ANALYSIS ON NATIONAL JUNIOR CIRCUIT ZONE B (1st LEG) 2015

Putting together all the eight semi-finalist of the two zones, we can see them in a better perspective how the eight players compare to each other in the 1st leg. The point to note is that the finalists will obviously play more sets than the semi-finalists.

One of the traits of a top player is his steadiness which can be correlated to low % of points loss compare to points won. (See row 6). This can be interpreted as the player has lesser unforced errors and are generally playing a "steady" game throughout.

Liew Xuan has the lowest % Points Loss / Points Won @ 69% and it is no coincidence as he is in top form upsetting Chia Jeng Hon in the Zone B final.

Zone A	Finalist	Finalist	Semi-Finalist	Semi Finalist
	Ong Zhen Yi (PG)	Kenny Khiew (SL)	Goh Boon Zhe (PG)	Anson Cheong (PK)
Sets Played	13	12	12	8
Sets Won	10	10	8	6
Sets Loss	3	2	4	2
Points Won	258	243	232	165
Points Loss	214	191	202	118
% Pts  Loss/Won	83%	79%	87%	72%
Ave Pts Loss/set	16.46	15.92	16.83	14.75

   

Zone B	Finalist	Finalist	Semi-Finalist	Semi-Finalist
	Liew Xuan (JH)	Chia Jeng Hon (PH)	Derrick Eng (JH)	Aaron Wong (PJ)
Sets Played	13	12	9	9
Sets Won	10	9	7	6
Sets Loss	3	3	2	3
Points Won	261	242	167	171
Points Loss	181	180	125	151
% Pts  Loss/Won	69%	74%	75%	88%
Ave Pts Loss/set	13.92	15.00	13.89	16.78

Although Anson Cheong had good statistics on paper but yet he bowed out in the semi-final against Kenny Khiew of Selangor. Perhaps he had a bad game against Kenny or had a mental glich. Be that as it may, a player has to make it count when it matters most. You can see why Aaron's game is erratic and it reflects in the statistics.
  

Rank	Zone	Name	% Pts  Loss/Won
1	B	Liew Xuan (JH)	69%
2	A	Anson Cheong (PK)	72%
3	B	Chia Jeng Hon (PH)	74%
4	B	Derrick Eng (JH)	75%
5	A	Kenny Khiew (SL)	79%
6	A	Ong Zhen Yi (PG)	83%
7	A	Goh Boon Zhe (PG)	87%
8	B	Aaron Wong (PJ)	88%

 

 

Rank	Zone	Name	Ave Pts Loss/set
1	B	Derrick Eng (JH)	13.89
2	B	Liew Xuan (JH)	13.92
3	A	Anson Cheong (PK)	14.75
4	B	Chia Jeng Hon (PH)	15.00
5	A	Kenny Khiew (SL)	15.92
6	A	Ong Zhen Yi (PG)	16.46
7	B	Aaron Wong (PJ)	16.78
8	A	Goh Boon Zhe (PG)	16.83

You can see from the Average Points Loss per set, the difference between Derrick Eng and Goh Boon Zhe is only 3 points difference. Every point loss is rather significant to the game. For just 3 points per set on average, it means you are either a champion or ended up a semi finalist.

 

 

Badminton’s future in the country starts in schools and the mindset of parents

By Jayaseelan Anthony - The Star

This is a period of inter-school district sports throughout the nation.
Sports such as badminton, cross country, sepak takraw and athletics, among others, will be organised by district education offices.
MSSD badminton tournaments are being held now so that the district teams can be formed for the Selangor Schools tournament (MSSS) due to be held from Feb 4 for 7 in Petaling Perdana.
Hundreds of players from primary and secondary schools will vye for 36 places in each district teams.
Often, districts will choose these players and conduct a centralised training for them for a couple of days before the Selangor meet.
Nothing much can be done in a few days in terms of improving the skills or fitness of players.
The sad part is, most of the time, we the coaches of these district teams, will know who would be selected before the district tournament starts! Bias? No. Cronyism? No. It is due to the lack of new unknown talents in these meets.
Around 500 players would be taking part and the maximum number of unknown talents that can match the established players is one! Most of the time, it’s none!
Only at the primary level can an above average player penetrate into the district team.
Even then, that player would have been trying for years to achieve it.
They then carry on to secondary level. That is a reality in many districts in Selangor.
Players such as R. Sathiestharan, M. Thinaah, Zulfadli Zulkifli, Azryn Ayub, Ng Pui Yee, Soong Joo Ven are some who conquered this game from primary to secondary in recent years.
Sathiestharan of Selangor and Cheam Jun Wei of Penang played in the boys’ singles final in the MSSM Badminton tournament every year until last year.
One will be surprised to know that it happens in the district level too. For instance, Kunaal Dev versus Ai Wei Jian was the line-up in the boys’ singles final in MSSD Gombak from the year 2008 to 2011 — a four-year continued rivalry with Kunaal winning it every year.
Now Kasturi Radhakrishnan is repeating that in the girls’ singles category. Perhaps this scenario is insignificant for some.
I wondered initially. How could it be that there are no newcomers to challenge them or to give them a decent fight in the tournaments? The answer is obvious. Everyone knows it. Parents.
Yes, parents who love the game and make arrangements to train their children properly under a professional coach consistently for a long time. The parents of the above-mentioned youngsters are a shining example.
They sacrifice their time, money, energy and leisure time by sending their children for daily training and taking them for tournaments. Worse still, they kill many hours sitting in the badminton hall.
I personally know some parents who quit their well paid jobs and start their own business so that they can be with their kids whenever they want — for training and tournaments.
Most of them do feel the pinch in terms of money spent on their badminton playing kids — coaches’ fees, equipments, food, travelling and supplements.
Don’t be surprised if a parent says he or she spends RM3,000 a month on average. I am not sure how many people realise the fact that Malaysia will never have good players without these parents.
Schools and district education offices can never produce a good badminton player. Believe me, not under the current conditions.
Many schools and districts have good badminton teams. However, we the teachers, acknowledge that we do not produce good players unlike other sports.
Why can’t we? Look around in schools nearby you. How many schools have playable badminton halls? A necessity. Even if a school has a hall, does it have expertise in coaching and guiding badminton players?
How many school heads are interested to build strong badminton teams?
I could create tens of questions explaining why schools can’t do much when it comes to badminton.
Malaysian stakeholders should know that these things must change.
Many parents and students are less involved actively in badminton due to many reasons.
No problem if badminton is played as a leisure sport in a family. But to get involved actively is a major decision for them.
Sooner or later when the economic cake gets smaller, when other priorities take over, fewer parents would do the same as before. Consequently, the nation suffers.
I admire Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. I really hope he will find ways to help schools produce good players by creating the proper infrastructure and expertise in badminton coaching and sports science.
By doing this, we can supplement the role of parents who are passionate to train their kids.
The Government can also create more sports’ schools and assure parents that there is indeed a future for badminton playing kids. Though we have “1Murid 1Sukan” (1 student 1 game) programme in schools, the purpose of every student taking part in a game is significantly different from producing skillful students in a game.
Quality is needed to excel in the sport of badminton!

PREVIEW ON NATIONAL JUNIOR CIRCUIT ZONE B (1st LEG) 2015

So, we are finally here. What a start 2015 would be as Putrajaya will host the 1^st leg of zone B. Playing on home ground, like the EPL will give some element of advantage. The Precinct 11 Dewan Serbaguna is a fully air-conditioned hall and quite a blizzard for those who come unprepared. That’s because apart from freezing temperatures, the draft flowing down from the spectators stand will disrupt the trajectory of the shuttle.  Even our players were struggling to contain the draft.    

This year in zone B, KL will join host Putrajaya together with Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and Terengganu to vie for top points over 2 legs. The top 8 highest points will be eligible to participate for the National Jr Grand Prix Finals. 

Aaron debut in the circuit

Now, on with the players preview. There are four clear run away favourites in zone B. Here is how they stack up.

Chia Jeng Hon, the 1^st rank from Pahang is the no. 1 seed in the circuit. He is by far still the most skilful player with his leisurely-like stroke rallies unmatched by many. Aaron has lost to him twice before and will be daunting task to get past this great wall of Pahang in the semis.

With Coach Sidi

Liew Xuan, the top rank from Johor is no alien to the circuit. Don’t be fooled by his Yoda like physique but he is masterful in his badminton craft. His celeb-like status in Johor makes him one of the favourites in the circuit.

Derrick Eng is rank second in Johor and is the no. 2 seed in the circuit. He has a quite fair share of success in many private tournaments that I have seen. Certainly a player to watch out for as well. 

Yong Bing Yan, the first rank of Melaka is also a seasoned player in the circuit. Not a player to be taken likely.

The next tier of players to me, are all very closely stacked.

Lee Qi Hong, the first rank from KL has had a steep curve in his development over the past one year. He starts as ¾ seed in the circuit.

Choi Jian Sheng, the second rank from Pahang is another Jeng Hon in the making. Although he is a year younger but certainly not a player to be taken lightly with.

Ng Yaw Pin, the second rank from Melaka is a dark horse. He crept up the ranks rather quietly. Not seen him play yet but to me he is there.

U12 Doubles - surprise semi finalist

Looking at Aaron’s draw, his hurdle to the semi final was his third game against Melaka’s Vincent Fum whom Aaron had once lost to in the 2013 Setia Tournament. Otherwise, he had a favourable draw in the top half before meeting top seed in the semi final. The zone of death was really in the bottom half where all 5 players mentioned above were drawn together there.

Aaron opened his account against Negeri Sembilan’s Roslin Fozi whom Aaron had beaten twice before. So he had an untroubled first win.  His second match against Vincent Fum was tricky. For two weeks, both my wife and I had been studying him from the video shot 2 years ago. We knew Vincent was a skilful player with lots of dangerous chops but we noted he is not as fast as Aaron and succumbs to enforced errors. We devised a strategy to make him move around the court to force him out of position. The match was tense as Vincent was playing with the draft behind him took the first set. In the second set, he began to tire and Aaron snatched back the game to force a decider. In the rubber, Aaron was trailing up to mid point and when he switched court with the draft behind him, Aaron raced ahead and in the end the fitter Aaron took the match home.

With chief coach Sting

Our team was elated for little Aaron as he had a real chance to go all the way to the semi finals. His quarter final match was against his old friend from Melaka, Thaanesh Devar with Aaron having a  2 – 1 head to head advantage. It was always a close fight between the two but Aaron was confident he could take it to 3 – 1 here. Aaron took the match in straight games and we have now surpassed the target. Anything more from here on will be a bonus.

Aaron has never got past the Pahang ace from the past 2 games they had played. We knew Aaron would have a hard time matching the racquet craft of the top seed. However,  Aaron put on a spirited display and was stretched to the limit.  Finally he conceded to the better player.

His semi final feat here will definitely boost his seeding in the second leg in Melaka. Until then, there is still work to do.

BSU12 Winner - Liew Xuan (Jh), Runners Up - Chia Jeng Hon (Ph), Semifinalist : Aaron Wong (PJ) & Derrick Eng (Jh)

BSU12

Round 1 :             Aaron Wong vs Bye

Round 2 :             Aaron Wong (PJ) vs Muhd Roslin Fozi (NS)                           21 – 14, 21 - 14

Round 3 :             Aaron Wong (PJ) vs Vincent Fum (MK)                                   16 – 21, 21 – 16, 21 – 18

Qtr Final :             Aaron Wong (PJ) vs Thaanesh Devar (MK)                            21 – 10, 21 – 16

Semi Final :         Aaron Wong (PJ) vs Chia Jeng Hon (PH 1)                              14 – 21, 15 – 21

BDU12 Winner : Chia Jeng Hon/Choi Jian Sheng (Ph), Runners Up : Justin Hoh/Lee Qi Hong (KL), Semifinalist : Aaron Wong/Tan Jie Yang (PJ) & Haris Sufian/ Ahmad Azamuddin (PJ)

 BDU12

1^st Round :           Aaron /Jie Yang (PJ)  vs Bye

2^nd Round :          Aaron /Jie Yang (PJ)  vs Tee Chian Ming/Ung Yi Hang (NS)             21 – 13, 21 – 17

Qtr Final :             Aaron /Jie Yang  (PJ) vs Muhd Hairul Azizi/Tiew Hen Zhuan (JH)  21 – 16, 21 – 15

Semi Final :         Aaron /Jie Yang (PJ) vs Justin Hoh/Lee Qi Hong (KL)         18 – 21, 21 – 18, 9 – 21