I love his net play. It is so goooood I wonder how much training he needs to endure in order to increase the success of the shuttle rolling on the net. When he did that, the opponents have the difficulty to return the shuttle. Yup even hendrawan during the interval advise LCW to relax & try to attack whenever he can. If he cannot attack, just play patiently. Lets cross our fingers & hope that LCW Ver 3.0 will emerge in Olympics to fight against Lin Dan & Chen Long version X.0. The burden & the stake is much higher there. It will be the final test for LCW. I hope he will remains positive & do not think too much of winning. Give his best & regardless of the result LCW is the no 1 player in our Malaysian eyes
LCW has had this style of play for a few years now. Just look at how he played against JOJ/VA in the last two WC SFs, and the contrast to how he played in the final. The difference now is that he is able to use this style against LD/CL.
Yes, but I wanted to emphasize what's new. His deception is new. His net play was the pits in the past, relatively speaking compared to say LD, CL, or even Momota. Now it's much better. And most important is his new mindset now. He seems to have reached a higher level of "flow" in his game. Hope he can maintain this and build up to his ultimate goal... Rio.
Just hope that he doesnt show his new tricks/style too often so that China Team can find a way to counter it. I still remember what happened in 2008 olympics.. He said he has a new weapon to beat LD but he used it too often for LD to easily read it and hence, LD could counter ataack it even before LCW hit the shot. Please keep some secret weapon in the sleeve until its time to fully unleash it!
Regarding the net play and deception, I would attribute them to his advantage in speed over his opponent. When he is much faster than his opponent (which was basically everyone in the past 5 years, bar LD/CL) and his confidence is high, these elements have been part of his game for a while now. The "new" part is that LCW is now able to outspeed the current LD/CL to such an extent that he has the confidence (which is the mindset that you are speaking of) to pull those shots off.
I think a big factor that LCW used to beat LD/CL recently was to (correctly) overcommit, as mentioned by Morten Frost in a past match, thus increasing his effective speed on court. He is pushing to the baseline with deception and waiting at the net to create attacking opportunities. It'll be interesting to see whether LD/CL can deal with this at Rio like CL did in WC14, and whether LCW has a plan B if they do, etc.
Nah, he only injects speed once in a while now. After all he's now older at 33 yrs old and he's not getting younger anymore! No way can he maintain playing at high speed all the way thru a tournament. Even LD has slowed down ever since his epic SuperDan OG 2008 game win over LCW. He's just learned to play smarter, as has LD. Conserve energy when he can, and speed up only when necessary. His mental fortitude (or change in not putting pressure on himself to win), that is new and different. You can easily see it on the relaxed face he has when he played CL and LD over the last few weeks. And his hand skills has been significantly upgraded since his layoff. Rarely in the past has he played fake blocks and sliced fade lifts (like Gade used to do), but now he regularly uses these even when playing at high level. I would even say that it looks like he seems to be enjoying his badminton even more now, the way he plays.
In his G1 against CL in BAC, I would say LCW was at least as fast as CL during almost every point, and noticeably faster at the start and also towards the latter stages. Of course, credits to his physical ability to be able to do that. He did slow down in G2, much like he did against LD in their G2, but managed to ramp it up again in G3, though with less frequent injections of pace. Compared to LCW, LD has slowed down much more obviously since 2008, or even since 2011/2012. Of course I don't mean that he can (or should) play at his top speed all the way through a tournament, just that in recent meetings, he has been consistently faster than his opponents over the match. Agree with you on the mental aspect, though he did have such calmness in the past, for example when he won AE 2011, which I believe was at least in part due to having already won AE 2010 and hence the reduced pressure for the title. It remains to be seen whether he can maintain this composure in the big match occasions like OG/WC final. The sliced lifts were rarer in the past, I'll concede on that, but the fake-netkill-blocks (if that's what you are referring to) has always been part of his arsenal when he was the faster player on court. Check his past Malaysian Open victories, which coincidentally (or not?) he looks like he's enjoying his game.
^ Agree. Looks like LD and CL in recent battle with LCW seem to be holding back a bit, perhaps waiting to peak at the right time. Or perhaps holding some cards close to the chest not wanting to show their ace just yet. Hopefully LCW also has some ace in his back pocket. And we should also remember that CL and LD has been playing for a few tounaments few weeks in a row, while LCW had few wks off. Re MAS open, he's the master there. The raucous crowd is behind him, he owns all 11 of the past 12 MS titles there (2015 being absent due to the sanction), so of course he should have a mental advantage.
Just a friendly reminder, why spent your energy analysis games that all parties were not playing to their capabilities. LCW will play LD or CL in the final of the Olympic. You could analysis till death if he wins.
Based on your rationale, match analysis should be made only once every four years? Based on your logic, all parties will only play to their best once every four years? Based on your crystal ball, you can guarantee MS Final will be LCW vs CHN MS? You are sure there have never been upsets in OG history?
For anyone who hasn't seen the LCW vs CL final at BAC, here's a compilation of best rallies I found. Does it look like CL wasn't trying his hardest? Could he or LD have tried any harder? This being played in China their home country, does anyone think CL and LD wouldn't want to win? I think anyone can see that LCW easily won the match, and not that CL gave it away... LD on the other hand he just gave up in G3...
For normal folks, Olympic is happening every 4 years. For LCW, it is his last and it is his last chance to redeem himself by winning an Olympic gold, nothing less. For him, badminton is not a fun game, it is a very serious business. Fun will follow if he accomplishs his mission. It was not the first time he beat LD and CL. I would wait until LCW plays the most important game of his life. It would be more fun to analyze the match then.
Of course upsets do happen, it happens all the time. Leicester City, a 1 to 5000 odds team has just won the England Primer Championship. It is now called the biggest upset in the history of team sports. Back to this Olympic, the big 3 are far superior than the rest of the field, the only chance that the final not involving any two of them is they are group in the same half. The tough part is guessing who is the fourth semifinalist.
The impression I had is the distance between CL and LCW was not so big, but enough for LCW to feel comfy. And if LCW feels comfy, he is hard to beat. But suffice for CL to add a little more juice and things could be very different. In the third game CL made many UE because he was feeling the pace I think. He can upgrade this aspect until Rio.
The only thing block LCW is his mental, not his skill nor fitness. If he feel dominant, opponent can say bye2.. The problem in OG/big tournament is all Malaysian hope is on his shoulder, huge mental pressure for sure!
its said he moves with a few more steps than usual due to his height Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk
