Seoul: Obviously Tuesday was a bad moment for Lee Chong Wei when he was knocked out of the Korea Open first qualifying round by Heo Kwang Hee of Korea. However, life continues, it’s not the end.
Badminton fans, including myself, have been spoiled by the dominance of Lee Chong Wei during the last 10 years. Although he has never won an Olympic gold or the World Championships title, but that doesn’t take away what he has achieved in his illustrious career spanning more than a decade. Having won 57 titles (38 of them were from Superseries), and 30 runner-ups, he is arguably one the era’s greatest badminton players.
Nevertheless, his recent struggles at Japan Open and Korea Open seemed to have surprised many people, but those challenges he encountered at the two tournaments could very well be the direct effect from his mental fatigue and physical fatigue.
While the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have neither able to produce a strong pipeline of young talents nor able to build a strong coaching team around Lee, Lee Chong Wei has been the only Malaysian shuttler who alone has consistently carrying Malaysia’s hopes and pride on his shoulders for many years. His national pride and his strong sense of national duty invariably became extremely painful when he was repeatedly defeated by Chinese players in the Olympics and World Championships. These stressful consequences could lead to mental burnout, lack of enthusiasm and motivation.
On the contrary, Lin Dan, the two time Olympic gold medalist from China has been in much better position in term of psychological burden, since he has other teammates that play well to take responsibility and ease pressure off him. Before his Japan Open triumph last week, 2015 has been a dismal year for Lin Dan. He was defeated by Chen Long in the All England semi-finals, was crushed by Tommy Sugiarto at the India Open, beaten again by Chen Long in the Malaysia Open finals, was consecutively bowed out in the first round of Australian Open and Indonesian Open, and was sent packing by Jan Jorgensen in the quarter-finals of world championships. Fans were doubtful but not so worried, because China still has Chen Long, Wang Zhengming and even Tian Houwei who are among the top shuttlers in the world. On more than one occasion, Lin has stressed that his remarkable rise to success was driven by a very strong coaching staff team.
After the 2015 World Championships, Chinese badminton chief coach Li Yongbo even told the media that if Lee Chong Wei was on the China national team, he would have already shattered the psychological barriers to win one of those highest badminton honors.
When he was reinstated by Badminton World Federation (BWF) in May 2015, Lee has been playing in 9 international tournaments, including the men’s team event at the Singapore SEA Games in June 2015. Meanwhile, both Lin Dan and Chen Long have only played in 7 international tournaments starting May 2015. Playing in too many tournaments in 4 months may have taken a toll on his body.
Furthermore, constant disappointment at huge tournaments could potentially transfer his mental fatigue to physical exhaustion. It should therefore come as no surprise that Lee was not playing as well as he used to at the Japan Open and Korea Open after his runner-up finish at the World Championships this year.
The good news is, if there is a problem there is always a solution. Forget about coaches from BAM, Lee needs to talk to one of his ex-coach as he strives to reinvent himself (email me if you don’t know which coach I am referring to). Secondly, he needs to pace himself properly throughout the Olympic qualification period, avoid injury, don’t put himself into stressful and exhausting situation, design a program that could help him reach peak condition at the appropriate time such as during the Rio Olympics. Thirdly, do not carry the weight of the heavy national burden when playing in big tournaments such as Olympics or Worlds. Lastly, his team needs to be smart enough to choose the correct tactics and needs to be able to bring out the best in Lee Chong Wei from the hardest tasks against the toughest opponents, both psychologically and physically.
Lee Chong Wei’s determination, passion, fighting spirit and desire are what separate him apart from other players of his generation. He has produced some of the greatest moments in recent badminton history. Therefore, it is completely possible for Lee Chong Wei to recover from his recent setbacks and return to greatness.
