Any recent record of a friendly/gala match or even a “serious” practice match between a top pro woman and a semi pro man in badminton history that can back that up? I’m aware that on a physical scale, men can be stronger than women, but I’m fairly surprised to read your statement. I would have think that a top pro woman would still be able to beat some top 50 men pro players or may be even higher ranked players but I don’t have any fact to back that up...
Some time back, Saina posted in her twitter account that she had beaten one of pro England MS players when she was at UK before ALL England . I don't know which year. She did it quite convincingly.
That seems more realistic. I strongly doubt top women players would be getting beaten “fairly easily” by any semi pro men players. Granted, they might lack physical strength and force against the very top MS but technically they seem equal to men’s top players.
seriously? there's a reality as to why men and women are separated in sports & other physical competitions. here's the top 100: http://bwfbadminton.com/rankings/2/bwf-world-rankings/6/men-s-singles/2018/17/?rows=100&page_no=1 ... who do you think tty can beat? if it was a serious match it would've been all over the worldwide sports news. go watch any nat'l team practice. ask the female players themselves. which men can tty beat on taipei's team? which men can yamaguchi/okuhara beat on japan's b team or top corporate team? which men can pvs/saina beat on india's first or second team? which men can hbj/cyf/gfj beat on china's second or third team? riichi takeshita is ranked #162. do you think any of the top women can beat him?
Overall final results offer predictable plot, highly favourite Viktor Axelsen, Carolina Marin are above the level of their opponent, Rajiv Ouseph and Evgeniya Kosetskaya respectively. Ouseph who ousted Jan O Jorgensen in semifinal couldn't repeat his best and succumbed easily to Axselsen. The surprising package Russian youngster Kosetskaya scores breakthrough in this year European Championships, beat Kjaersfeldt in semifinal. New champions emerge in women's doubles and men's doubles, Stoeva Sisters are too strong for their French rival Lefel/Tran while Astrup/Rasmussen only need one game as Mads Pieler Kolding suffers injury and can't continue to complete final match. Most thrilling clash served by mixed doubles duel between defending champion The Adcocks against Chirstiansen/Pedersen, English pair won narrowly in rubber games. A well-organized tournament, the grande atmosphere in final day resemblances with BWF World Championships, there's national anthem too and its mascot is so adorable.
Definitely a well organised tournament. I never expected this huge number of spectators. Really, Carolina made the difference. Whenever she scores a point, atmosphere changes to as if it is in indonesia. Good for the sport and badminton especially in spain. Sent from my SM-G600FY using Tapatalk
Err, this is an often repeated "feat" in CHN badminton training -- 30% extra muscle mass makes all the difference except amongst absolute casuals (i.e. a man who doesn't even know how to play badminton vs a woman who does) -- that's why/how you train WS by pitting them against MS... Facts don't care about gender equality -- because our millennia of survival and evolution has in fact DEPENDED on gender specialization.
I once played a pro lady player in a singles sparring session. She was ranked in the world 200+ and an active pro player training full time. Me, just a keen amateur player fulltime job, trains in his free time. I only marginally lost to her. I then played some full-time male players who were not even sent out to competitions. They wiped the floor with me. I could not believe the difference in quality that they had. I thought I might be able to get close to them but it was no contest. Given my experience, I doubt a top women's player could beat a 200 ranked male player.
Well I don't know about badminton but in tennis the Williams sisters boasted that they could beat a 200 ranked male player in the end of the 90s. A male player ranked 203rd at that time heard of this and a game was arranged. The male player gave himself handicaps such as having only one serve, smoked during intervals and had a few beers in the morning before the games. He beat Serena 6-1 and Venus 6-2 without breaking a sweat. My guess is that the same thing would happen in badminton.
Though I doubt it would be that one-sided score or 100% win by the male player because we have rally system and many influencing factors in badminton such as the fast paces, drifts, nerves, shorter length duration etc.
Last year right before the World Championships the Danish team set up a match between Line Kjærsfeldt (ranked around 25-30 at the time) against TV-commentator and former world class doubles player Jim Laugesen who was 43 years old and who plays at best once a week, but most weeks doesn't play at all. Laugesen did a bit of training the last couple of weeks leading up to the match. A match played in front of around 100 spectators at the national team training. Laugesen won 21-19 in the decider. He actually almost lost because his physical condition was horrendous - getting cramps in the end
I read it in some article that Kolding got injured during the match and the pair retired. Wow that would be interesting to watch. Any recordings available? I am more curious too see how Laugesen played with his condition lol
Well it seems like I need to reconsider my thoughts regarding women vs men players’ level. I guess the physical influence of the sport is much higher than I believed. Thanks for all the little stories and anecdotes.
You can find a video of most of the match at the tv stations Facebook “TV 2 Badminton” under videos. Scroll back to some time around August last year. Video is called: Jim Laugesen testede lige VM-formen på Line Kjærsfeldt. When you get to all the videos about Axelsen winning gold, you’re almost there
Thanks. It was a really short video. Had no idea what he was saying. He seemed to be having a lot of fun. In contrary, the girl looked pissed though.
Sorry it was the video BELOW the one I told you! “Gense Jim Laugesen vs Line Kjærsfeldt fra Brøndby Hallen”. Thats a 44minute video of the match! Sorry for the confusion.