kyung Won, Lee Yun Hwa?, Hwang Hye Youn, Jun Jae Youn (bottom) Coach, ... (Ha Jung Eun, Kim Min Jung, who else)? can't tell one from another, Lee Hyo Jung JPN: (top left to right) Coach, Park Joo Bong, Miyuki Maeda, Yu Hirayama, Eriko Hirose, ?? (singles or player?) (bottom) Kaori Mori, Aki Akao or Tomomi Matsuda?, AA or TM?, Suetsuna, Reiko Shiota, Kumiko Ogura
