I do love watching the man play, he has amazing shots and footwork all around. I'm concerned if he keeps losing games, he's going to end up discounting himself from play. He'll say "Oh I'm too old at this point, I guess I'm done, I can't win championships anymore." when the reality is, his great shots are still great, and his footwork is still sufficient; it's one single part of his game that costs him and lets him down. Unfortunately, it's the one point he shouldn't have any issues with... ever. I would rather he sat down and said, "I gave away 6 points game 1 because I couldn't lift, 4 in game 2... I should probably focus on lifts at some point.." than end up being discounted from high level play. If he improves this one element of his game, it can improve his already astounding success rate, and that could lead to us seeing him for even longer. I'm very much in favour of that.
I get your point, but I think we need to put things in perspective a little bit. It may seem to you like LD makes an ungodly number of errors on lift, but also take a look at how many more lifts he's playing compared to his opponents. Overall I don't think his %error on lifts is inordinately high among top players. My point is I don't see LD having a technical issue with lifts. It may make sense tactically, though, for him to consider going for more safety on his lifts rather than the best length/placement possible. Better than that still, is to stop giving away so many god damn lifts!
Mm I don't have the stats for that; maybe he doesn't make more errors by comparison, but as you've said it's pretty integral to his game. If it's integral to his game, it should be strong. I feel that for other players, the issue tends to either be: 1) Lifting long, which is a pretty common problem 2) Lifting short because they had to lift off of an extremely tight net shot I don't feel like I see other players lifting wide too much.
I think the problem is not so much with Lin Dan's lifts as that, one, he is lifting too much, two, too predictably, and that I feel it's because he's getting old(er) and slow(er) exacerbated by the fact that he's not training as hard as before focusing on quality than quantity which is a nice way of saying he's training less , fewer hours of high intensity interval training (HIIT), giving the excuse that his growing age and current condition necessitate having a special training regime more suited to him. Others would say he's just getting lazy and less motivated as his priorities in life have changed, that his family now comes first and he is prolonging his career more out of passion and planning for his future than the hunger for greater glories. That's also my belief. My point is if he's fitter and faster, he can get to the shuttle earlier and give himself more options than lifting and lifting to give himself more time to recover to base position. Noticed that every time his opponent forces him to lift at the net, they would anticipate his lifts and quickly get behind the shuttle to thunder down the smashes knowing that he's no longer that good in retrieving hard smashes as in his younger days. OTOH, when he's not slow and lifting the shuttle with a fast and/or high clear as well as good length is the best shot to play, he doesn't get smash at that often,and, not only that, even if his opponent attempts a power smash, he gets more time to anticipate and defend it better. My 2 cents.
See, I want to avoid this thinking. Lin Dan has *always* used injection of pace. Go back and watch him at the 2008 Beijing games. He has always used shots that don't require him to move as much - he's always played clears and drops from behind himself, he's always ramped up to smash. I think he's evened his pacing out a little, and that's come from experience; if you watch him in the Beijing games, he's moving with more rapidity but it isn't changing the effectiveness of his shots. For example, he'll move from side to side to follow the shuttle a bit quicker, but it makes no tangible difference to the game he's playing. I think what we've seen in recent years is a massive push in physicality with badminton; where Lin Dan was once an absolute forerunner in the fitness side of the sport, other players are making the same pushes. If you watched Huang Yuxiang at the AE, his physical capability was incredible.
I respectfully disagree with you on this point. When he was younger and faster, his long corners, both forehand and backhand, were absolutely unassailable. Now that his speed has declined, punch-clearing him will often produce a weak high-clear reply. That's just one example--I could find many more to demonstrate how his shot effectiveness has gone down along with his decreasing speed. Amazingly, LD is still one of the fittest players on tour. As much as he's declined in raw explosive speed, his endurance has stayed with him. Just look at how he ran the legs out of HYX yesterday.
A weak high clear? A high clear maybe, but it's seldom weak. Him running HYX around is part of my point, seriously go watch him in Beijing. He can comfortably play defensive shots like clears and drops from behind the body. It significantly reduces the amount he has to move.
Lin Dan unhappy with the Final loss but assures he will improve as the year goes on. ''I was too desperate to win the championship and this made me make a lot of mistakes. My mentality was not right, that's why I am not so happy with that.'' '' Winning, losing, tough physical training are what an athlete faces daily and I will continue to work hard and improve upon my game.''
Lin Dan creates a unique All England Championship record Surpasses Rudi Hartono (9 finals) by reaching his 10th final at the Birmingham Arena
conspiracy theory; team China has more options for the forthcoming TC in singles if LD didn't win the All England this year.
I get your point LD play German Open (as a warm up) ==> better result in AE LCW, CL and KS absent in German ==> bad result in AE but your post shows that they are in the opposite way so if you want to say AE is meaningful for LD...that also means AE is not important for LCW, CL and KS but I can tell you the truth is AE is not important for Lin Dan, and not the other way around Unafraid to show his laurels, Lin Dan took to the court with a red jersey specially designed for the occasion displaying a number 17 - the number of “world-class” titles Lin Dan has won so far (two Olympic gold, four World titles, two World Cups, and ten (EDIT : NINE) World team titles) - and sitting right next to it is a crowned ‘D’. http://www.badmintoneurope.com/cms/default.aspx?clubid=4685&cmsid=239&pageid=5381&m=587880 17 world - class titles : 2 Olympics 4 World Championships 5 Thomas Cup 4 Sudirman Cup 2 World Cup (five) All England titles is not included in the list I think you should read this : "Chong Wei's aim is to defend the All England title and it is becoming increasingly difficult to win back-to-back titles. This is the reason he has withdrawn from the German Open," said Rashid. "As such, it is better to focus his attention on the All England where Lin Dan will also be competing. "Although the German Open serves as warm-up, Chong Wei will give it a miss as it will be physically too taxing to maintain his momentum in the All England the following week. He needs to be FRESH in Birmingham as Lin Dan will be going all out for a fifth title. So, Chong Wei wants to stay back and prepare for the event http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/index.php?threads/entry-list-of-german-gp-gold-2011.94343/
Why compare only with the All England which in the bygone era was the de facto world championships when in the modern era we also have the World Championships and the Olympic Games. In other words, Lin Dan not only captured 6 AE titles, including 4 runners-up but also 5 WC and 2 OG. To me, Lin Dan has long far surpassed Rudy Hartono, no meaningful comparison.
I think they are just the same. There was no WC till when 1980? RH would have won at least 5WC and 2 OG as well.
