Badminton Denmark Open Finished: Bao Remains Runner-up

My prediction was broke for the second time as Lin Dan continued to beat his teammate Bao Chunlai, which produced a record of 14 victories and 5 defeats between them.

Why did Bao fail again and again facing Lin Dan? ##CONTINUE##

The answer is psychology. Bao is not able to overcome the obstacle caused by years of defeats over Lin Dan. It might form a high pressure to him that it’s impossible to beat the world champion.

But as a spectator, I have to say Bao has the power to kick off any top players in the badminton world, which has been proved in the Denmark Open. Taufik, Lee Chong Wei and Chen Jin all went down to Bao. My suggestion is not out of date.

Zhang Ning is a respectful shuttler although she could not reach the top of this tournament. It is hard to imagine that the Olympic champion beat Zhou Mi and Wang Chen to enter the final with her injury being 32 years old. Lu Lan scooped the first gold medal in her career. Actually, Zhu Lin and Lu Lan have both been the top badminton players in the world, only lacking experience of big tournaments.

They are good friends beyond the court. In the evening of the day of the final, Lu Lan assisted Zhang Ning make their supper. “Denmark Open champion brought me more confidence rather than a gold meal.” Said Lu Lan. She is expected to be the third one to play in Beijing OG besides Zhang and Xie.

The champions of mixed doubles, ladies doubles, and men’s doubles are He Hanbin/Yu Yang, Yang Wei/Zhang Jiewen and Kon Kien Keat/ Tan Book Heong respectively.

Recommended Reading:

1. Victor

Analysis of Malaysian Campaign in the Danish Open

2. Badzine DENMARK OPEN ?Asia dominates Europe

Denmark Open Men’s Singles Final: I Support Bao

Badminton Denmark Open finals line-ups are as follows:

Mixed Doubles Nathan Robertson – Gail Emms (ENG) vs He Hanbin – Yu Yang (CHN)

Men’s Singles Bao Chunlai (CHN) vs Lin Dan (CHN)

Men’s Doubles Jens Eriksen – Martin Lundgaard (DEN) vs Koo Kien Keat – Tan Boon Heong (MAS)

Women’s Singles Zhang Ning (CHN) vs Lu Lan (CHN)

Women’s Doubles Lee Hyo Jung – Lee Kyung Won (KOR) – Yang Wei – Zhang Jiewen (CHN)

Among the finals, I am most interested about the hard fight between world No.1 Lin Dan and his compatriot Bao Chunlai. ##CONTINUE##They will deliver a splendid match to the audiences. Who will be the winner? Whom do you support? I wish Bao beat the world champion for there must be someone in the national badminton team coming out to threaten him. Harder competitions push a nation or a team forward quickly.

It’s mere my will. Let’s analyze the possibility with facts. Bao outplayed four top badminton players in this tournament including Olympic champion Taufik, world No.2 Lee Chong Wei and Macau Open winner Chen Jin, showing that he is in his peak form. With his outstanding performance, anything is possible.

Lin Dan, on his end, entered into badminton MS final with few obstacles except from Dane Jonassen.

According to the BWF statistics, the two badminton players have fought for 18 times, with 13 victories and 5 defeats for Lin Dan. Bao has had only a won over Lin Dan in the last 10 matches. It occurred in the badminton China Open in October last year. The latest battle was ended with Bao’s failure in the Good Luck Beijing badminton event.

Will Bao make a break through world champion with his top mode? Or will Lin Dan continue to dominate his teammate?

The form below is the details about their battles. Lin Dan 13:5 Bao Chunlai
Date Tournament Victory

Aug 19, 2007 2007 World Championship Lin Dan

Jul 15, 20072007 China Master Lin Dan

Mar 11, 2007 All England Open Lin Dan

Jan 28, 2007 Korea Super Open Lin Dan

Oct 22, 2006 2006 China Open Bao Chunlai

Sep 24, 2006 2006 World Championship Lin Dan

Nov 6, 2005 2005 Hong Kong Championship Lin Dan

Sep 4, 2005 2005 China Master Lin Dan

Apr 10, 2005 2005 Japan Open Lin Dan

Mar 5, 2005 2005 Germany Open Lin Dan

Nov 14, 2004 2004 China Open Lin Dan

Apr 7, 2004 2004 Japan Open Bao Chunlai

Mar 7, 2004 2004 Swiss Open Lin Dan

Nov 2, 2003 2003 Hong Kong Championship Lin Dan

Aug 24, 2003 2003 Singapore Open Lin Dan

Oct 21, 2001 2001 Denmark Open Bao Chunlai

Aug 19, 2001 2001 Singapore Open Bao Chunlai

Nov 12, 2000 2001 World Junior Championship Bao Chunlai

I have some suggestion for Bao Chunlai.

1. Bao should make a brief that beating Lin Dan is just like beat any other top players. That is, in psychology Bao should overcome the problems made by years of failure over Lin Dan.

2. Bao is more accomplished than Lin Dan in terms of badminton techniques. But Lin Dan is more aggressive with powerful strength. They are different types of shuttlers. Bao should take advantage of net play and be more patient to fight back to Lin Dan’s hard smash.

Whom do you support?

Recommended Reading:

1. Victor Badminton Predictions - Denmark Open

2. Badzine http://www.badzine.info/content/view/637/2/

Badminton Denmark Open: Lin Dan Stings, Xie Xingfang Bows

Just as the first and second round, Zhang Ning struggled to beat Zhou Mi in three hard-fought games 21-19, 15-21, 21-17, which broke my prediction. She will take on Wang Chen of Hong Kong for a spot in the finals, the latter easily defeating French Pi Hongyan. The battle against Zhou Mi exhausted her, which might affect the next match over Wang Chen.

World WS No.1 Xie Xingfang was upset by her patriot Lu Lan, while Zhu Lin succeeded to advance to the next stage. But her boyfriend Lin Dan continued his super performance to enter to the last 4. ##CONTINUE##His next opponent is the home player Jonassen. Bao Chunlai beat newly badminton champion Chen Jin with rich experience. The Malaysian Lee Chong Wei will be waiting for him on the semi-final court.

The black horse Indonesia pair Wong/Chin was not “black” any more, who was beat by Zhao Tingting/Yu Yang. To our surprise, Wong/Chin declared to quit the match when they were far behind the Chinese pair in the second game. Did they mean to surrender? Zhao/Yu and Korean pair will fight for a spot in the finals. Ya Wei/Zhang Jiewen had a win without sweat.

Victor, the webmaster of the badminton blog gave his prediction on the next matches---- Badminton Predictions - Denmark Open. I agreed with him on part of them. What’s your opinion? Comment in the chatterbox. Let’s wait and see.

Badminton Match: Zhang Ling VS Zhou Mi

Zhang Ning will have a hard fight over her former patriot Zhou Mi for a spot in the semi-finals of Denmark Open. As I mentioned in Badminton Denmark Open: Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang's Different Emotions, Zhang has not recovered from his lap injury occurred in Good Luck Beijing badminton event, which seriously affected her performance in the first 2 rounds. She experienced a lot of problems beating Sara Persson of Sweden in the first round, then Kaori Mori in the second, showing she’s quite far from her peak form. The Olympic champion should have beaten them in straight games if in her best mode.

So I suppose that Zhang would lose the game. After the publication of the latest world rank, Zhou Mi is in the No.17. She is eager to get a win over Zhang to promote herself to a high position. Zhou has won 2004 Olympic bronze medal and she is aiming to enter 2008 Beijing OG. ##CONTINUE##She has enough power to kick off any other players in the badminton world including Zhang Ning.

Let’s talk more about Zhou Mi(photo).

After retiring from Chinese national badminton team, Zhou Mi chose Hong Kong as her second hometown to go on her badminton career. She benefited from the proposal called “Quality Migrant Admission Scheme” by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. She was accepted for having brilliant scores including former Asian Games champion and former world No.1, following Wang Chen to represent Hong Kong badminton team. Thus Hong Kong has more power to challenge Chinese national team, which Li Yongbo does not expect to face.

In the former national player Gong Ruina’s eyes, it is also good to China that more powerful opponents result in higher level in badminton techniques.

In China, a national player’s transforming to other places always related the topic called patriotism. To avoid this, Hong Kong is the best choice for Zhou Mi for HK belongs to China.

Hong Kong is a better place for Zhou Mi to play badminton

As we all knew, there are so many excellent badminton players in Chinese national team that any of them could be the world champion. The competition is so hard that a few of them fail to represent China in the world badminton court. But Hong Kong is not the case. No one could threaten her center position.

A loose environment could help her make better achievements. Wang Chen is an example. I have to say that Wang was not the first-class player in national badminton team. After going to Hong Kong, Wang Chen beat the top player such as Xie Xingfang, Zhang Ning many times and became one of the hardest opponents to Chinese team.

Zhou was very satisfied with the change. She could enjoy badminton most rather than playing for better scores before.

Another factor is that Zhou’s injuries could be cured in HK. She was forced to quit national team because of her injuries.

To the question whether she could enter Beijing OG, she said that the first step for her was to win enough credits to qualify for it.

Badminton Denmark Open: Zhang Yawen's Disappointment

Zhang Yawen was so disappointed at her failure against Malaysia pair Wong and Chin. Fortunately, she and Xie Zhongbo beat a Denmark pair in the first round of mixed doubles.

As we all knew, Chinese ladies doubles pairs dominate the badminton world. Maybe it is a sign that other countries have the power to challenge Li Yongbo’s girls.

Some fans commented on the reason why they lost the game. Here are some opinions below. ##CONTINUE##

1. Gao Ling/Huang Sui perform more steadily than Zhang Yawen/Wei Yili against foreign opponents.

2. Due to their personalities, Zhang and Wei do less communication on the court without teamwork. But each of them has outstanding techniques. They need to adapt to each other to make 1+1>2.

As for me, the main cause is that Zhang is too tired. Zhang Yawen always plays mixed doubles and women doubles. She has just scored 2 titles in Macau Open and Good Luck Beijing badminton event, which made her exhausted.

Zhang and Wei did a good beginning in the upper part of first game. But the Malaysia pair did not give up and caught up with them to 20-20. And they continued to get 2 points more to win the first game. The Chinese pair defeated them in the second game. In the decider game, Wong/Chin played so well that they realized their dream of beating the world No.1.

In spite of Zhang/Wei’s being out, the remaining 2 pairs still have enough power to defend the championship for China. After all, China’s dominance in badminton is not easy to break through in a short time for other countries.

Badminton Denmark Open Analysis

Men’s Singles----the competition among Lin Dan, Taufik and Lee Chong Wei

China badminton MS is comprised of Lin Dan, Chen Jin, Bao Chunlai, Chen Yu and Chen Hong ranking world No.1, No.3, No.4, No.5, No.6 respectively. The powerful troops are aiming to score the title by beating other top players leading by Taufik, the Athens champion and world No.2 Lee Chong Wei, the famous Malaysia shuttler.

The reigning world champion Lin Dan is coming to his perfect form. Not a long time ago he beat Bao Chunlai in Good Luck Beijing badminton event finals as a gift for his birthday. He will have an encounter with Peter Gade, the host nation’s hope in quarter-finals if going through smoothly. It is great challenge to both sides. In my opinion, Lin Dan has the ability to defeat Gade. But the local audience will be the third man to help Gade. ##CONTINUE##

Bao Chunlai and Chen Jin are in the third quarter. The two seeds have to beat Taufik and Susilo to go ahead. So the quarter is called “dead quarter”. Bao Chunlai remains stable and steady which could be seen as both advantage and shortcoming. He should be more aggressive. Chen Jin is more confident after he beat Taufik in badminton Macau Open. He is quick with his feet and bat which enable him to win in a quick battle.

Chen Yu and Chen Hong are in the second quarter. If everything goes well, they will fight each other in the quarter-finals. Being world No.3 and No.5 respectively, Chen Yu and Chen Hong need to overtime their lack of physical fitness. Jonassen is the competitive opponent in this quarter.
There is no Chinese player in the fourth quarter. Thus Lee Chong Wei have a good luck to enter the next stage. But Sony, the runner-up of World Championship and Thai Boonask Ponsana also have the power to challenge him.

Women’s Singles----who is the No.1, Zhang Ning or Xie Xingfang?

China is expected to win the WS title for the superpower constituted by Xie Xingfang, Zhang Ning, Zhu Lin, Lu Lan and Jiang Yanjiao is presented. The first four of them dominates the top 4 of WS according to the latest world rank. Wang Chen from Hong Kong, German Xu Huaiwen and French Pi Hongyan are the hard competitors to them. Actually, fans are interested to know who will perform better between Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang rather than knowing which country will win the WS champion. An old Chinese saying goes: on the court, we are opponents; beyond the court, we are friends.

Zhang is eager to prove her powerful strength by a win against Xie for the latter just replaced her as world No.1. Perfect skills and rich experience will make up the physical lack caused by years’ injuries. The reigning world champion Zhu Lin and Jiang Yanjiao are in the third quarter. If Jiang can beat Mew Choo Wong, she will face Zhu Lin in the second round. Xie Xingfang and Lu Lan are in the fourth quarter. And it is possible for them to encounter in the quarter-finals.

Men’s Doubles

Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng and Xie Zhongbo/Guo Zhendong are selected to present for China. Cai/Fu are waiting to prove themselves again after losing the position of No.1. They will have a hard battle against Korean pair Jae Sung Jung/Jae Jin Lee in the fourth quarter. Xie Zhongbo/Guo Zhendong in the first quarter is likely to encounter World No.3 Indonesian pair Kido Markis/Setiawan Hendra.

Women's Doubles: Chinese pair dominance

Once Chinese players are involved in a tournament, the champion of WD is fixed. Zhang Yawen/Wei Yili, Yang Wei/Zhang Jiewen, Gao Ling/Huang Sui and Yu Yang/Zhao Tingting present the Denmark Open. The first 3 pairs are also the world top 3. Zhang Yawen/Wei Yili and Yu Yang/Zhao Tingting are in the first quarter. So there must be one of them absent from the last 4.

Mixed Doubles

Li Yongbo intends to give more opportunities to the new pairs. Instead of the No.1 Zheng Bo/Gao Ling, Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen, He Hanbin/Yu Yang, Xu Chen/Zhao Tingting represent China to play in Denmark Open. Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen who have just won title in Macau Open are expected to continue their outstanding form. He Hanbin/Yu Yang is possible to fight against Indonesian pair Limpele/Marissa in the quarter-finals. Xu Chen/Zhao Tingting probably encounter English pair Robertson/Emms for a place in semi-finals.

Badminton Strategy: Gao Ling's Choice

All the top players are playing in the Badminton Denmark Open, with the exception of the duo of Zheng Bo and Gao Ling, the world No. 1 mixed doubles. Do you know why? It is a strategic arrangement.

Since scoping the first Olympic title in Sydney 2000, Gao Ling has been playing both as women doubles and mixed doubles. Gao Ling chose mixed doubles instead of women doubles in Good Luck Beijing event, but finally lost the final game. It showed that Gao Ling was too tired with 2 categories. ##CONTINUE##

As for Denmark Open which was an important event to get credits, Gao merely applied to play as women doubles.

Let me give you the reason. Zheng and Gao’s credits are ranking No.1, leaving the No.2 Indonesia pairs far behind. Regarding Gao Ling’s tiredness, there is no need for her to play 2 categories in each stage of world badminton Superseries. This ensures her best form to play on the court. Of course, the arrangement will be changed according to the credits adjustment.

The truth is, Gao will play as mixed doubles with Zheng in badminton France Open instead of women doubles.

Chinese New Badminton Coach Series: Zhang Jun

Four former national badminton players became new coaches of China. Do you know who they are? I will give a complete introduction of them.

The first one is Zhang Jun, who has scoped two Olympic titles in badminton Mixed Doubles with his teammate Gao Ling.

To the question what the feeling was transforming a player into a coach, Zhang replied that it’s just another form for him to take part in OG 2008. Although he wanted to play in the home event himself, it’s also joyful to help younger players to win gold medals with his rich experience. ##CONTINUE##

“Attention, please. Before giving out training proposal today, I officially declare that Zhang Jun becomes the new coach of women doubles”, said Mr. Tian Bingyi, the head coach of women doubles.

“And I hope you all coordinate with him well. Ok, let’s applause for him”, Tian added.

“You should come here earlier.” His teammate Gao Ling gave him a welcome.

“Thank you all”, Zhang Jun replied. With this short word, Z hang began his coach career. It was August 27th, 2007.

How to call him is a problem to women singles players

They all felt happy with Zhang Jun being their new coach for they were familiar and got well along with him when Zhang was a player. Because of knowing well, they didn’t know how to call him when he became their coach. So they made fun of the new badminton coach.

“It is too formal to call you Director Zhang. How about Director Jun?” Zhang Yawen asked Zhang Jun.

But this was negated by Gao Ling at once.

“I would never call him Director. I just call him Fat”, said Gao.

“Is Director Fat ok?” someone suggested.

They burst into a spasm of laughter.

Zhang Jun came over and told them to do the preparation well without any words.

“He is something like a coach”, someone continued.

Nevertheless, it’s just a joke. They all respected the new badminton coach on the court.

Learn to analyze the video tape of techniques

Being a badminton coach, Zhang Jun had to analyze the video tape of techniques for players. The differences between player and coach were showing here. When he was a player, it’s ok to know the main idea of the techniques. But as a coach, it’s essential for him to know the details. He preferred watch the video for more times to find out the opponent’s custom behavior and shortcomings. Then he was more confident to give the guidance to players.

Supervise the players’ sleep from being supervised

In Chinese badminton team, it is the coach’s duty to make players sleep on time. At 10:00 on the night, Zhang had to inspect the players door to door. As being a player, he often continued to use his computer after coach left. But now in order not to forget inspection, he reminds himself with an alarm clock.

Different from the two older coaches Tian Bingyi and Bing Jiande, Zhang Jun always walked around while directing the players training. He said that he was a little bit tired after a class of training. It came mentally, not physically.

As for Zhang Jun, the badminton shuttlecock has been changed into a notebook full of training proposal.

“Although I have no opportunity to play on Olympic court any more, I will try my best to help my players to score titles in the home event. Their champion dream is the same as my dream.” The former Olympic badminton mixed double winner gave a brief conclusion.

Badminton Denmark Open: Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang’s Different Emotions

Xie Xingfang is eager to go to Denmark and France. She wrote in her blog as follows.

We are set to fly to Denmark. I am fond of the place very much. But there have been a few years since I went there last time. Denmark Open is 5-star badminton event with high prize. The younger players are sent to the tournament in recent few years for most of the older players need to have a hard train in the meantime.

As for France, I went there when I was teenager. But I did not realize that Paris was a city of fashion, a city of romance and could not enjoy its scene being so young. This time I’d like to take the opportunity to have a good look at Paris and take some photos. ##CONTINUE##

Of course, the most important for me is to score the WS title.

Last Sunday I gave Lin Dan a travelling bag full of good wishes as a gift for his birthday. I hope that he can fill it with a lot of gold medals. Ha-ha.

But things are not going well with Zhang Ning. She has not 100 percent recovered with her injury in the Good Luck Beijing Tournament. Her feelings are listed below.

I take medicine and do physical treatment as doctor told. But the recovery needs time. Nevertheless, I have to play more matches for more credits even with some injuries. Denmark Open and France Open are the good opportunities that I can not lose.

Actually, I went on with slight training and could not get well quickly for my legs still worked.
I knew that many fans cared about my injury. And I will play my best to give audience wonderful games. Please cheer me on.

Facing Denmark Open, badminton WS No.1 and No.2 have such different emotions. I have to say competitive sports are just like this. You can call it cruel, but it is reality. Especially in China badminton team, there are numerous excellent players waiting to be selected to play as a Chinese representative. If an old player like Zhang Ning wants to rest for some time, a new one will come out taking place of her at once.

Hold on, hera! (Zhang Ning called herself hera.)

Badminton Training: Perseverance Is the Only Way

Are you playing hard to improve your skills? Most badminton fanatic like me enjoys competing with other amateurs to prove the skills progress. Even some of them would like to hire a private coach. I learned a lot from a coach in campus who has ever been a professional player.

But badminton techniques are not built in a day. There will be a certain stage for players hard to cross no matter he or she is professional or amateur. Have you faced the same problem? Are you going to give up?

Listen, perseverance is the only way to a higher level. ##CONTINUE##

Here is an article written by badmintonsecrets.com which gives some helpful advice. I recommend it to my readers who have the same problem in your badminton training.

Dear Robert,

I've had a little bit of training now, and am feeling that my badminton skills are improving. But now I feel that I can't get any better than this. Do you think this is my limit? Please have some advice.

Rgds,

Weer
----------------------------------------------------------

My reply:
----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Weer,

Congratulations on getting to the stage where your skills are improving!

What you are experiencing at the moment is a 'consolidation period' that the brain goes through whenever we learn anything new.

Everything that you have learnt so far has lead to your game improving bit by bit. Now your brain is sitting on what it has learnt and making sure that it understands what has happened, and how it all fits in with everything else it knows.

It is even possible that your game will go down a little(or even a lot!) - this happens to every player at some stage, and is nothing to worry about.

It is all the natural process of learning.

There are two important things that you must do now.

1) Don't give up! If you give up there is a 100% chance that you won't get any better :) Perseverance is one of the key attributes of successful players, for the exactreason that every successful player has to go through these 'consolidation periods'.

2) DON'T think that this is the best you will ever play. As long as you keep going, keep learning and persevering,you will get better as your brain gets ready to take inmore and more information.

This is covered in more detail in Chapter 6 of the Badminton Secrets book, when we look at the steps the brain goes through when we learn any new task.

The main thing to remember is that it is perfectly natural to NOT improve every time you play, but that overall you WILL keep going in the right direction.

Regards in badminton,

Robert
----------------------------------------------------------

I hope this can help in YOUR game. It is the ability to recognize that bad patches are all part of getting better that can make real differences to your badminton.

Wish you great progress!

Zhang Ning: Never Too Old to Play Badminton

The 2 photos were taken during 2007 Good Luck Beijing Tournament. Do you know their functions?

The answers will be found in the Women’s Singles No.1 Zhang Ning’s blog. I’ll give them in the end of this article.

Let’s talk something about Zhang Ning. The exception of Olympic test event is Zhang’s injury. How will it affect the Champion’s training and her score in the coming tournament?

Zhang told us in her blog that she was feeling well under positive treatment with no hard training and would soon recover in the next few days. She will not miss the coming Dutch Open.

Additionally, she emphasized the importantance of psychological adjustment. She said as follows.

Whatever you do, positive attitude is the most important. Always be engaged yourself in the preparing, in the process. And never care too much about the results. If you do well enough in the process, the results come accordingly for you have ever worked hard on it. I often heard someone say that I am too old. Yes, I am 32 years old which normally is considered not suitable to play badminton anymore. But I am still young in terms of psychology. Always being most active is my choice toward any difficulty. Some fans asked me whether it was because of physical strength that I had not taken part in Macau Open. Here I’d like to reply that I will play my opponent to the bitter end no matter how old or tired I am in the badminton court. I am waiting for the next champion. Please support me forever!

To the topic about her injury in Good Luck Beijing event, Zhang added that she would have continued to beat any opponent if the kind of injury had occurred in the real Olympic court. She will give her best performance and wonderful match to the audience in the Olympics Games.

What an awesome women player! In my opinion, it must never be too old for Zhang Ning to play badminton. Will she score the WS title in OG 2008? Let’s wait and see.

The upper photo is an automatic shuttlecock output machine which stands beside the umpire. When players want a new one, the umpire presses a button and a shuttlecock will be sent to players. The other one is a timer that benefits for spectators to know how much time left before the match begins and for players to know how much time they have a rest for.

It’s newly equipped in badminton stadium for OG 2008. Would you like to try? Just come to Beijing next summer!

Badminton Secrets: Li Yongbo's Hat

My readers, rush and timer, commented on Li Yongbo: Chinese Badminton Team Is Not a Dream Team and doubted about the hat Li always wore. What did he want to say to the world with his hat?

I checked some related interesting stories and his blog and gave some explanation below:

1. Most of Li’s fans are fond of the appearance with hat. It has been accepted as a characteristic of the famous coach.

2. Li had been proud of his curls. But it cost him some time to deal with it. Wearing hats is convenient for him with no worry about the hair.

3. He looks more energetic with hat. As Li has ever said, the head coach has to be gumptious at any time facing other coaches and players.

The above 3 are the main causes for Li’s hats. Nowadays a hat is considered an important decoration when Li is going to buy new clothes.

But Li’s attitude towards hat is flexible. He tells his fans that if they disliked the hat, he would give it up.

Li Yongbo: Chinese Badminton Team Is Not a Dream Team

Li Yongbo, head coach of Chinese badminton team, wrote in his blog to claim to the world that Chinese team is not a so-called dream team. I translate his words below:

We met some difficulties in preparing for the OG 2008. Although we got three gold medals in the world championship this year and defended the Sudirman cup, many problems are occurred in the players and more beyond that. I summarize four points in the following:

1. A lot of powerful enterprises will sponsor OG and each country taking part in it will spend enough time and money on it. Thus a great many excellent players are attracted to come to Beijing. Accordingly, there will be even harder battles than before.

2. We ourselves faced great challenge from public expectation. Beijing Olympic Games, for China, is a home event and no opportunity is better than it. On the other side, it is more of challenge than the chance. Players have to win without other choice. They are under high pressure. Due to the replacement from old players to new ones and injury, system training is hard to accomplish.

3. There is not much of advantage for China adopting the new 21-point system. It makes all the badders in the same starting line. In order to adapt China to it in as less time as possible, a specialist team is set up and more scientific researchers are brought to us. We hope that the secrets of 21-point could be known ASAP to give more guidance to the shuttlers.

4. We are obliged to change traditional training proposal which is more helpful with the combination of match and exercise. To gain more credits, to get the full 3 tickets for OG, players have to play more tournaments than ever. This affects their forms, even more injuries followed.

The 4 problems above should be overcome before next summer.

High expectation means high pressure. Nowadays, some people regard badminton as China's diving and table tennis and call them dream teams. Badminton is China’s traditional prevailing sports. Of course I am proud of and have confidence in it.

But as for dream team, I have to say we just make a dream at night to score titles. Instead of tens of gold medals for some kinds of sports in OG, there are only 5 for badminton. I wish badminton fans and media give more space to shuttlers for too high pressure surely has a deeply bad influence on the badminton national team. If so, better performance will be shown to you.

In my opinion, the four are the common problems for each country involving in badminton to face. But for China, 21-point system reduces its advantage to other countries. His call for lowering the expectation is reasonable, but will be useless in the end. No one can stop the strongest willing to win in the hometown especially in the dominance field.

Competitive sports is just like this.

There must be many head coaches in other countries preparing for OG 2008. What are they doing and thinking? Do you have some suggestion to them? Comment on this issue.

Good Luck Beijing 2007 International Badminton Invitational Tournament: Lin Dan Couple Won

What is Lin Dan couple? Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang. As we all knew in Badminton Men's Singles No.1: Lin Dan，Xie Xingfang is Lin Dan’s girlfriend.

The Good Luck Beijing, I think, could be changed to “Good Luck Lin Dan”. Do you think so? He defeated Bao Chunlai in straight games again to claim that no one in the Chinese team has the power to challenge his position. What’s more, he wised to win a title on the day of his birthday and finally made it.

Someone questioned whether Bao gave a walkover to Lin Dan as a birthday gift, but Bao replied with serious “No”. Bao frankly said that he tried his best and did not show any disrespect to Lin Dan with the hard battle. But God comes to the latter. Actually, in my eyes, Bao has been challenging Lin Dan since the day he joined national team. Nobody wants to be second forever. I have to say it’s unfortunate for any badminton player born in the same period as Lin Dan, Gade included. Lin Dan broke many other players’ champion dreams.

Bao forced to present the gift to Lin Dan, but Xie added more pleasure to celebrate his boyfriend’s birthday with her women’s singles title to win reigning world champion Zhu Lin 21-12, 21-12.

In the mixed doubles Xie Zhongbo-Zhang Yawen are in so outstanding form that they beat world No.1 pair Zheng Bo-Gao Ling. But it is not a surprise to me. Xie/Zhang are able to beat any pair in the world. I have watched the game in which Xie/Zhang defeated the former Olympic champion Zhang Jun-Gao Ling in 2006 China Master.

Chinese 3 pairs of women’s doubles dominate in the world. Any one of the 3 is possible to score the title. The results are Wei Yili-Zhang Yawen champion with silver and bronze medals going to Zhao Tingting-Huang Sui and Yang Wei-Zhang Jiewen respectively.

Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng struggle to beat Guo Zhendong-Xie Zhongbo 14-21, 21-15, 21-18. It is good that more pairs grow up to threaten the former for men’s doubles is the weak point of China. There is a lot more to learn from Indonesia.

Do You Know the Benefits of Badminton

Occasionally, I found an interesting thing that belonging to the national team, badminton players are all tall and willowy, while table tennis players have different shapes. Yes, playing badminton helps fitness and makes one more beautiful. I don’t know how this happen. Maybe it owes to a lot of running and jumping. Are you able to do a jump-smash? I can, but I jump much lower than Lin Dan. Ha-ha. It is more killing than normal smash. Players jump as high as possible to meet the shuttle in the air in order to hit it earlier and gain a steeper angle. It requires strong legs.

Badminton shows Women’s rights. How can I say that? Due to physiological difference, men players have advantages of both speed and strength compared to women ones. But badminton is a kind of sports that requires more skills than physical quality. I am amateur player. Most of us play badminton as a lovely hobby. It is just normal that women player beat men player. The equality of men and women shows here. Conquering men in the badminton court is possible for women as long as they are skilled enough. (But there is a gap between professional men and women players)

Also a short man can beat a tall one as I mentioned in why I love badminton so much before.

It is suitable for all teenagers, young man, and middle-aged, even old people. I have ever learned from a 63-year-old man. Why? Although I am much younger than him, I always lose in the competition with him.

As a recreational game, nothing could prevent one from playing without the net. As one of the most flexible sports, badminton can be played on any kind of relatively flat and hard surface, either outdoors or indoors as you like. But honestly speaking, I love to play on the professional court indoors.

And I’d like to show as a professional player, although actually I am not. It brings me good mood and better performance on the court. Are you the same badminton fanatic as me?

Playing badminton regularly also gives multiple health benefits and promotes longevity. See this article Health Benefits of Playing Badminton

Badminton helps you make more friends as well.

Are you going to join us? Whether you are just trying to kill some spare time or reap the benefits from one of the best exercises that you will ever get, badminton will guarantee that the time you spend will be well worth it.

Don’t hesitate! Go get racket and shuttlecock, have fun with your close friends!

Response to the Badminton Blog

After I wrote Argue with the Badminton Blog, Victor Ching（the webmaster of the Badminton Blog） replied to me with the following:

Thank you for the link.

1. I think it is unethical. Sure, Lin Dan might have beaten Chen Yu, but why deprive the fans of good badminton? They paid to watch badminton, and the walkover occurred. It’s not a matter or who would have won, but this is not just unethical, but it also decreases the popularity of the sport.

2. I have checked. Most, if not all tournaments, like the Indonesian Open, Malaysian open etc do not use or use minimal amounts of umpires from the same country. They avoid it if it is avoidable, but China, they just put all Chinese linejudges.

3. Taufik asked for the shuttle to change. The umpire disallowed it. Taufik is not my idol. I am not even a fan of Taufik! I am from Malaysia, and I support Lee. Please watch the game before making allegations. Taufik was disallowed to change the shuttle.

And if you want the truth to prevail, what’s wrong with my call of investigation?

As for my choice of vocabulary, i.e.: cheater, I did not accuse China of being a cheater. I put a question mark, China, the cheater? Meaning: is China a cheater? The answer can be yes or no, and I have made no such allegations on China cheating.

Please clear this up with your readers.

Thank You
Victor
October 11, 2007 9:48 PM

Yes, I reply as follows：

1. How did you draw the conclusion walkover occurred? From your experience? Let me make my point more clearly. My questions given to you did not emphasize who would have won in the end.

Do you think Lin Dan can beat Chen Yu each time? No, we can only say possible.

If All England champion is important, is German Open champion important either? Both are important.

Whether did Chen Yu want to be a champion once? He wanted absolutely.

Ok, if things all went as your imagination could Chen Yu win the All England 100 percent as long as he gave up in German Open? No, we can only say possible.

So, Chen Yu had the possibility to beat Lin Dan and he was eager for a title. Why should he give walkover to Lin Dan?

If you or I beat Taufik, we could make an apparent conclusion that Taufik gave a walkover to us. But anything is possible when the most powerful badminton players compete with each other. Sometimes players are in great shape, sometimes in poor form. How could you define walkover?

2 & 3. Both are about linesmen and umpires. As we all have seen, there are a lot of criticism to the umpires. And it never ends. I suggest IBF to set up a committee to supervise them.

You meant that China influenced the judgment of the linesmen and umpires. Let me repeat my sentence here. China has got so many gold medals in kinds of tournaments held beyond China. Could Li Yongbo or China badminton team influence those umpires from any other country in the world? Please remember this.

A fan of Taufik commented on this badminton issue on Victor Ching’s blog as below.

Anonymous said:

Taufik is a great player. I am a big fan of him. But do me a favour not to find excuses when he loses, no matter to whom. Please lose like a man, not to Taufik but to you.
October 11, 2007 1:24 PM

It is nothing wrong with your call of investigation. We are discussing on blog the 3 solid evidences of yours which your call was based on. Everyone has the right to ask for investigation if he or her thought a game was unfair. I have clearly given my attitude on the matter.

OK, you just had doubts about cheating.

Badminton Men's Singles No.1: Lin Dan

The first one is, of course, the world No.1 Lin Dan. People called him Super Dan. Is he a superman? Ha-ha. Just imagine. Maybe the best way to know Lin Dan is to surf the site http://www.superlindan.com/. But all the words on the website are written in Chinese. Don’t worry. I will give more interesting things about Lin Dan than it.

Is Super Dan a tall man? 1.78 meters. That is 5 feet 10 inches, almost the same as Taufik. But he is much shorter than Bao Chunlai. But as a wise man said, badminton is nothing to do with being tall or short.

Weight: 72kg. Not strong enough? Remember, it’s all muscle, no fat!

How old is he? His birthday is on Oct 14, 1983. Oh, the day after tomorrow will be. I am 4 years old than him, but I have not got a single champion. What a big difference between Super and me! I am going to cry…

Do you know who Super’s girlfriend is? Just imagine.
Xie Xingfang is.
Continue imagining. If Super Dan and Xie’s child were to be trained to play badminton, could anyone else in the world have the power to stop him or her? Ha-ha.

How did Super Dan fall in love with Xie? It is a natural thing. You know, national players are trained in the same place. When Lin Dan first met Xie, he had chemistry on her at the first sight for Xie was something like an actress in a movie in Super Dan’s eyes. At that time Lin Dan was just 15 years old doing some assistant work to train women players whom Xie was among. But Xie was 17 and had her boyfriend already.

Finally, Lin Dan expressed her love directly through a cell phone message. “I love you very much. If you are not busying training, please go out with me to have a walk.” What a date request! Just like Dan’s character. He is aggressive both on the court and in private life.

Soon Xie became Dan’s girlfriend. Lin Dan promised to do an outstanding performance and scores to protect her when he pulled Xie’s hands. You know why? There is a unwritten rule in the national badminton team that ordinary people can’t understand: Player is not allowed to make girlfriend or boyfriend without excellent score. So Dan’s achievements are partly from this.

When did he start playing badminton? 5 years old. What did you do when you were 5 years old? Most of us were playing for fun, doing nothing. But little Dan entered the Sports School. How boring and tiring for a 5-year-old boy to train day by day! His coach told that he always cried in the quilts at night.

But the hardest training laid a solid foundation for Lin Dan to develop his badminton career.

The left-hander was enlisted by the Army Club (called 8.1) at 12, and then picked as a member of the national team at 18. Relying on his extraordinary footwork and quick mind, he mainly plays defense on the court, punctuated with sharp sudden strikes. His crush was deadly to his competitors.

Li Yongbo, head coach of the Chinese national team, praised the two unique abilities Lin Dan boasts, one is his extraordinary understanding and use of tactics on the court, the other is his quick-start ability, which could find no match in his contemporaries.

In contrast to his predecessors, Lin Dan likes to show off on the court. He is regarded as a cool person with his standing hair and rectangled collar.

When victory is imminent, he will clap his racket, asking for the applause from the spectators, while stripping off his T-shirt after victory is his reserved performance. This is Lin Dan!

You could see Lin Dan’s standard salutation after his victory (see photo)

As we all knew, Lin Dan won a lot of badminton tournaments titles including 2006 and 2007 world badminton championship, only lack of an Olympic Gold.

God bless him!

I Will Write More Articles about Badminton Player

Denmark Open is coming. Badminton fans are going to give their predictions. We all care who will scoop the titles with our expectations. BadZine.info analyzed the situation for Peter Gade in Gade to face Lin Dan in Quarters. The badminton blog gave its opinion by Badminton Predictions—Denmark Open.

It is no doubt that authors wrote their articles in a specific situation and with their own emotions. But it doesn’t matter. Suppose you are the author, the case is the same. It is not important whether you agree with them or not. Just regard them as references if you are interested in them.

We still have about 10 days for Denmark Open. I’d like to respond to my reader Tony who expressed his wish to know more about the badminton stars. Ok, here it comes. I will give the detail introduction of some famous badminton players worldwide.

Have any suggestion? Would you like to know your favorite badminton star? Just type them in “Say to Dr. Badminton” in the sidebar.

Does the Badminton Stadium for Olympic Games Look like a Badminton Shuttlecock

Does the last one look like a shuttlecock? But it is flatter.

Being a badminton player (professional or just as a hobby), are you willing to play here?

All-China or International Badminton Tournament

An international tournament became a national event? It probably was a joke. But it was true.

Good Luck Beijing 2007 International Badminton Invitational Tournament got underway as a test event for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Beijing University of Technology in Beijing. The Olympic badminton matches will be held there.

It’s a very good chance for the badminton players worldwide to know the venue and its facilities. But unfortunately, most of them invited withdrew from the event except for Nguyen Tien Minh (men’s singles) from Vietnam. The famous Pi Hongyan was one of them.

You know why? Because most of the players are hungry to get more credits in order to earn their Olympic place. It may be helpful to know the venue to improve their Olympic performance. But it is less important than world ranking points. They prefer to save energy to take part in other tournaments that brings them points. If a player fails to enter Olympic Games, the venue has nothing to do with him. An excellent article Olympic year—what does it mean described this.

OK, so much for this.

Lin Dan, Zhu Lin and Nguyen Tien Minh are all satisfied with the new venue. You know, air-conditioning and wind can affect Badminton seriously. According to introduction of Mr Zhang Ailin, the design of the stadium made the draught “well-controlled.”

Oh, have I told you the most exciting feature of it?

The wind will be blowing under your seat when you watch badminton games in the stadium. The temperature will be 78.8F inside it in the hottest days next summer. Also for the players, the speed of wind will be less than 2 meters per second. Wonderful, isn’t it?

I am certain that you are eager to see the venue. No need to wait, here comes. Is the last photo like a shuttlecock? See the photoes: Does the Badminton Stadium for Olympic Games Look like a Badminton Shuttlecock

Argue with the Badminton Blog

Victor Ching, a badminton fanatic from Malaysia, wrote in his badminton blog to call for the International Badminton Federation (hereinafter knows as the BWF) to investigate claims accusing China of foul play.

I do not agree with him at all and not mean to flame anyone.

I am a Chinese, but it is not the key factor affecting one’s attitude towards this issue. Facts speak louder than words. You could only draw your conclusion with facts and logical inference.

Let’s see the 3 so-called solid evidences he listed in the "hot news open challenge China cheater" which were repeated in his next post "response to previous post". I strongly opposed the word “cheater” for it was mere his imagination before the final judgment. Are you going to draw more eyeballs with an astonishing title? But it is not what I want to argue with you, let us analyze the 3 listed.

1. German Open: Chen Yu gave a walkover to Lin Dan, while making the finals of the All England one week later. Is this fast recovery, or an attempt to save energy? While I don’t think this is strictly prohibited, I still think such walkovers are not in the spirit of badminton.

Let me ask you a few questions. Do you think Lin Dan can beat Chen Yu each time? If All England champion is important, is German Open champion important either? Whether did Chen Yu want to be a champion once? Ok, if things all went as your imagination could Chen Yu win the All England 100 percent as long as he gave up in German Open?

2. China Masters: Almost all linesmen and umpires in several crucial matches involving Chinese players were from China. This not only raises many people’s eyebrows, but it also represents the unprofessional organization on behalf of the Chinese badminton governing body. In addition to this, there were several crucial line calls that went China’s way. In an international Super Series tournament, how can an official be from the same country as one of the participants? Wouldn’t this account for a conflict of interest?

I do not want to say more words on it. You will know the same situation if you check the tournaments taking place in any other country like Indonesian Open, Singapore Open, etc. Maybe you could advise the BWF to add a new rule that you personally wrote.

3. Macau Open: Chen Hong gave a highly controversial walkover to Chen Jin, while appearing to be fine the day of the match. Does Chen Hong really have an injury, or is he faking it for the benefit of his countryman? Another controversial act was by Chen Jin in the finals to wipe his sweat on the shuttle to make it heavier, allegedly to neutralize Taufik Hidayat’s smash and net play. While this might constitute bad sportsmanship, and being against the spirit of the sport, should this be allowed?

The upper part of 3 is the same as 1. I do not explain any more.

I could not help laughing seeing the rest part. How much I envy your powerful imagination! Use your common sense. Did Taufik Hidayat have the right to ask the umpire for a new shuttlecock? According to your imagination, each detail action could be a trick. If Taufik askes to use a new racket during the game (we can see this often), are you going to say that he intends to make it heavier?

To conclude, you did not expect China to win. Or maybe Taufik is your idol. Unfortunately, China won in the end. You could not accept the facts and turn out to look for excuses.

Yes, China is powerful in badminton field. But it is not the country’s fault. I have to say China’s dominance depends on scientific training and rich experience of years. Any other country or player could be the threat as long as he is skilled enough.

China won so many badminton world champions. If you are right, can Li Yongbo influence any other umpires and linesmen beyond China?

Each country has its own advantage in sports that other countries do not need to envy. Just like that we can not say we encounter a bad referee with our constant failure when playing basketball with NBA players. Complaint is not the solution, envy is not the solution, accepting the facts and practising hard are. What’s more, BWF proposed more and more measures including modifying the rules to restrict China. Changing from 15-point to 21-point is an example.

Despite of different opinions, I support what you did to discover the truth. The same sentence as you: Let the truth prevail!

Finally, Badminton, for an individual, is a kind of exciting sports to take part in. I think we have a lot of ideas to share with readers.

Why I Love Badminton So Much

Do you know why I am crazy about badminton?

A simple answer: It has nothing to do with height.

Let me tell you I am only 5 feet 6 inches. I played basketball in my college and postgraduate time, not professional. In spite of being short, I was determined to play hard to be an excellent player. You know, an NBA player called Box was my example. And the famous Potato --Anthony Jerome Webb, 1986’s dunking champion, was just 5 feet 7 inches.

Once I met our coach in bathroom, I asked him how a short man like me can beat taller ones. He told me to do the 2 things: practicing 3-point shot and breakthrough. Ok, I followed the advice and played even harder. I was skilled enough to be a good guard.

But I have to say basketball is a game for tall men. I always faced this kind of situation: I could not get the ball for nearly half an hour when I played basketball in campus with people I don’t know without teamwork. What the worse was, I was not able to get rebounds.

Things began to change when badminton came to me.

I am possible to beat any taller players as long as my skills are better than them. That is, your success depends on your skills, how hard you practice, not height that you have no solution to change.

Lin Dan 5 feet 9.5 inches, the No.1 badminton player can beat Bao Chunlai 6 feet 2.8 inches. In women’s singles, being short may be an advantage. For instance, Gong Zhichao(China), the 2000 Olympic champion and Liem Suei King(Indonesia) the 2004 Olympic winner are both 5 feet 4.2 inches.

If you want to stand out from the crowd in sports with unchangeable height, badminton is your best choice. Come on, my friends! :)

Chen Jin Won Badminton Men's Singles

Be careful of the Gold—Chinese Chen Jin. ‘Jin’ in China means Gold.

In 2007 Macau Open, Chen Jin came from behind to snatch the title away from Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia 19-21, 21-17, 21-18.

“I prepared to play a hard battle against Taufik for he is one of the best players in the badminton world. I did not give up after the failure of the first game”, said the 21-year-old player after his win in the men’s single final.

It showed that Chen had the confidence to beat any other badminton competitors. He impressed me deeply for his excellent behavior in 2006 China Cheng Du Master. He was called “black horse” for he beat all of the hottest seeds in that tournament.

He keeps so calm even under high pressure that observers say what he did is beyond his age. I think he will be the most potential No.1 shuttler following Lin Dan. According to the world rank, Lindan and Bao Chunlai are certain to attend 2008 Olympics.

Chen Jin is expected to be the third . I hope so.