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Lin Dan's Strategy that Allowed Him to Beat Lee Chong Wei at the 2011 World Championships
Sep 12, 2024
Lin Dan is a Two-time Olympic gold medallist, five-time World champion, two-time World Cup champion, two-time Asian Games gold medalist, four-time Asian Champion, and six-time All-England champion. In this video, we will explain why Lin Dan was so good and what allowed him to beat Lee Chong Wei at the 2011 World Championships, dubbed "the greatest men's singles match of all time."
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
in this video we will cover the highly
0:01
requested and Undisputed goat of men's
0:03
singles
0:05
Lind four times world champion we will
0:08
focus on the world championship final in
0:11
2011 partly because it was and still is
0:14
the best game of all time at least in
0:16
our opinion but it is also because these
0:19
different versions of lindan need
0:21
separate videos if we want to know how
0:23
lindan beat Lee Chong way in this final
0:26
we cannot completely focus on lindan we
0:29
also need to take look at Lee Chong
0:30
Way's strengths and his weaknesses from
0:33
a surface level Lee Chong Way's strength
0:35
would definitely be his speed on the
0:36
court his footwork arguably the best of
0:39
all time allowed him to seemingly glide
0:41
on the
0:50
court this coupled with his technical
0:53
skills with the racket made him an
0:55
extremely formidable
0:58
opponent but because Lee Chong way was
1:00
so fast it often masked his shot quality
1:03
weakness it is very evident in 2008 but
1:05
also evident in 2011 Lee Chong Way's
1:07
shot quality especially his late back
1:09
court was not the
1:14
best
1:21
that's while this was fine for the
1:23
Malaysian against High ranked opponents
1:25
like defending Champion chenz Jin or
1:26
beating the world number nine park Sun
1:28
Juan it was was not enough for Lind Don
1:31
this just goes to show the difference
1:32
between the two legends and the rest of
1:34
the international badminton circuit Lee
1:36
Chong way and Lind Don were essentially
1:38
on equal footing in badminton which is
1:40
why even a small weakness in Lee Chong
1:42
Way's game was enough for lindan to
1:44
capitalize on and from this lindan built
1:47
the foundation of his strategy his
1:49
strategy needed to somehow prevent Lee
1:51
Chong way from effectively using his
1:52
speed capitalize on his weakness and
1:55
allow lindan to use his strengths to
1:58
score the first thing to do when making
2:00
a strategy is to plan to disrupt your
2:02
opponent's strengths lindan disrupted
2:04
Lee Chong Way's speed with small holds
2:06
in the front court that often caused
2:08
Correctional split Steps From the
2:10
Malaysian you can be however fast you
2:12
want but if you are moving in the wrong
2:14
direction first then it is all for
2:26
nothing if Lind Dan doesn't have these
2:28
little deceptions in the front Cor then
2:30
Lee Chong way is free to move smoothly
2:32
this is ideal for the Malaysian as then
2:34
he can
2:37
attack placing
2:42
guns there are several reasons as to why
2:45
lindan can catch Lee Chong way with
2:46
these little holds the first reason we
2:48
need to watch out for is where lindan is
2:50
taking the shuttle notice how every shot
2:52
lindan takes in this rally is above his
2:54
waist
2:58
[Music]
3:05
that's intuitively the higher somebody
3:08
takes the shuttle in a rally the more
3:09
pressure there is on the other player
3:11
the higher he takes the shuttle the more
3:13
time he has to watch Lee Chong way see
3:15
where he is moving and adjust
3:19
accordingly this leads us to our second
3:21
reason for how lindan was able to
3:22
counter Lee Chong way speed in this game
3:25
Lee Chong way often had to do
3:26
correctional split steps in this game
3:28
because he couldn't guess what shot lean
3:29
Dan was going to
3:45
play take
3:51
it a key factor in deciding the outcome
3:54
of this game was how lindan would have
3:56
his racket facing one way and change it
3:58
at the last second
4:00
in this rally you can see the amount of
4:01
times that LE Chong way made the
4:03
correctional split step and look at how
4:05
low he takes the
4:13
shuttle the lower you take the shuttle
4:16
the more technical skill you must have
4:17
to play a good quality shot over the
4:23
net so the Chinese shuttler is able to
4:25
get a bad quality shot from the
4:26
Malaysian but what comes next how does
4:28
lindan manage to place so many smash
4:30
winners for that we have to mention Lind
4:32
Dan's shot
4:34
combos if you have already watched some
4:36
of our videos it seems that we always
4:38
talk about this we frequently mention
4:40
this because it is important to have a
4:42
series of shots planned out this is
4:44
essentially the skill of anticipation
4:46
and Lind Dan was one of the greatest at
4:49
[Applause]
4:54
anticipating now it's big guns
5:00
you can see that his anticipation or
5:01
shot combos are unrivaled it's coming
5:03
it's
5:05
coming notice how he cross blocks and
5:07
immediately starts moving toward that
5:12
side and his follow-up
5:21
speed this is one of the things that
5:23
seem to be appearing less frequently in
5:24
current Pro play nowadays we see lazier
5:27
follow-ups
5:30
this is part of the reason lindan was so
5:32
deadly and it's not just smash kill look
5:34
at some of his other
5:38
[Applause]
5:50
combos so this is ultimately how Lind
5:53
Dan wins the rally the time is coming
5:55
it's
5:57
coming at the start he builds up the
5:59
pressure on Lee Chong Way by taking the
6:01
net early and having small little holds
6:03
at the net that make it difficult for
6:04
Chong way to guess where the next shot
6:06
is going to be then these high quality
6:08
shots from lindan often get Lee Chong
6:10
way into a predicament where he is
6:12
taking the shuttle late giving lindan
6:13
the opportunity to change the pace and
6:15
play his shot
6:18
[Applause]
6:21
combos cover scare incredible both
6:24
players yeah it's a trademark for both
6:28
players that they're so quick
6:31
[Applause]
6:39
[Applause]
6:53
play we can also take a look at some
6:54
more of Lind Dan's exceptional
6:56
strengths we can see that because lindan
6:58
has an except exeptional stick smash he
7:00
is able to reach the bird early and play
7:02
an attacking shot because he doesn't
7:04
have to turn his body not only is the
7:06
shot quality good but it is also a
7:08
change of pace and Direction things
7:10
turned a little sloppy for Leong way
7:12
there in that the most likely shot would
7:14
likely be straight but lindan changes
7:16
the direction and plays the unexpected
7:18
stick smash
7:22
cross watch away swing is also very
7:24
short which allows him to follow up
7:25
quickly
7:32
I see
7:35
yeah now we can't talk about lindan or
7:38
Lee Chong way without mentioning their
7:39
footwork there are two qualities that
7:41
stood out to us that allow lindan to
7:44
practically walk on the court the first
7:45
is his exceptional shot
7:47
quality shot quality is very important
7:49
for smooth footwork as it helps you
7:51
predict where your opponent will hit
7:53
[Applause]
8:12
[Music]
8:17
lindan is able to change the pace here
8:19
because Lee Chong way cannot play many
8:21
shots from here due to lyan's shot
8:24
quality while the cross clear is the
8:26
right shot it is a little too short and
8:28
slow
8:30
the second point we have to mention is
8:32
how good lindan is at injecting speed
8:34
into his footwork in current Pro play we
8:36
see a lot of bouncing on the balls of
8:38
the feet where players opt to stay
8:39
constantly moving for better
8:41
Rhythm oh he done well twice here
8:56
Che however Lind Dan chooses to be more
8:59
stable in in his footwork where you can
9:00
often see him walking on the court when
9:03
his opponent's hit he then pushes off
9:04
with 100% effort to reach the shuttle
9:07
with a high contact point the benefit of
9:09
this is that it allows lindan to be very
9:11
smooth on
9:14
court neither player is committing in
9:18
this rally they just play many many
9:20
neutral shots however one drawback is
9:22
that you must be very precise on the
9:24
timing of your split step for example in
9:27
this clip lindan went too early which
9:29
caused him to move in the wrong
9:31
direction
9:33
first fin to prevent this he waits for
9:36
the shuttle to be hit and then starts
9:38
moving minimizing Correctional split
9:43
[Applause]
9:44
steps this also allows him to change the
9:47
pace easily and take commanding control
9:48
of the rallies
9:56
[Applause]
10:09
our final point is probably the most
10:10
important regarding lindan his mental
10:13
strength Lind Dan's mental composure
10:15
gave him the little Edge that he needed
10:17
over Le Chong way this was especially
10:19
apparent in the third set at 16 to13 you
10:22
can visually see Lee Chong way becoming
10:24
impatient and forcing shots which led to
10:25
a lot of Errors from the Malaysian he's
10:28
got to try again now
10:34
world number
10:49
one two of these mistakes were out the
10:51
side let's compare this to where lindan
10:53
is hitting his shots he plays more
10:55
towards the middle which minimizes
10:57
mistakes and helps reduce the angle on
10:58
shots from Le Chong
11:07
way at 21 to2 you can also see Lyn Dan
11:11
playing a perfect net shot at match
11:14
point just think about how much mental
11:16
toughness it takes to go for a net roll
11:18
at match point in one of the highest
11:19
pressure matches a badminton player
11:21
could play in summary restricting Lee
11:24
Chong ways speed through little holds at
11:26
the front Court capitalizing on his bad
11:28
shots with his shot Combos and mental
11:31
toughness are ultimately what led lindan
11:33
to become the 2011 L does it
11:38
again a Monumental
11:42
battle if you guys thought that this
11:44
match was the best of all time leave a
11:47
comment below additionally if you guys
11:49
like this video hit the like And
11:50
subscribe Button as always thank you for
11:52
watching
11:59
h
12:01
[Music]