In China everything has not been nice and then the China badminton is clearly going downhill with just 1 XD title won during All England. Even the WD is no longer on the winning side. China is no longer the power house and clearly as evident as that. In China everyday we get to read lots and lots of news about what Li Yongbo as the head coach has done and it indirectly caused China badminton to be on the downfall. The news published on daily basis and everyone in the whole world can read it. So comparing Morten Frost to Li Yongbo o would say Morten Frost is doing a good job here whereas Li Yongbo is not. But that is how those in China has bear with it for so many years because China won't have a chance to change a new head coach not ever. So I feel there is no need to keep on wasting time to discuss and keep on arguing when basically everything in Malaysia is pointing to the right track. Even in China when everything is not on the right track we never openly discuss about it and just keep quiet about it.
In Msia, politucian dictate how sports being run. Whether it end well or not, even if you are a very influential coach, the decision is not for you to make. The Sultan or son of a Sultan, Tan Sri or wife of a minister will do it. When your field of authority has been restricted and such administrative scenario is what you need to face without nothing much you can do, then few decision with bad calls do happen. I blame BAM top management for the current lack of progress and state of Msia MS dept. I blame them for all the rift that happens between MF and DLCW. Both MF and DLCW is legends that comes from different era. If you were to see MF plays live in Stadium Negara In the 80s and 90s, he is one hell of a fantastic player with impressive results. As majestic it is to watch how DLCW is playing, it goes the same to MF. DLCW and MF should not be having issue between them. As they are a very influential and respected players in the badminton community, having foul heart, hidden feelings or whatsoever is not a way to make badminton a better sport. And again as much i pitty MF and DLCW, their relationship should not in any way have some problem and i blame BAM for what happen. Thank lord DLCW won the AE and the XD went to the final, if otherwise not, god know what will this 2 respected stars being bashed with.
Try looking it from a different point of view. All the info we got is from LCW's side. Its all one sided and we didnt hear anything from BAM or MF saying 'yes, he told me about the mat but it is me! who refused to change it until he gets injured'. All the 5points you stated there makes LCW looks like a selfish person. I can also say :- 1. LCW is such a baby, after playing for so many yrs, he needs a coach to tell him what to do and w/o a coach, he cant even win a game. MF needs to watch out for the budgets given for every tournaments and sending so many ppl to accompany LCW alone, he might think its a waste of tax payer's money as he is fr Denmark and how many coaches you see from the Denmark team. He might not realise that Malaysians are willing to waste money like water flowing into the sea that time and hence, LCW gets a bus load of ppl accompanying him now. 2. If LCW needs to go through Hendrawan to notify MF, how many stages you think MF has to go through to seek approvals to change the mats? And how many stages it needs to get the people to come change. All these needs time to settle and it definately wont happen in 10mins. 3. Pressuring might seemed abit intense. But look at reality, how old is LCW now? How many players play beyond 35? MF needs to know his plans so that he can make his arrangements too. Assigning 2coaches for LCW now, he needs to know when is LCW gonna retire so that he can arrange and plan everything in advance. 4. I wonder if he doesnt have anyone to spar with him, what did he do everyday prior to Rio, stood there and watch everyone else train? Having enough ppl to spar and having alot of ppl to spar with him is different. MF might think 1or2 person to spar (one-on-one) is enough but LCW might think he needs 10different juniors with different style is still not enough? Anyway, the above is an example of a different point of view if one were to stand on MF's side. It is not what actually happened. I had to think hard to do this , so no offence here . Thanks, bye and have a good night!
Clearly this is not MF's issue anymore if after LCW got injured, and if he is loved by the whole country, how come only 3mats were changed? I dont see how powerful MF can be if he can stop the very TOP PEOPLE from changing all the mats if they want. why only blame MF? BAM is not willing to change the mats too. Isn't LCW's injury important enough to BAM? I dont see how it is if only 3mats were being taken care of. His injury is only worth 3 safer mats here, and a special team.
Oh god, I wonder how long LCW has to keep playing if you are waiting for them to ready to take LCW's mantle. I guess they will even retire before LCW can legally retire at the age of 60? Then I guess you will be the happiest that you get to see him playing for another 20+ years. happy watching!
That's a little disrespectful. He was good enough to beat Axelsen at the AE,the last 2 games convincingly, good enough to beat one of the most unpredictable and dangerous up-and-coming players Srikanth in the Rio Games QF and take LCW down to the wire. As a player, i think LD's strokeplay is stylish, and it's effective. As a player of the same age as Lin Dan, who used to play aggressive badminton/ power game in the LD mold, I can tell you that you get injured, and those injuries don't fully heal. I'd be amazed if Lin Dan's body - especially upper body/ back/ shoulder can still keep throwing those heavy smashes. It's credit to him that he's now got this Rolls Royce style, smooth as silk, and if you haven't noticed, a lot of LD's game is BETTER now than in his power-game heyday. (net play, backhand clear, general street smarts). He won't be able to do it forever. But right now, he's still a definite contender for every major tournament. He's not at the level of LCW/ CL right now, but not far off. Still better than the rest. (Axelsen and Momota are close to his level though I think, and Chou Tien Chen impressed me recently as well.. needs more stamina still though.) And yea. So LD lost to Shi Yuqi and then LCW routed Shi easily. (But then Chen Long lost to Saensomboonsuk, which is a surprise (though the thai is a underrated good player with a good attacking game) and last year LCW lost to some indian guy in the first round. Blips happen. I agree though that LD lost because he wasn't quick enough. but even in the final Shi Yuqi made me nervous for the first half of the first game for LCW. The young lad is growing into a great game... when he's fit enough, i wouldn't be surprised if he's a top 3 in the world player. he has weapons.) BTW, I am a LCW fan, not a lin dan fanboy, this isn't bias.
LD said the difference was that the AE was him relatively fresh, as opposed to the Rio games where LD had a physically and mentally draining loss in 3 long games to LCW (and tho LD has the class not to say it, i will.... only a bronze medal to play for.)
I think it's OK either way. If my opponent does it, i don;t see it as a threat, just that he's pumped up for the match and it usually makes me play better too. I wilt sometimes when my opponent gives me no emotion... start thinking, 'he's cruising, barely trying'. LOL.
There's some truth to that. It's also true that LCW has been very supportive of the juniors development, and a model example. He's not a selfish guy, but equally he can't afford to be entirely altruistic either. Not when he's only got a couple more chsnces to land an elusive World Championship. The paradigm itself puts LCW and Morten into opposition. Now, I'm a big fan of LCW, and I don't think he's being 'precious'. He genuinely feels undermined, and then there's the mat incident, and the fact that Morten is sort of in his 'chain of command' but not a resource, and is hinting he should retire. (MF should not have said that. The rest I can understand, but that;s just selfish. Maybe even malicious.) I have met LCW a few times and he's a gracious guy, and quite genuine, but i think there's a stubborn streak and a fair bit of pride there too. He isn't the sort to take a slight, and Morten is pretty single-minded in doing HIS job for HIS players - and LCW is not his responsibility. I blame BAM for only belately realising this is a disaster waiting to happen. They should have structured stuff differently. I think it's sad. Because I think Frost would have been an AWESOME 1-on-1 coach for LCW, imparting some of his sangfroid on LCW, making him even better at closing out the big matches. But that didn't happen.
A lot of sour grapes from the Danes, clearly. Axelsen is just wrong saying LCW aims for the body all the time when he has an easy kill. He sometimes does it, but at the level they play at,you can't always avoid the player. If you do, they'll do their homework, pick up on it, and maybe get a few of those back. Hell, its not like its going to injure you, unless you get hit in the eye. The only thing i might say is LCW doesn't always apologise if he does hit you with the shuttle. A bad habit he's picked up at some point, perhaps coaches saying you need to be less of a nice guy more ruthless etc. As for the 'arrogance'... No. Not really. He's businesslike while he's doing his job, doesn't use gamesmanship, doesn't tamper the shuttle or give his opponent grief during the rallies, is respectful of opponent and umpire. And afterwards, he always has something nice to say to his opponent, win or lose. I'd like to play him, honestly Vittinghus is more balanced in what he says. The worst thing he says is accusing LCW of showboating. Well, the only thing i've seen LCW do like that maybe is this hold and flick from the net up the line. but Peter Gade did that all the time and nobody calls that arrogant. Because LCW's usual play is more methodical, perhaps it comes across as showboating, but to me its just a sign of confidence. The only other thing i've seen is this wierd pirouette - turning 360 degrees and running after the shuttle - but he does that when wrong-footed in huge matches with CL or LD, so i'm going to say that is unusual but not showmanship. Either way. I don't think LCW is going to lose any sleep over it.
It's quite humble actually, when you think about it. in tennis terms, Djokovic and Murray are the men you'd put money on, whereas Fed and Rafa are the guys who might play a blinding tournament once in a while when their bodies allow it and the conditions suit their game. Manwhile LCW and LD are still part of an elite top 3, with little between them and CL. iT'S an interesting comparison on another level, too, because LD is arguably the all-time greatest player, much as Federer may well be in tennis. But LCW is a worthy foil for LD, because of his ultra-consistent performance in the SS - just as Rafa was for Federer in tennis but for a compltely different reason, in the latter case it was Rafa's domination of the head-to-head battles.
A real cynic would say LCW had a lovely draw, which opened up further once CL lost to Saensomboonsuk. But then i would say, he was by far the best player in the tournament - more committed than Lin Dan, more consistent than CL. He came into the tournament on 1.5 legs, and crafted a game style that allowed him to pressure his opponents and use his speed without worsening his injury. He played with a cool mind and great self belief. in a lot of ways he showcased the best of what he is as a player. Courageous, committed, dedicated, and how complete a shotmaker and athlete he is. I think paradoxically the injury helped him be methodical and play disciplined stuff. And nobody - except Chou Tien Chen - had a clue how to stop him imposing his game. He WON the AE playing throughout on a really bad injury that it is clear has not fully healed even now.
Undue pessimism. Even China can't dominate every single tournament. There's a lot more competition now across every discipline, not because China are necessarily getting worse, but because the rest of the world are catching up, even in disciplines like WD which used to be an all-Chinese affair in the finals. Women's Singles is class right now - Marin, Newhal, Sindhu, Intanon and my favourite Tai Tzu Ying from the rest of the world and probably anyone in the Top 10 can win a SS. China arguably disappointing in MD tho, i think they'll get it right eventually, and in Mixed, they have a lot of talents. MS predictably LCW or CL every tournament for the next year. Personally happy its not chinese domination across the board. its nice at the moment that there are so many countries represented at the top level, even from countries like Spain, Taipei that aren't traditional powerhouses. Lots of different styles.
As for the showboating/arrogance, I've seen it a few times in easier matches in earlier rounds. Makes it quite obvious that he doesnt take the opponent seriously, turning lazily for a backhand, walking around on court and intentionally playing a worse shot due to that, playing trickshots (most of which are utterly useless as the motion is huge)... Its not a huge deal to me, but I can see how some players would hate that kind of behaviour. Especially someone like HKV who believes in giving 100% in every match and rally, but as far as I've heard, his criticism was pretty mild. Regarding the issue with hitting opponents, it's not something I've noticed with LCW, but I've certainly seen that Asian players in general tend to apologize a bit less than the Europeans, especially for net cords, but also for stuff like that (and celebrating their opponent's unforced errors). Seems to be a slight cultural/philosophical difference.
Yeah, sure. Why play for a medal at the Olympics when you can get a semifinal spot at the All England?!
You beat me to it. I was about to share this excellent video. The way ShutteFlash implements badminton gossip, recent matches, highlights, slow motion shots and music into his videos is second to none (in the badminton world). You know he's got to be a really passionate badminton spectator/player. So ShuttleFlash, if you are reading this: Thanks for making the best badminton videos on YouTube!
