Mental Strength
They are not called Olympians for nothing.
I watched the Olympics Badminton round of 32 match between World No. 1 Lin Dan of China and Ng Wei of Hong Kong.
Anyone would have cursed their luck to draw Lin as his opponent in the opening match. To reach the Olympics only to realise that you will be going home after the first round must have felt horrible. And Lin's arrogant attitude was not going to help. A lesser man might have bowed to the pressure of facing off the World No. 1.
Not Ng Wei. Although he was obviously outclassed as Lin made him ran around the four corners of his half of the court chasing after Lin's shots, the man simply did not give up. He went to his knees more than once to save those difficult shots. More than once he clawed his way back to reduce Lin's lead sometimes to a mere 3 points. And more than once he "stole" points when Lin got complacent (Ng was quite obviously annoyed by Lin's arrogance). Quite simply put, Ng gave 120% effort even though he eventually had to bow out after the opening match.
I also watched the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the Olympics women individual archery competition last night. To see China's Zhang Juan Juan shoot was to see another superb display of mental strength. Despite placing no. 27 in the ranking round, Zhang coolly and consistently placed her shafts close to the centre of the target to take out No. 3 seed Joo Hyung-jung in the quarters and No. 2 seed Yun Ok-hee (World No. 1) in the semis (and equaling the Olympic Record). Having advanced far beyond what her ranking indicates, the pressure upon her must be immense facing No. 1 seed Park Sung-hyun (also Olympic gold medallist in 2004) before the home crowd. But it was Park who buckled under the pressure (as had World No. 1 Yun in the semis against Zhang).
Only once did Zhang slip up to hit a mere 7 out of 10 early in the finals. But she did not let the pressure get to her and scored consistent 9s and 10s after that while Park managed to score 8 on four shots to erase the lead she had on Zhang after Zhang's slip up. When it came down to Zhang's final shot, she needed a 9 or 10 in order to triumph over Park. She did not disappoint and placed her shaft on the second ring to score a 9, just that one more point she needed to take gold.
They are not called Olympians for nothing.
I watched the Olympics Badminton round of 32 match between World No. 1 Lin Dan of China and Ng Wei of Hong Kong.
Anyone would have cursed their luck to draw Lin as his opponent in the opening match. To reach the Olympics only to realise that you will be going home after the first round must have felt horrible. And Lin's arrogant attitude was not going to help. A lesser man might have bowed to the pressure of facing off the World No. 1.
Not Ng Wei. Although he was obviously outclassed as Lin made him ran around the four corners of his half of the court chasing after Lin's shots, the man simply did not give up. He went to his knees more than once to save those difficult shots. More than once he clawed his way back to reduce Lin's lead sometimes to a mere 3 points. And more than once he "stole" points when Lin got complacent (Ng was quite obviously annoyed by Lin's arrogance). Quite simply put, Ng gave 120% effort even though he eventually had to bow out after the opening match.
I also watched the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the Olympics women individual archery competition last night. To see China's Zhang Juan Juan shoot was to see another superb display of mental strength. Despite placing no. 27 in the ranking round, Zhang coolly and consistently placed her shafts close to the centre of the target to take out No. 3 seed Joo Hyung-jung in the quarters and No. 2 seed Yun Ok-hee (World No. 1) in the semis (and equaling the Olympic Record). Having advanced far beyond what her ranking indicates, the pressure upon her must be immense facing No. 1 seed Park Sung-hyun (also Olympic gold medallist in 2004) before the home crowd. But it was Park who buckled under the pressure (as had World No. 1 Yun in the semis against Zhang).
Only once did Zhang slip up to hit a mere 7 out of 10 early in the finals. But she did not let the pressure get to her and scored consistent 9s and 10s after that while Park managed to score 8 on four shots to erase the lead she had on Zhang after Zhang's slip up. When it came down to Zhang's final shot, she needed a 9 or 10 in order to triumph over Park. She did not disappoint and placed her shaft on the second ring to score a 9, just that one more point she needed to take gold.
They are not called Olympians for nothing.
Captain's orders by Parrots of the Currybean at 12:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home