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the past week has been very eventful in
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the men's singles Department with many
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close three-game matches and upsets in
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the 2024 Kumamoto Japan Masters
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tournament we'll be covering a few of
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the tournament's games but wanted to
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start with the finals match between
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leang janha and Lee shiong although it
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was a fairly one-sided match that
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leifang won there were still multiple
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learnings from the match that we can
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Implement in our own gameplay let's
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start by looking at how leifang played
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it Lea Fun's strategy was very clear
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going into this game play a good spin
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net and win off your smash at the front
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Court Lee was basically always looking
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for an opportunity to play a spin net if
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he couldn't then he would either block
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far or opt to push and lift very high in
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the back court the strategy was simple
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as well play everything down and smash
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whenever possible although the play
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style may seem very one-dimensional
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there are several advantages to playing
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this way first it puts a lot of pressure
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on your opponents and is extremely
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effective at the start of the match when
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your opponent isn't necessarily fully
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warmed up and perhaps a little bit
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nervous the goal is to jump into the
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match and quickly build a sizable lead
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before your opponent finds his Touch by
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doing so you create extra mental
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pressure that will cause your opponent
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to feel a need to speed up their own
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play and in doing so cause them to make
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more mistakes we see Lee Shaun
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successfully execute this goal both
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against Leong junha and against Victor
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axelon in his previous semi-final match
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when watching Lee shaon Play You'll also
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notice that he often limits himself to
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playing just a few different shots from
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his forehand side he either smashes
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cross from his around the head he goes
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straight Cross or at the body but pretty
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much always plays a smash taking time to
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develop change the shule or
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not this is the case even if he's late
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to the shuttle in which the full smashes
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simply become drives or half smashes we
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can see a similar story at the front
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Court when he can't net kill or drive
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Lee pretty much always spin Nets when
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taking the shuttle up high if he ends up
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a bit late then he often plays High
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pushes and lifts that tend to go Cross
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of course you will see some variation
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like the occasional clear or drop but
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they are rare and never his first choice
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this play style does get predictable but
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it works because Lee has honed in on the
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skills needed to execute his strategy it
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doesn't necessarily matter if his
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opponent know a smash is coming Lee has
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developed tremendous explosive power
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that makes it difficult for anyone to
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lift against him it is often the case
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that having two really good shots up
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your sleeve is enough let's take Lee's
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forehand corner for example a really
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good cross slice and straight smash
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already opens up the court enough to
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prevent your opponent from positioning
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too aggressively to cover one shot
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focusing on just a few shots makes
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followup much easier as well because you
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know exactly what you want to do and
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your opponent's likely responses we can
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see this in leung's footwork pay
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attention to where leifang moves and his
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speed after playing his shots against Le
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yeah brilliant speed Lee knows exactly
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what shot he'll play and the likely
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responses to each shot he already knew
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what leang was going to play most of the
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time which made his movements extremely
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smooth his um right thigh today where he
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spr of course there are counters to Leif
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Fun's strategy what Leong needed to do
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was play the unexpected returns and
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neutralize Leif Fun's strengths there
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were a few moments where this was
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happening like when Leong opted to repos
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Lee's late forehand drives since Lee was
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prepared for the front court and already
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moving forward rep pushing to the same
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spot forces him to make a correctional
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split step and gives Leong an
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opportunity to potentially attack the
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next shot shutle or not in recent
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months than they used to be I can
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remember Lee Chong way anybody asked to
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change the shuttle and he'd say yes of
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shuttle unfortunately he didn't really
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have a combo to transition into after
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playing these unexpected shots so
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leifang was usually able to neutralize
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and reset the rally one thing Leong
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could have done was opt for a cross
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Drive in response to Le's late forehand
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more often and try to proactively attack
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Le late shots instead of just reacting
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there were a few times where he
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generated good opportunities from these
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shots and could have done it far more
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from yeah a little bit more from L Jun
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but but also I mean I really think
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strategically and tactically leifang has
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played this but we do understand how
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hard it is for leang to make these
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adaptations in the match especially
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given the grueling matches he had played
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earlier throughout the week all that was
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going through his mind was probably to
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push through whatever weakness or
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fatigue he was feeling however it is an
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absolute must for leyang to avoid
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playing into his opponent's combos to
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continue winning at this level in
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general playing into your opponent's
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strength will lower your win rate and
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naturally something we should avoid
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doing and one way to do that is to learn
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what are the most frequent responses to
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our opponent's shots and play the shots
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that they're not expecting some examples
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include cross blocking or rifting
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smashes as the typical return is a
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straight block another example is cross
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netting your opponent's cross net as
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they're generally expecting you to lift
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or net straight when your opponent is
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not ready for your shot they're way more
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likely to make a mistake or play a more
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predictable safe shot that you can
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on hopefully you learned a few things
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from this video that you can use in your
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own game to to sum things up start by
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not trying to do too much in your
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rallies having shot variety is important
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but when you think about all the
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different options you have you end up
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playing shots that aren't cohesive with
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the rest of your strategy or end up
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making mistakes we can all be like Leif
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fun a little bit in the sense of
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limiting each rally to a few shot
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options so we have a sense of direction
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and an actual idea in what we're trying
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to do second we need to learn how to
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neutralize our opponent strengths and
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not play into their combos think about
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all the common patterns in bad like
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smash net kill spin net smash push into
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cross net Etc if you can play unexpected
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shots like cross net when your opponent
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spin Nets or backhand cross clear when
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your opponent pushes to your backhand
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you'll be able to throw your opponent
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out of their normal routine and control
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the rally of course these shots are
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unexpected because they're difficult to
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pull off but if you know these shots
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will win you points it's a simple matter
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of practicing them deception again
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