Everyone who has reached the quarterfinals of the Thomas Cup 2006 are professional players – equally good and talented.
The only things that separate champions from losers are this: MISTAKES and INCONSISTENCY.
With the current 21 point format, players can give away the game early by making the following mistakes, most of them elementary, amateurish ones:
- Hitting the ball into the net
- Hitting the ball OUT of the court
- Misjudgments, bad line calls
- Slow response
- BAD returns
- Service faults (ie above the waist, serving into the net, serving to out of the court)
(For those unfamiliar with the 21-point system, it’s this: for every mistake that you make, irrespective of who serves, a point will be given to your opponent. The moment both reach 19 points, the player with a two point lead wins. If it reaches 29-all, it becomes sudden death.)
It is really a pity because when you look at it, we do have world-class champions. Unfortunately, we don’t have world-class mental strength.
Our players are inconsistent, eg Hafiz Hashim (one day a winner, one day a loser), Lee Choong Wei (one game he is aggressive, one game he gives away points by making elementary mistakes) and so forth. Our players are supposed to be professionals, champions of this Open and that Open. Yet at times, it feels as if they play like my grandma in her sarong.
I don’t fault Kuan Boon Heng for losing the deciding match. Honestly, it was lost way before our second doubles even made it to the court. Hafiz could have done better. He could have bucked up and showed us what being an All-England champion was all about.
Instead we got a taste of what characterizes our squad – even the commentors, I’m so ashamed, mentioned this – inconsistency and mistakes.
That was why we lost.
yea they did reli bad this time :(( but the double players reli did well. kudos to them!!
There is nobody to fault. Chong Wei played well, but Gade Christensen played better. Hafiz’s match was a 50/50 outcome. He’s younger and fitter than Jonassen but inferior in terms of composure. He won the All-England in 2003. Three years is an eternity in sports. Even P. Gopichand of India was an All-England champion once. Where is he now?
Besides, winning individual tournaments is different from succeeding in team-based competitions. Most of the top level players are almost equal in terms of fitness and skill. It’s having the mental strength to perform at such a high-level consistently that makes one a champion.
As for Beng Hong, the lad looked defeated even before the first shuttlecock crossed the net. Keep in mind that Persson of Denmark was under intense pressure himself. I fear that many will come down overly hard on him. If we see him slowly fade away from the international scence in the future, it would be testament of his lack of fortitude. Hopefully, the crushing loss will spur him to be more prepared for the ‘big stage’.
While we have witnessed the emergence of young pairs from the BAM fold, our singles players are lagging far behind. China is far ahead of every other team in this aspect.
Finally, I think the BAM needs to sever its ties with Misbun Sidek. His proteges would fare far better under the guidance of another coach. Look at what Li Mao has done for Chong Wei’s game. We need more mental toughness in the squad.
I too, think that the new scoring system is inappropriate for the game. It has made it easier for weaker players to pull off upsets. This is not table tennis.
ah, i didnt know they used the 21-point system. so, it’s like tennis you mean?:-?
Kevin: While three years may be long for some of us, it still doesn’t explain how veterans of the game like Jonassen, Emma & Robertson and Frost have managed to still stay in the game on the top for years.
Right now, I don’t fault anyone but politicans and coaches. Something has to be done. We have good players but somehow because of lack of fortitude and maturity, they are slowly rotting away.
On the contrary, I like the new point system because it exposes a lot of weaknesses in our players that were never seen before – something we have never bothered to sit down and address. Weaker players pulling upsets? Then one must ask why. Is it because the stronger player was too confident? Made more errors?
At the end of the day, the gist of any sport is this: make an error anywhere, be it in calculation, slow starts and etc, and you reap what you sow.
Mei,
You misunderstood my point. What i meant was, Hafiz has never reached the same heights as he did when he took home the All-England title. I don’t mean to imply that there is no place for older players in sports. In fact, Poul Erik Hoyer-Larsen got better with age whereas Rashid Sidek went the other way. But, it is inevitable that the body cannot cope with the same level of play as it ages. Perhaps, Jonassen is more skillful than Hafiz. However, I think it’s experience coupled with temperament that pulled him through.
Since the ‘golden age’ of Eddy Choong, Punch Gunalan etc. Malaysia in general, has been faring poorly in comparison to China and Indonesia. This spans across both team and individual competitions. It’s true that the problem needs to be fixed from within the BAM.
As for the new scoring system, I guess, previously I did not make a concrete argument. I prefer the old system because a player had to work harder to earn points. The idea of service in the new system is meaningless. This is especially true in doubles play. Even if one team, screwed up their ‘first serve’, there was always still an opportunity to gain points from the ‘second serve’. Also, previously, when a player held game point, he still needed to finish the game off by holding serve. That is why, even at a score line such as 14-9, one had to work harder to cross the line. It was possible to see a player stuck at game point for a long time. Now, all it takes is a service mistake for the game to be over. I think that the consequences are too harsh. Under the new system, once a player is trailing by say, 5 pts, it requires a Herculean effort to recover. Games finish a lot faster. The intensity and psychology such as having the receiver decide on asking for ‘deuce’ at 13-13 or 14-14 is absent in the new system.
for me, i just think that we would have made it if Wong Choon Han was in it and not Kuan Boon Heng. then again, i dunno what im saying. im not a Thomas Cup follower
Kevin: I see, I see. Nevertheless, it was quite interesting to see Mia Audina claw her way back from 2-10 to even things out at 13-13. It is possible. Our players just can’t do it.
I think once people say Malaysian players are good in local tournaments only, and thus Kampung Champion only :d
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