Problem with Momota is he doesn't seems to be giving his best. Whether it is Physically or mentally that is preventing him from giving his best, I don't know. Or a little bit of both. When we give our best and lost, we experience frustration. Fears of having to experience frustration can be a big problem. So to avoid frustration, we consciously or sub consciously tell ourselves to not give our best. In that way when we lose, we have excuse and tell ourselves we didn't give our best for this time. This is an unhealthy pattern even though temporarily we feel consoled because our lost is expected. But in the last tournament against china WHY, I felt he did well even though didn't win. He must not be afraid to lose while giving his best with determination to win. Another thing is it could be physical. Before the accident he is not overly occupied with a little pain here and there after a tough fight. Now, every little pain becomes a cause for worry whether something from the accident is surfacing. If in that accident, no one died things might be different. But someone died and he was sitting just behind the driver as I understand. This means he realized he came this close to suffering the same fate as the driver in front of him. It is a shock he must recover from. Eyes movements are important for a fast game like badminton. Of all things, he had injury in the eyes. The eyes might become lazy a bit and choose to relax more taking it easy in such a case. Finally, he alone must choose. Whether to let the unfortunate incident end his badminton passion or work to overcome all negatives impact ... If he chooses to overcome I think it's better to start from basic. This is because he had a very complex skills that has layers built upon layers in order to cope with different opponents. He can afford that before the accident. Now, it will be a mistake if he tries to rely only on just energy conservation layer or excellent racket skill layer. Those layers used to stand very firmly on very good footwork and alert eye movements. If anything was not working, he could quickly activate the basics. Now, the more advanced layers stands on shaky foundations.
Finally, he alone must choose. Whether to let the unfortunate incident end his badminton passion or work to overcome all negatives impact ... I worry he might choose to retire because he has nothing more to prove. He has already been to the very top. If before the accident he was just a top 5 player who frequently made it to the semi finals or finals, things might be different. He would feel that there are things he still has to prove to himself, his country and the Badminton World. But now, what can strongly motivate him I don't know. Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk
Years later, I'd still remember the Momota that dominated the circuit in 2018-2019, the young star that was part of the Japan's Thomas Cup winning team in 2014, and won several tournaments in 2015. I don't think his legacy will be spoilt. It is unlike winning tournaments and later found to have used performance enhancing drugs later. When one is old, or returned after serious injury, and can't played to your past level, I feel more sympathetic towards him/her. Example, Li Xuerui losing the 3rd single in the 2018 Uber Cup semi vs Thailand.
Nice to see some aggression from him against Srikanth in the 3rd set. Even did his signature net deception.
It also looked like a better performance from Momota in his game with Shi Yu Qi… although it was not enough for Momota to win, at times both his attacks and defenses looked like his world champion form.. wishing him the best and hoping he continues to improve.
Agreed, still things to work on but it was a more aggressive game. Took or tried to take most opportunities he got to put the shuttle on the floor. Was good to see a throwback to the round-the-head smashes and some of them had some good energy. Not the feely kind of smashes, good committed attacks. Hoping it's an upturn in performances.
He looked better, definitely improving but I still can’t gage his current standard. I dont think SYQ went all out at all though which says a lot if he dint feel the need to in order to get the win.
Although I do not speak any Japanese I did try showing the transcript in YouTube and then using google translate through the Google lens app… see below for the result, no idea how good/accurate it is, certainly looks like parts of it were lost in translation…. can use Google translate for the comments on YouTube too.
So, what is his plan now? Is he still trying to qualify for the olympics? He need’s results now if he wants to. Like winning almost every tournament like he did before the accident.
Great to see Momota come back and win the first set, what an exciting finish and great spirit to not give up... his net play and attacking (when used) looked good. His defense was not as good, although it is continuing to improve and he is putting more effort into trying to reach the shuttle on defense. Always super happy to be watch him play!
It might just be me, but I feel like his reaction speeds are definitely slower than what they used to be. While it can be trained back to an extent, it also makes me wonder if there is some underlying nervous injury (from the eye) that he can't fully recover from. Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk
Not sure if you guys remember Shon seung-mo, former Korean Mens Singles player, Coach and silver medalist at the 2004 Olympic games. Shon apparently copped an injury to his right eye as a teenager, leaving him pretty much blind in that eye. If you watch the final against Taufik Hidayat, you can see clearly that he does not pick up the shuttle in a certain viewpoint despite being in the right position to move to it. I wonder if this is the case with Momota post accident now, but he did win in Bali though.
He lost the anticipation that he had. It was one of the best but he doesn't have it now. And this might be the stumbling block and the root cause for other issues.
