I saw the top ranked (Race to Tokyo) English singles players are Chloe Birch at 78 and Toby Penty at 58. Doubles pairs are in the top 20. Why are the single players so far behind compared to the doubles? Does England have any men’s singles players training in Milton Keynes?
All England has been woeful. They did have a funding cut, but really the problem is institutional. This article covers some of it. If this is happening at the top level you can only imagine what goes on further down. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/badminton/59964249
...and let's just remind ourselves that the last English winner of the Men's Singles at the All England Championship was Ralph Nichols in the year 1938...
The club scene in England centres around doubles, unless the kids are part of a county or national programme then they won't play much singles. ...and the scale (in terms of numbers and 'quality') of those programmes is miniscule compared to other countries. Badminton as a 'serious' hobby is just not in our culture.
To give you an idea, here's the info on the Junior Pathway Trials: https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/junior-performance-pathway/ Just the top 5 (in singles, it's top 3 for doubles) from each age group will be invited...and since it's "trials" they won't all get a place. Wonder how many e.g. Denmark have at this level? Here's the current junior squads...though I doubt anyone below "Excel" has much official/regular support: https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/junior-performance-pathway/england-junior-squads/ See the problem?
BE National Rankings: https://be.tournamentsoftware.com/ranking/ranking.aspx?rid=87 World Senior Rankings: https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/...473&ogid=24D62C1F-1CA0-4189-8646-66E35263CC3C If you cross-reference the current list of juniors with the above there's nobody making any ripples at present.
If I won the lottery (it'd have to be a BIG win!) I'd start to introduce the Danish grassroots model - build a 'badmintonhal' (cheaper than a 'sports centre') in towns that aren't close to a city/large town (where facilities might exist) make it really cheap or even free for kids and get some proper coaching going to support it. It's GBP12 per hour for a court where I live, no junior discount, no support but I bet if you could make it 'a thing' people would use it - if you build it, they will come. Wonder if you can hire Ethan Rose's personal court?! (nice one, Dad!)
I was dreaming about this as well! Some counties are really poorly represented with juniors and can't even get a team together. It has to be a five court hall at the minimum to encourage singles to be played. Get coaches to work and be paid for junior holiday sessions. Half terms and long holidays. Am and pm sessions to make it attractive for coaches to have group sessions and earn an income. Free training is a bit difficult because some people will just freeload it as baby sitting service. You then get kids sitting around affecting the kids who would be more proactive. Some of our German forum member have noted this problem.
Sadly true, but let's give a shout-out to Colin, organiser of the London East Badminton Club, who devotes weekly a session of his entire 4 court venue to singles: https://www.meetup.com/London-East-Badminton-Club/ I heard that in Denmark there is a hybrid form of the game at club level which also includes men's and women's singles as well as mixed a level doubles. Can anyone confirm? Would seem like a good idea by way of making a start.
And he does a coaching session as well. Overall sounds great. I visited the Sunday morning session before on a visit to London just before the pandemic started. Bumped into an old badminton friend there and there was another Indonesian guy attending who looked just like Rudy Gunawan. Didn't play like him though!
The Yorkshire League has a similar set up and is very highly regarded 1MS player 1WS player 2MD pairs (play both pairs) 2WD pairs (play both pairs) 4XD pairs (1v1, 2v2, 3v3 4v4) This covers the whole of Yorkshire from around Sheffield all the way up to near Middlesbrough and then each city/area have their own more local league e.g. Bradford league, Sheffield league, Hull league etc which focuses on doubles events.
It would seem not: https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/...432CFB-3F27-4485-ACBA-2D3B6390ADC3&player=346
I didn’t understand this reply until I searched for the name on badminton England and also tournamentsoftware. He must be famous on the circuit.