I am assuming that what has been said about SY by the commentators before are correct. I would therefore say that any 17 or 18 year old youngster in China would love to play for their country and I am sure SY when he lost in the AJC to LG trained very hard to beat LG in the WJC to show he had an ambition in that direction. How hard did the CBA do to convince him that there is a future and that he doesn't have to wait till he is 23 or 25 before he is given a chance ala BQ or even THW? ....A lot? Or was it plain talking for his parents to say son dont waste 5 or 6 years of your life playing in China. Lets face facts Justin , what legacy has LYB left for Chinas badminton, OG gold medals yes. But the future of badminton up till now? Most of the gold medal winners were there when he arrived as the top man. Can you correctl me if I am wrong? Who can we put down as someone he nurtured ala Srikanth by PG or Saina by PG and her current coach, or PJB in all the Japanese players or even C. Marins coach. Now, after the ROW has shown him up he says I shall work on the juniors! I dont think he looks beyond gold medals!! nor does he understands talent or juniors. Where is the structure that can churn out stars of the next generation like in TT. Anyway the ROW are saying thank you LYB and hope you can stay on for longer.
I'm very glad to see Bao Yixin and Liu Cheng perform so well. They have racked up some excellent wins, and beaten very good pairs. But, having watched the Indian Open final, it seems to be Liu Cheng does all the work and wins almost all the points. Bao Yixin doesn't seem to bring much to the partnership. I think pairing Liu Cheng with Ma Jin would produce even better results. Ma Jin is probably more experienced and better overall player than Bao Yixin. Any thoughts?
I do not agree with your opinion on Bao. She was not performing so well in this IO, that's true, but her performance before that has been top notch. She has more dimensions then Ma Jin in her play - she is a better mover I believe, and most of the time not as passive as MJ.
To be fair, LYB took over when Chinese badminton was down bottom. LYB did turn it around. Of course, much of the work must be done by local coaches even prior to the players entering the national team. But LYB should get his credit. Now, whether his reign had run its course, that's a fair topic for discussion. Developing youngsters is often not even up to the decision makers. When you have a glut of excellent players in the same age group, the next group will obviously have fewer opportunities. That is the same as the greater demographic environment where certain age groups may be advantaged or disadvantaged, relative to other age groups. In fact, the Chinese sports system tends to be guilty of pushing older athlete out prematurely, in the name of developing younger athletes. Just on principle, the older athletes should also get a fair shake. If they are beaten by the youngsters, so be it. Otherwise, they should have the right to continue on, as long as they can outperform the youngsters. We may start to see sign of change in that area. The mind boggling thing has been that the Chinese team did not send the youngsters to tournaments where the senior players don't attend. That's an operational issue that LYB is responsible for.
I agree with renbo, Bao Yixin is excellent, a gem. In the IND SS XD final, she was partly affected by the previous day's long 78 mins grueling, multiple rallying WD match against the Luo sisters barely losing by the score, 27-29 and 19-21. Offhand, I won't be too far wrong to say the average rally length in that energy-sapping WD semifinal match, BYX/TJH vs Luo Ying/Luo Yu was about 40 strokes or a bit more.
Despite of GC's cheer-leading of BYX, I have my reservations on whether she is really a good partner. At IO, LC definitely outperformed BYX, by miles.
LC looked like he was playing a singles match against a doubles pair. BYX did relatively little while LC was dominating the whole court. BYX isn't nearly the same quality as ZYL. And I think she's much more error prone than Ma Jin.
LYB's legacy , his contributions to Chinese badminton is huge, magnificent, very great, undeniably so. In another thread, I've a couple of years ago translated a Chinese article narrating in some detail LYB's career beginning 1993 when he was first appointed Head Coach. Of course, I mustn't forget to mention he was most fortunate to have the legendary Tang Xianhu, Hou Jiachang and a few other distinguished coaches to assist him. Briefly,when he first took over the reins, Chinese badminton was in the doldrums , the worst she had fallen into after the retirement of Zhao Jianhua, Yang Yang, Li Lingwei and others. The state allotted budget was low as there was little results to show and his request for some funds to replace the wooden window frames in the players quarters the better to keep out the blustering winter wind was summarily turned down, it frustrated him. Later in the year, at the Asian Games, he led the CHN contingent to seven bronzes, yes all bronzes, his best result of the year. Yet in the press, it was reported that Li Yongbo could only bring home a heap of scrap metal (pots and pans). It hurt him so deeply that he vowed to show stellar results from then on and nothing less than golds would do. The rest, as they say, is history.
This is really "Chinese Badminton": http://www.badzine.net/features/a-different-sort-of-world-championship…/34046/
I can't honestly say I've watched BYX much to make a firm judgment about her skills as a mixed doubles partner. I did watch their match against Pederson/Fischer today however. From looks of it, the Danes just kept playing to the mid court and lifted most of the time so it really show cased LC's skill in the rear and mid court with his speed and power. One could say BYX did her job by intimidating the Danes into doing so. So she is effective without needing to hit a shot. I do think that ZYL is the more well rounded player though.
I do not agree. BYX is probably the reference as a couple in XD and WD. During AE finals TYT put the fire and BYX the brain. There were only a few points where touching the shuttle BYX, didn't finish in one or two hits. Impressive dominance. Maybe LC is now on fire (I met him during the University World Championship in Cordoba, Spain) and he is a funny guy. We go for a round in Seville the day after the finals and you can feel how strong he is.
is this the reason why Chinese badminton is in decline? [h=1]China seeks end to gold medal fixation[/h] http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6c28ab3c-a5f7-11e4-abe9-00144feab7de.html#axzz3WLegQHji http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/corruption-souring-china-gold-medals
The cover boy of February edition of Badminton magazine was Chen WeiHua, a true hero of Chinese Badminton. Some may recall his training video in which a young Wang Xin was one of the students. You can read the article here: https://translate.google.com/transl...ts.sina.com.cn/o/2015-04-09/12477569320.shtml A few snippets from the article: Mr. Chen was a player for the Air Force badminton team. He was sent home as the team being disbanded in the wave of military reduction in the '80s. He went back to his home town to work as a coach in s sporting school for 15 years. Under his tutelage, often 1/3 or even half of the FuJian provincial youth team were his students. However, Mr. Chen was puzzled that despite of the achievement of his junior players, they did not do well as senior players. The provincial team coach told him that his players' basic skills were not good. When the BaYi (military team) reconstituted again in 1995, Mr. Chen left his post as sporting school principal to join the team, on the condition of his being in full charge of the junior team. He brought with him a player named Lin Dan. Before his moving to BaYi team, he made some manurers to ensure that Lin Dan's transfer to the BaYi team was not blocked. From 1998 to 2004, his girls team swept all team competitions from girls to youth levels, placing five in top six in WS and one-two in both WS and WD. The little story of his calling out Jiang YanJiao's bluff to confiscate her cell phone was quite funny. At 2009 Chinese National Games, a young Li XueRui asked to play against Li Wen of HuBei in the team competition. Mr. Chen's assistants objected. Mr. Chen showed his assistants a fake starting list and sent Li XueRui anyway. Li XueRui lost and the team lost at the quarter-finals. Mr. Chen later reflected that if he denied Li XueRui and dampened her enthusiasm, there might not be today's Li XueRui.
