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Paul McNamara

He is by every measure England’s greatest bowler, but even James Anderson was reduced to mediocrity after an abortive attempt to remodel his action.
The owner of 704 Test wickets, Anderson spent most of his country’s 2004-05 tour of South Africa out of form and out of favour, and dejectedly bowling at single stumps on practice strips as he tried to relocate the pace and swing that had characterised his progressive initial years in international cricket.
Ironically, it was a stress fracture of the back, precisely the issue his new action was supposed to prevent, that persuaded Anderson to return to the tried-and-tested method that would allow him to become one of the finest bowlers cricket has seen.
For Anderson’s idiosyncratic dip of the head at the point of delivery, read Ryan Choi Chun-yin’s “leap, crouch and charge forward”, the tenet of the explosive and “crazy” technique that underpinned the Hongkonger’s ascent to the top of the fencing world last year.
The 2025 Asian and world champion, Choi has latterly been bedevilled by a left hamstring complaint that has required him to trade his combative style for an unfamiliar pragmatic approach.
At the recent Kerry World Fencing Championships in Hong Kong, Choi competed with a “five-to-10-per-cent tear in my muscle”.

“If I’m warmed up I can do most stuff, but I cannot have a super big lunge,” Choi told the South China Morning Post. “My main tool is to attack but, sometimes, when I do that, I worry a bit. That affects me against some of my opponents.
“But I’ve been working out other ways [to compete]. Even with my injured leg, I’ve been trying to improve my defence, or to attack without lunges.”
While Anderson said he felt like he was “trying to impersonate someone else” during his tinkering years, Choi has been “training with a doubtful heart” since June’s Asian Championships. Already nursing the hamstring problem in India, Choi relinquished his individual crown following a quarter-final defeat by eventual champion Kyosuke Matsuyama of Japan.
“Every day I have to worry about my leg: will the injury come back or will it get more serious?” Choi said.
“One or two years ago, I might have given up, or thought in a very negative way, but I understand now that for every good result you have to go through this process.
“When you bounce back from the bottom part of your mentality, you achieve something unexpected.”
It is entirely possible that this period of reflection and recalibration could leave Choi with a richer toolbox and broader understanding of himself on the piste.
After winning the Masters in 1997 by a runaway 12 strokes for the first of his 15 major titles, Tiger Woods went away and rebuilt his swing. Subsequently, Woods related that he had quietly watched back the entire tournament hoping to identify one area for improvement. “I didn’t see one flaw; I saw about 10,” he said.
The challenge Woods successfully navigated was that of bedding in the changes amid a relentless cycle of competition.
Choi has been confronted with a similar task. With the dust barely settled following July’s world championships, which were staged hot on the heels of their Asian equivalents, the Asian Games fencing programme in Japan will begin on September 22.
“The best way to heal is to rest but there’s always been another competition, so I’ve not been able to properly deal with the injury,” Choi said.
“That’s been the most challenging thing for me.”

Although he rose to No 1 in the global foil standings after becoming the city’s first fencing world champion last year, Choi currently resides at No 7.
His individual world title defence ran aground in the last-16, before a gut-wrenching end to the men’s team foil final, when Hong Kong were beaten 45-44 by Italy after the city team had held a 40-36 lead when Choi stepped up to contest the anchor leg with Guillaume Bianchi.
Greg Koenig, the Hong Kong head coach, duly granted his athletes two weeks holiday, telling them: “do not think or speak about fencing”.
Opting to coach youngsters in Taiwan and Hawaii, along with teenage teammate Harris Ho Shing-him, Choi, 28, could not help “reflecting on my fencing”.
The second-highest-ranked Asian foilist, Choi said: “There had been a lot of pressure, and a lot of upset, because I didn’t do as well as I wanted in the Asian or world championships.
“This time helped to distract me, and to find the positive energy to get back in shape.”
Aiming to improve on the individual and team bronzes he claimed in 2023, Choi would shake hands right now on going to the Asian Games with less than five per cent of his muscle still torn, although he is hopeful of reducing the damage to “zero per cent”.
Also a team silver medallist in 2018, Choi will have a scan at the end of next week, after which Koenig plans to “push him a bit more”.
“It’ll be intense training, and with his experience, [the short preparation] can be enough for the Asian Games,” Koenig said.
Back in 2018, a chronic elbow injury forced Novak Djokovic to rip up the serve responsible for the majority of the 12 grand slams he had already won and start again. After some teething problems, more surgery, and six months when he experienced “mental hurdles when I had to compete”, Djokovic emerged to win that year’s Wimbledon and US Open, before adding another 10 majors over the following five years.
When he encounters his own mental hurdles, Choi thinks of “how much I sacrificed over all these years”.
“If one day is hard, it’s nothing,” he said. “No matter how challenging things become, I know I have the ability to overcome them.”
While he is not alone among illustrious sportspeople in massaging his technique, Choi is also following in the footsteps of celebrated athletes such as Shaquille O’Neal, Oscar De La Hoya and Armand Duplantis in launching a music career.
In March, he released his debut solo single, “My Most Hated Male Singer”. Along with singer Phil Lam, he voiced “Break Through the Sky”, the theme tune for HOY TV’s Asian Games coverage.
Choi said that branching into music had invited more scrutiny on his private life and on “how I look”.
“People are harsh,” he said. “I feel like I’m naked to the public, that they can judge me from head to toe. I used to care a lot about what people thought of me. This has made me start paying more attention to myself and to the people who love me, not to those who don’t like me, so it’s good for me.”


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Fencing

Hong Kong’s Ryan Choi (right), high-fiving team-mate Cheung Ka-long during the World Championships men’s foil team final against Italy in July, has been “reflecting on my fencing”. Photo: Elson Li

Ryan Choi (right) has had to trade his combative style for a pragmatic approach. Photo: Elson Li

Tiger Woods at the 1999 US Masters, two years after he won the tournament and rebuilt his swing. Photo: AFP Photo

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Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been travelling around the world to shore up support for his leadership. Photo: AFP

Eric Fok and Hong Kong football bosses have refused to say whether they support Gianni Infantino or not. Photo: Elson Li

Fifa president Gianni Infantino (left), French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Esports World Cup in Paris. Photo: Reuters

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Hong Kong players celebrate after beating Bangladesh in the plate final at last year’s Sixes. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong officials and players joined leading JSW Sports executives to announce the plan. Photo: CHKC

Sport

Hong Kong

Ex-world champion aiming to emerge from injury ready for Asian Games medal quest, music career providing perspective


Ex-world champion aiming to emerge from injury ready for Asian Games medal quest, music career providing perspective.


Ryan Choi Chun-yin

Novak Djokovic

Tiger Woods

Why Hong Kong fencing ace Ryan Choi can take Djokovic inspiration amid technique tweak

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Ex-world champion aiming to emerge from injury ready for Asian Games medal quest, music career providing perspective

Ex-world champion aiming to emerge from injury ready for Asian Games medal quest, music career providing perspective