Jayce
First, please ask Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning to respond to a few comments:
Some people say that you have a tough style of play and that your double pressure attack has once again brought about the violent aesthetics of the women’s doubles arena.
——”I can’t do anything else but kill.”
Some people say that you don’t understand doubles, you just play your own games, like a temporary combination of two women’s singles players.
——“It’s true!”
Some people say that you look very similar, and when you stand on the court, it is difficult for fans who have just met you to tell you apart.
——”That means you are not our true fans yet.”
To me, they are just similar in appearance and playing style, but their growth experiences and personalities are very different. At the beginning of their combination, we all doubted whether their double backcourt style could achieve results. They had some unpleasant losses, but just like their enviable age, youth means unlimited possibilities. They won various high-level championships in just one year and rushed into the top three in the world rankings at a “flying” speed.
A year ago, perhaps the names of Tan Ning and Liu Shengshu were still relatively new in the world badminton arena, but today, a year later, they have become players that any first-class pair must take seriously.
Very similar, yet very different
If you are a spectator who has just turned on the live broadcast to watch the game, it is indeed difficult to tell them apart at once. Especially since the second half of last year, they changed their previous style of one wearing short-sleeved shirts and the other wearing sleeveless shirts on the court, and decided to go all the way to confuse the opponent, wearing sleeveless shirts together, which made them look even more similar on the court.
Tan Ning and Liu Shengshu are both outstanding representatives of post-00 female players. They are from the south and the north, and are both treasures of their respective local teams. Since they participated in competitions when they were young, they have been competing in both women’s singles and women’s doubles, and both have outstanding records. However, as opponents who have heard of each other for a long time and are almost the same age, they have never officially played against each other until they had the opportunity to confront each other in the women’s doubles competition of the National Championships during the epidemic. Perhaps the first battle was the moment when fate was buried. They played against each other in the women’s doubles competition, and later they were both selected into the women’s doubles group of the national first team, and finally became partners.
“PiPi” Liu Shengshu: Naughty but independent
At first glance, they really look alike, but this view never seems to be popular among people who are familiar with them, because they are really very different.
Liu Shengshu’s family officially recognized her nickname as Pipi when she was young. Just as the name means, she is a typical Northeast girl who is outgoing, cheerful, lively and loves to laugh. Every time you throw her a question, she can write a short essay and tell two jokes.
When she first joined the Liaoning team in the sixth grade of elementary school, Liu Shengshu trained in the third-tier team and lived a life of going to school and training at the same time. Every day, she got up early and went to school, bought two buns for breakfast on the way; she would train until 9 o’clock in the evening, and then go home to wash and sleep. Because her mother had to take care of her grandmother and great-grandmother, Liu Shengshu developed the habit of helping her mother share the pressure of housework since she was a child. She would not let her mother worry about things she could do by herself, and she had strong self-care ability.
To this day, Liu Shengshu’s ability to take care of herself is still of great benefit to her time management and life management during training and competitions. How can you take care of yourself without being able to cook? Now every time I go out for a competition, especially in competition areas with difficult dining conditions, living in the same room with Pipi has become a huge bonus. During the competition in India in January, Liu Shengshu improved the quality of life of her roommate Wei Yaxin by bringing her own pot and a series of chili sauces, mapo tofu sauce, etc. She instantly became everyone’s ideal roommate as she is a good cook. When the next week came to the Indonesian Masters, Wei Yaxin no longer lived in the same room with Liu Shengshu, and she fell ill during the competition. She couldn’t help but complain to Liu Shengshu: “Pipi, you see, I get sick even if I don’t live with you!”
“Little Flying Pig” Tan Ning: Introverted but also a favorite of the crowd
Tan Ning is from Hunan. When she was a child, she went to the Hunan team and the Bayi team but failed to be selected. Finally, she was selected by coach Zheng Baojun of the Fujian team. Because she registered late and there were few teammates of the same age in the team, Tan Ning hardly participated in national youth competitions. In 2019, the 16-year-old Tan Ning participated in the National Youth Championships for the first time and won the women’s singles championship and women’s doubles third place in Group B. This year, she also participated in the Asian Youth Championship and the World Youth Championship. At that time, she was still focusing on women’s singles. She won the women’s singles bronze medal in the Suzhou Asian Youth Championship and stopped in the top 16 in the World Youth Championship.
Liu Shengshu has practiced both singles and doubles since she was a child in the Liaoning team, and she switched to women’s doubles at the age of 15. But Tan Ning is different. Although she has been playing both singles and doubles since she participated in youth competitions, she did not receive systematic doubles training before joining the national team. She just used her singles skills and personal abilities to play women’s doubles because of her strong ability. Therefore, today when they move to the high-level women’s doubles arena, the main improvement point of this pair is Tan Ning.
Another obvious difference from Liu Shengshu is that Tan Ning is very introverted and only smiles when she is in a familiar and comfortable atmosphere. I believe this is very obvious in her interviews. When asked how to quickly identify her and Liu Shengshu, Tan Ning’s answer is also very relevant: “The one who doesn’t like to smile is definitely me.”
However, in the girls’ group, Tan Ning is also a favorite. In the past two years, following the sisters in the first team, she has not only learned a lot of ways to deal with people, but also made many foreign players as friends, including the Japanese women’s doubles player Chiharu Shida, who is very popular in China.
It’s hard to get started in women’s doubles
Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning both started out as women’s singles players. Now they are working together to challenge the world’s top players, but in fact their doubles foundations are completely different.
Build strength and lose weight
Although she is a little younger, Liu Shengshu switched from singles to doubles earlier. At the 2019 Second Youth Games, Liu Shengshu won three gold medals in women’s singles, women’s doubles, and women’s team, and she was very successful. After that competition, she officially switched to the women’s doubles group in the national youth team. Because she had been practicing both singles and doubles in the Liaoning team since she was a child, Liu Shengshu’s doubles skills were not weak, and she had outstanding abilities, so she gradually integrated into the doubles soon after switching to it.
Although she was invincible during the youth competition, it was not all good for Liu Shengshu because she suffered a serious injury at that time. When she was in the youth team, Liu Shengshu had problems with her sciatic nerve and was unable to train for a long time. She was optimistic and rational by nature and did not lose heart. She actively cooperated with the team doctor for treatment every day and used this time to actively strengthen her strength training. After recovering from the injury, she not only successfully lost 15 kilograms, but also increased her muscle mass.
“When I was a kid, I didn’t pay attention and often attacked too hard when practicing with the male players. My strength wasn’t very good at that time, so I got injured easily. But since I stepped up my strength training that time, I have rarely been injured. So, strength is very important!” said Liu Shengshu.
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