ah, correct. i wasn't clear about the frequency aspect. without the higher frequency at a training center it's more difficult to maintain your game over the long term. so far none of them have re-established their old level of play. plus, they all left at the top of their game while at peak age. re. lee hyun-il's comeback... though he knocked off the occasional top 10 player during his return i never felt he was a threat to win a superseries or sustain a top 10 ranking. but, when i saw him in a gp gold i considered him one of the favorites to win it. he was at the age where over training would yield diminishing returns. lin dan is currently struggling with that dilemma.
I'm pretty sure they were all training with their league teams, as is often the case with Korean players after retirement, if they have any will to remain active. They may have taken it easy for a bit, who knows, but they had the same opportunities as LCW, basically - the reason I brought him up is that he's always had relatively bad training conditions compared to his main rivals in that he's had no competitive sparring partners and a somewhat lackluster coaching squad, and that he basically used to use tournaments as training, in a way. His suspension prevented that. Setiawan had the same training possibilities as the Koreans when he left the ntl squad the first time, afaik, it's only now that he trains with the squad while not officially being part of it (I think he just gets no salary from them and maybe doesn't live in the complex, maybe someone can chime in with more info on that).
I think you're mixing correlation and causation here. Almost nobody retires from the national team and then has a strong drive to still be at his best, imop - so Id say a big factor in their drop of Form is their own drive being diminished to some extent. While the same probably applies to Ko/Shin when they weren't sure whether they'd ever play internationally again, Im pretty optimistic they're fairly driven now. I don't really see why they'd continue playing internationally if they weren't, the prize money in badminton is a ****ing joke that only earns you something when you're making Top4 at like 8-10 events per year, anything below that will practically be eaten by your travel and accommodation costs...and afaik tournaments haven't started hosting players at no expense. Really makes you think twice about bwf's competence when you realize that several esports are starting to eclipse badminton in every aspect (granted, with significantly fewer competitors).
I don't think there was much change in frequency. Mostly just intensity. Fewer hours in the day and less regimenting of diet and perhaps off-court fitness training, although that can depend on the player. It is certainly not like they were just getting together and training before the PBL or something. They still train basically every day. But again, they don't have a coach who threatens to demote them to the minors if they don't perform and they don't have national team-mates who try to unseat them, push them to play hard in practice, and/or threaten to take their jobs. Lee Yong Dae mentioned when he joined Yonex that one thing he was looking forward to was less early morning training, i.e. before breakfast. Ha Tae Kwon joked that if his new team didn't get results, he might institute early morning training at the pro team as well. Most people understood it was a joke, though.
Exactly that. Iirc the Korean team is run almost like a military unit, with the first training unit at 6 in the morning
You aren't wrong. Training at the national training centre is extremely regimental. Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
Rumor has it that they fell out after losing in Rio 2016. I can only imagine that LYD would be the instigator if that's true, based on what I have seen. What is interesting is that if you watch how YYS behaved when they won the Korean Open in 2016 (LYD's retirement match) it shows how much of a gentleman and team player YYS is. To be able to put their differences aside, applaud his partner and seemingly giving LYD all the credit. Something I don't think LYD could do.
Was a bit surprised when YYS actually agreed to give this partnership another try after all that. When I watched them played in AO, YYS seemed to struggle a lot.
Worker bee players with no outstanding talent tend to drop off quite hard when they reduce their training drastically, no surprise there
I think he meant as a whole as well. At least that's how I see it too. Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk
