Hope you'll not retired for a short period time . Believe me , there are many fans that put hope on you~
Hi Amin! Thank you Maybe I can play untill the same age as Jens Eriksen, who was 38 when he retired Kind Regards JR
^^Oh, noooo...38 yrs old?!?!...JR, that'll be too long of a wait..^^ ..plus by the time you want to join the U.S. Open, again, you'll be playing instead in the U.S. Senior International Championships... Btw, yes, there were a couple senior players, who've been regulars every yr, competing with the younger players who could be as young as their own kids; Dean Schoppe and Matthew Fogarty.
You Danes seem to peak at an older age compared to players from Asia, especially those from China. Is there a physical (or mental) secret to this?
Here's a post where Thomas Laybourn explains... http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1058765&postcount=1
Laybourn attributes it to less time spent on court. Er, that simply cannot be the reason. If it were so, all you need to do is drastically cut down on practice and, presto, you have an extended run of success. I'm hoping for a different explanation from JR
In china there is a very hard competition for the few places on the national team. therefore, they push their boddies more in their early years. this is also why many chineese players don't last as long as the danes. in Denmark we have not got that big an interest for badminton (of course it is there, but not even close to what it is in china) therefore, we can take more care and listen to our boddies when they say that you shjould stop. in china you might go for half an hour more when your boddy says that you should stop
Well, the statement of me retiring at the age of 38 was meant as a joke I don´t think I will last another 7 years.... I think one of the reasons why danish players seem to mature later is due to the early retirement of the asian players. They don´t get secondchances and are pushed to do well untill they are about 25 years old. This way they get a lot of good results early in their career, but as soon as their results drop in quality the young guys or girls are ready to take over. This way they loose a lot of experience material and the new players need time to play well all the time in the really big arenas like WC and Olympics. This is the advantage of the danish model as players get more chances over a longer period of time. Along aging comes more matureness and experience. Another big factor is, as Laybourn stated, the less hours spent training throughout a danish players career compared to the asians. If the asians kept up the amount of practise and punishment of the body, their body would be ill off after retirement. Therefore the danish way of thinking is to accumulate enough experience to outplay the young players, which every year hits the international level and try to keep up with the best of the best as well or just try to be good enough to be able to beat them when they are off their game. Kind Regards JR
Hi JR, It's great to see a professional badminton player interacting with the fans. Some questions which I hope hasn't already been asked (it hard to keep track of what has - maybe you need a frequently asked questions page or something): Any plans to be on Twitter? I know you're on Facebook. What is your most memorable match? What pair would you consider as your arch rival/nemesis/Achilles heel and why?
Hi Michael23! All good questions Question 1: Well, I don´t know much about Twitter yet. Writing here and on facebook do take a lot of time. In addition I don´t know the difference between facebook and twitter. Maybe you can explain that to me Question 2: My most memorable match. Well, I do think there is two that pops into my mind. Firstly, the worldchampionship final in 2003 against Sigit & Candra is the most important one. You may find it on my fansite on facebook if you haven´t seen it yet. The second one will be against Flandy & Eng Hian in the Thomas Cup semifinal against Indonesia on their hometurf. About 12.000 very participating indonesian fans against us in the famous Istoran AND still winning that match will defintely be my second choice. Don´t know if there is any record of it on the net. Not the best match as they were extremely striken by nerves. Question 3: Arch rivals....Well, we have played Fu & Cai several times before and it´s almost always thrilling to play them as both pairs don´t want to loose. All four players just feels it and perform better. But after the match it´s always friendly and we have great respect for each other. I don´t think there is anyone on the tour right now where it´s bad rivalry after the match. Back in the days it used to be Simon Archer everybody wanted to beat. He was so commited to winning and did whatever necessary to beat you. Even bad mouthing on court. Today, I see him as one who taught me how to ignore your opponents attempts to throw you off-balance and respect his results very much. He was a colourful figure and always got a lot of attention when he played. So hats of for that. Kind Regards JR
^^Ooohh, ooohh, i've got a question..^^ *raises arm real high* ..JR, speaking of that 2003 World Championships experience, which MD pair or pairs do you think will be the pair or pairs to beat, in other words the favorite who do you think MD pair or pairs, in the upcoming WC in India, besides you and Lars, of course??.. Thanks.
^^From those quintet pairs..^^ ..which pair do you think is the toughest challenger, if you can rate them from 1 to 5, 1 being the "toughest"??..or all of them are abt the same??.. thanks for the reply.
Thanks for answering my questions JR. Very interesting read. I'll have to see if I can find those matches. As for Twitter, you probably won't need to concern yourself with it as I gather you're not online much anyway. It's a social network website similar to Facebook, except it's mainly for short messages and less featured (140 characters). Another question if I may: Does a professional badminton player try to analyse their opponent during each an every shot and devise counter strategies, or in the heat of the battle do you rarely think about it and just play each shot based on it's merits? Or is this all taken care by the coaches who I often see speak to players during the breaks?
^^I know you love 'em head to head stats..^^ ..but have you played against those top MD pairs before??..
Hi ctjcad! Yes, of course.... It´s difficult to say which pair is the toughest one. They all play really well at their peak level. The draw has just come out and we face Korea in the first match. It´s a good pair. According to our seeding we face Fu/Cai in quarterfinals and Setiawan/Kido in semis. A truly tough draw I must say. The good news is that we have beaten all the top pairs before, so we can do it again Kind Regards JR
Yes... and I hope you will PS: By the way, you are barred from voting in this poll: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73041
My post was for narnia.. ...hah, not for you, JR.. Btw, thanks for your input. I guess you will rate them as pretty much equal, even steven.. Btw, the upper half of the WC MD draw seems to be the "group of death"..