how much is that? about 2m USD? that's gotta be more than what BAM gets. hmmmmm, it'll be interesting to find out how much funding each national badminton association gets.
Congratulations Lin Dan. He played marvellously to deny LCW his second title. But the best thing is not his victory but the fact that LCW and LD were seem chatting at the end of the match with amity and smiles. Did anyone saw LD patting LCW's stomach and LCW whispering in LD's ears. Looks like LD has put his arrogance behind him and had bonded with LCW. LOOKS LIKE THE KOREANS MD are back to be a force to be reckoned with after lackluster 2007. No longer the OG gold would go to either the favorites of FHF/CY, MK/HS or TBH/KKK. The two koreans MDs are stamping their mark and they may peak just the right time. there goes Malaysia's OG dream. But at least Tazari/Latif have improved, they need to be more stable. Their are already 24 and have not won anything yet. But then again, Rexy and Ricky only achieved success in major tournaments after 24, so did Razif and Jailani Sidek so if they improve their temperament they may go far yet.
very good observation sonny. I think rexy should concentrate training on Fuzzy and the uncle MD pairs for the OG.
After watching AE SF, I would say the uncles' chance of taking the title is very slim. They are too old to match young ppl's speed at crucial points.
Good observations between LD and LCW. And yeah, I think the Korean's MD (their whole team actually) is going strong lately, especially LYD/JJS. For the Malaysian team, I think we should give more credit to the uncles for entering semis consistently. They have better chance IMO to capture gold than KKK/TBH if they get their mind set out straight and stop fooling around in crucial moment, sadly, they have yet able to fix that simple mistake for the past decade.
dont sell the uncles too cheap, winning a silver or bronze is still possible and still admirable. The uncles should train hard to peak in august and give everything to got in the OG. Cant ask anything more from them after that.
They should have not much difficulty getting into SF, but after that, it's hard. They may have better chance getting into Final if they meet CY/FHF in SF, whose style is kind of straightforward. It's hard to beat age. Especially in MD which is all about speed and reflex. Seems to me they are slower (mentally and physically) in AE08 than in WC07. When they held 4 match points in SF, LYD changed pace and the uncles simply cannot keep up.
CHN is back to business and claims 4 titles first time in this year. At different side, INA must back home with empty hand from Europe tournament, only two runner-ups as maximum outcome this time. Wow, KOR MD has positive trend now particularly Jung Jae Sung/Lee Young Dae who have made three finals in three consecutive weeks and won back-to-back SS title. They show good indication to become serious contender for Beijing Gold, continue Athens victory by Ha Tae Kwon/Kim Dong Moon.
Well, in both AE and SWO, they lost to the eventual champion in SF. Not bad already and along the way they took out younger,faster opponents.To reach two consecutive SF at their age means they're still macho. You look at LYD play, you can tell he has trained particularly for closing.It's high risk but also high return but the chances for high return increase with a specific training segment.Most times it works (MD) sometimes it doesn't(XD).If LYD had not trained for closing,then it likely will be most times it doesn't work, sometimes it does.That's what makes the big difference. MAS uncles looked like they did not have that kind of training or if they had , the training hasn't reached the threshold to show results yet.But if it has been started,it will come.Rexy maybe should review and check that he's working his boys on the right syllabus 100%.If it's 90% right syllabus and 10% wrong syllabus and they work extra hard, they won't ace the exams.It's that competitive now,partly sparked by the NSS.(He's gotta remember his time is the OSS,mentally less urgent in play)
It beats me why a great many of us refer to Choong Tan Fook & Lee Wan Wah as 'uncles' What's the age bracket that qualifies them to be so labelled? As for "it's hard to beat age", you might be right if that could be interpreted differently (as "it's hard to beat experience") Tony Gunawan, Kim Dong Moon, Park Joo Bong, Sigit Budiarto, Candra Wijaya, Jonas Rasmussen, Jens Eriksen, et al, are living, breathing proof that greater heights in MD perhaps lie in the 30s Why shouldn't this apply to CTF and LWW?
Training for Closing You are right! There is a special training for closing developed by the former Malaysian coach Tan Kim Her! Unfortunately for Korea and Malaysia, he moved to UK along with his family. Tan Kim Her had a quarrel with BAM, the Malaysian Badminton Association. All these training methods were originally introduced and developed under Park Joobong during his era in Malaysis where Tan Kim Her was his assistant coach. So the older Malysian players should know the contents and methods of this secial training.
He he, any player above 30 is 'labelled' uncle. Plus, they are 6 to 10 years older than the rest of the Msia MD players. Other than age, both have old knee injuries that bug them from time to time, LWW's one being more serious since he have had surgery for it.
Age matters.. ..sure, the "oldies" or "uncles" can still compete, give the young ones a run for their money and advance further in a tourney using their vast experiences. But i also echo ye333's sentiment (and i've mentioned few times before). In MD, the name of the game is speed and power, esp. in the current era. And some of the current "uncles" or "oldies", who are still competing, (those mentioned by Oldhand above), IMO, have passed their primes. Esp. in a physically and mentally demanding sport like badminton, it's already mentally and physically tough/demanding enough to compete and advance further in a tourney, let alone win it all (well, at least Tony and Candra won/successfully defended the Japan Open last yr). It's too bad though, we didn't get to see more of them during their peak/prime yrs (e.g. Tony G. and KDM, due to them quitting their respective national teams).
