If Loh Kean Yew Plays Like This, He Will Win The 2024 Paris Olympics

With the 2024 Paris Olympics coming up, everyone is looking at who will be crowned the next gold medalist. Everyone is focused on Shi Yu Qi, Viktor Axelsen, Jonatan Christie, Lee Zii Jia and others.

But, one name that has not popped up that often is Loh Kean Yew. This is largely due to the fact that, after the miracle run at the 2021 World Championships, Loh Kean Yew would find himself in the biggest badminton drought of his career, where he would be unable to win another title until the recent 2024 Spain Masters in March.

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Today, we’ll be talking about Loh Kean Yew, and why it’s so difficult for him to win anymore. In this video, we will highlight the key elements that, if fixed, will help Loh Kean Yew to aim for gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

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Loh Kean Yew, known for his insane attack coupled with his ridiculous speed and agility on the court, makes him one of the deadliest players in the BWF World Tour. His unrivaled agility allows him to capitalize on seemingly loose shots in the frontcourt, and also allows him to attack most of the lifts in the back. This is one of Loh Kean Yew’s strengths in the sport of badminton.

But, nowadays, it feels like Loh Kean Yew just can’t win anymore.

What happened?

FIrst, let’s take a look at how he played in the 2021 World Championships versus his current gameplay.

Let’s talk about Loh Kean Yew’s two biggest strengths.

Number one is his speed.

His explosiveness and ability to move around the court has often put him in conversations for the fastest badminton player ever.

Loh Kean Yew’s second biggest strength his net play. When reviewing his 2021 world championship run, we were very impressed by how much control he had at the front of the court despite moving so quick.

In the 2021 World Championships, Loh Kean Yew played to his strengths almost perfectly.

Let’s start with what we call, gambling for the net.

If we take a look at how Loh Kean Yew plays throughout the 2021 World Championships, you’ll notice that he almost always moves forward in anticipation of the net.

Part of the reason this works so well for him is because he has good touch at the net and can quickly get back into the backcourt.

But it also works very well for Loh Kean Yew because the typical play in men’s singles is to play more to the front, especially in response to shots like smashes and drives.

And this is what we mean by gambling for the net. If 80-90% of the shots are played to the net and you’re already waiting there, then you’ll win 80-90% of the rallies because you take it so early and put so much pressure on your opponents.

That’s all you really need. You don’t need to win every single point. You just need to get to 21 points before your opponent does, and you’ll naturally get to 21 points first if you’re winning most of the time.

Gambling for the net is what made Loh Kean Yew so good in the 2021 World Championships. There are occasional times where he gets caught, but it’s okay because he predicted right 90% of the other times.

The earlier you’re able to take a shot, the more options you have. Watch how many different variations Loh Kean Yew plays at the net.

All of these shots generate tremendous opportunities for Loh Kean Yew to either win the rally off of a smash or net kill.

Additionally, we also need to talk about how Loh Kean Yew improves the chances of his net gamble paying off. For this, we can look towards his defense.

2021 World Champion Loh Kean Yew generally blocks far and attempts to initiate a flat game. His speed allows him to easily cut off any drives and continue the flat game until his opponents either try to lift over him or block.

One thing Loh Kean Yew understood very well in 2021 is that it is very difficult to lift a fast drive. Most of the time, players will play a block if they’re losing the drive battle. So if you’re the one initiating a drive battle and gambling for the net, you’re going to get a lot of opportunities to attack the block.

And even if your opponent does try to lift your drive, it is likely that they lift it too flat or halfcourt.

Essentially, Loh Kean Yew’s success in 2021 came from using his super speed and net play effectively by gambling for the net and playing shots that helped make his gambles pay off.

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Now let’s look at his current gameplay.

Loh Kean Yew’s current gameplay is now a little more control style.

You might think this is a good thing, but it doesn’t allow Loh Kean Yew to effectively play to his strengths, his super speed and his touch at the net.

One of the problems that is present within Loh Kean Yew’s current game is the fact that his shot speed is a lot slower.

Instead, Loh Kean Yew often opts for a tighter block which often results in the opponent initiating the spin net.

In badminton, when the opponent is initiating an attacking shot, say a spin net, or a drive, it usually means that they’re in control of the rally.

This is extremely evident in Loh Kean Yew’s game nowadays, which often feels like he’s using his speed to chase his opponent’s shots around; following his opponent’s rhythm.

Since Loh Kean Yew’s shot speed isn’t fast enough, his opponents can do whatever they want with his shot. This will make it very difficult for Loh Kean Yew to time his split step and will usually result in a correctional split step and footwork. Instead we think Loh Kean Yew should play faster shots as it will be easier for him to move more smoothly.

Because Loh Kean Yew is so fast, he should try to match his shot speed to his rhythm, and try to make the opponents fall into his speed. If he can do this, he will be one step closer to Olympic gold.

On the topic of speed, Loh Kean Yew’s pace after his smash is simply not quick enough. In the beginning of this video we talked about gambling for the net. This is exactly what Loh Kean Yew needs to bring back.

There have been too many times where Loh Kean Yew would smash and take little running steps to the bird.

Instead, he should try to smash and follow up quick to the net to initiate a drive game.

Since he’s playing a smash, it is most likely that the opponent will just block back around 80% of the time. Like we said back in the video, the goal is not to win every rally, it’s to win most of them. Therefore he should try to follow up quick and gain advantages through his follow up.

Another problem we saw with Loh Kean Yew was his shot selection at the net. A lot of times, Loh Kean Yew would play a deception at the wrong times. Deceptions are very good to play, but can be very dangerous when played at the wrong times.

There is a fine line between when it is good to play a deception at the cost of taking the shuttle up high, and when you should simply just hit the shuttle at the highest point of contact.

For Loh Kean Yew, the deception is really effective when he is coming up to the net very quickly and taking the shuttle with his racket up.

There are a couple of problems with Loh Kean Yew’s current deceptions. He often plays them when the opponent is already in position and in good rhythm to take the shuttle early. Secondly, he also tends to take it too low, and often plays the deception when he’s just standing there instead of when he’s moving into the shot.

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Many people, including us, do not have the speed nor the touch that rivals Loh Kean Yew. However, we can all implement a little bit of 2021 World Championship Loh Kean Yew in all of our games. First, we can all try gambling for the net more. Naturally, if your opponent is always lifting to you, you will have an easier time playing the game. Second, we should try to increase our shot speed. This is to generally make our footwork smoother, and prevent our opponents from controlling the rally.

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Do you guys want to see the 2021 Loh Kean Yew back? Let us know in the comments.