Sad Future of Badminton

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by Yeung Chao, Oct 30, 2021.

  1. Yeung Chao

    Yeung Chao Regular Member

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    So from what I gather, there is almost zero initiative by BWF and even individual level to further promote/develop the sports globally.

    I do not want to live the next 50 years watching the same outcome like this

    MS : Indonesia vs China vs Denmark
    WS : China vs Japan vs ROTW
    MD : Japan vs Korea vs Denmark
    WD : China vs China
    XD : China vs China or Japan vs Japan

    It's a very sad state of Badminton.
     
  2. keithl

    keithl Regular Member

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    The problem with US is top down. What do you expect where in many schools badminton as a formal PE class is only offered to girls, boys are supposed to play tennis. Calling it 'birdies' and treating it as a casual backyard sports does not help. With these kind of stereotypes, it is difficult to attract good athletes to join.
     
  3. keithl

    keithl Regular Member

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    What I think could also help is to lower the cost of participation. Good badminton shuttlecock is expensive and this reoccurring expense is I think a big barrier to more widespread participations. We need BWF to commit financial to get a good research going to produce equivalent quality shuttles with vastly improved durability using artificial materials. I believe if the shuttles last a lot longer, it would cut down the cost of playing this game. I don't expect the current shuttlecock manufacturers would want to put serious effort into this.
     
  4. Hbmao

    Hbmao Regular Member

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    I take you don’t watch table tennis… I don’t either, but it doesn’t stop it from being a popular sport.

    Plus you never know, things can change. backtrack 10 years and Japan won’t appear in any of the 5 categories you wrote.
     
  5. Yeung Chao

    Yeung Chao Regular Member

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    I want to expand a bit on USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia for labelling them as badminton lost cause. Notice that hardly any white people are interested in the game because of bigger appeal from other sports like football, tennis, basketball and swimming. That mindset will not go away for a long time.

    Now let's look at the demographics that actually play the sports in these countries. They are mostly Asian second or third generation migrants. This is where I will also include the Asian immigrants in UK too.

    They are born and raised in the culture where they should focus 110% on education and getting a white collar job. So a lot of these people that end up playing badminton are mostly for fun or they are not keen to go all the way with their career. You can hire the best coach and sparring partner to tune up their game but it will not change any outcome for the better if they all have this mentality.

    In fact, it's same mirror image as what I am describing the state of Malaysian women badminton. They (regardless of race and religion) are raised in the culture where nothing else matters or more important than getting well paid job, education and raising family. So you ended up with limited pool of players that are actually not good at all.

    The one and only successful Asian overseas in terms of winning A LOT OF top tier titles that did well is Howard Bach although i do question his ability and status because Tony Gunawan tends to carry his game most of the time. Other than that, no one else.
     
  6. LenaicM

    LenaicM Regular Member

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    China rose on its own. I was labelling utopian the idea of having top foreign coaches going to countries where badminton is not developed, located far from their home and for peanuts in the idea of "promoting the sport".
     
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  7. vozer here

    vozer here Regular Member

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    in order of important, i think a powerhouse badminton need:
    1_ money, sponsor
    2_ a lot of professional players who take badminton as their job
    3_ good coach
    4_ it factor to have great result

    malay lack of 4 in major titles
    japan had 3 when park came
    spain is always lacks of 2 and sometimes 1
     
  8. keithl

    keithl Regular Member

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    I wonder if there is a way to make another similar sports to badminton that is playable outdoor. Tennis popularity has a lot to do with its association with being in-the-sun, playing-outdoor, which is very appealing and often associated being with being on a vacation. Volleyball got more popular by having the beach volleyball. Who knows if we can modify the sports a bit, with heavier shuttles not affected by outdoor wind but still fly at similar speed and a different kind of paddle/rackets, it might attract people to play the sports. Even tennis has another game in paddle ball, for those that are speed challenged.
     
  9. Yeung Chao

    Yeung Chao Regular Member

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    I was thinking about maintaining badminton as an indoor sport but change the floor into three modes - Grass, Hardcourt or Clay.

    It would be funny to see how players adjust their game plan depending on the court type
     
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  10. keithl

    keithl Regular Member

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    Badminton is definitely more fun to play than tennis (most are two strokes and lots of ball picking) but it is harder to get people excited about coming in door to watch. Some of the tennis spectators are not really there to watch the games or that they know much about the games, they are there just to enjoy the atmosphere, wearing cool sun glasses, enjoying the breeze and to be seen :)
     
  11. Pagz

    Pagz Regular Member

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    That's actually a neat idea, but any surface other than hardcourt would substantially increase the risk of injury, so I don't think the players would support such a change

    I wouldn't necessarly call it a very sad state. It's completely normal that few countries dominate a sport. Actually, I can't think of a sport where this is any different.
     
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  12. Yeung Chao

    Yeung Chao Regular Member

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    It's normal when few countries are too good to dominate the sports and another thing when the other countries are too weak and too far behind. This is the case in badminton.

    Take a look at Thomas/Uber Cup and Sudirman. The non-badminton countries are so bad to the point where you can simply predict the amount of time required to complete the match. I do not need to be a genius or game analyst to determine if the game could be stretched to a rubber or decider.

    I do not know what is on earth is going on with USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Personally i feel these countries should perform at least as good as UK but unfortunately their players not good enough. UK for some reason have better quality players as much as i hate to admit it. The quality combined with top class coaching system and facilities, they do have some results although they have funding issues.

    Other countries have zero system so the players are going there for a social badminton club game.
     
  13. Smash the net

    Smash the net Regular Member

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    This won't affect much other than footwork/movement. In tennis it changes the bounce of the ball so players have to change their strategy, but since badminton uses shuttles...
     
  14. LenaicM

    LenaicM Regular Member

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    Since the thread has been opened, I had some time to reflect on the topic and in my opinion, what badminton needs (among other things) to avoid a "sad future" is a more diverse media coverage. Right now, the BWF is too omnipresent, including with their media coverage of the sport. It is not healthy for badminton and the BWF cannot handle all those aspects and excel at it. Their main role should be limited (and it's already a lot to get done) in leading the general direction of the sport, establishing the rules to govern the sport and developing the sport on the global stage. If they additionally provide some media coverage through their YouTube Channel, that is great but there is something wrong in the fact that it has become the almost exclusive source of professional badminton content.

    A few countries have a badminton dedicated magazine but on the global scene, there is virtually nothing. The few websites currently existing only relay the already established news/results. There is no additional and/or original content with interviews of players/coaches, expert's point of view, or actual reporting. This is needed to exert a certain pressure on the BWF and the sport needs several medias, not one.

    Right now The BWF is the one controlling the delivery of most, if not all, badminton related news, doing the team's or player's interviews, giving their own analysis of the tournaments, etc. If we look at other sports, they all have dedicated websites and magazines with exclusive content unrelated to the opinion/agenda of the federation.

    The fact that the BWF is currently the main source of badminton original content generates three main issues I can think of:
    1. No alternative medias to check and balance the BWF and eventually challenge their decisions/point of view about badminton which in return can be helpful in shaking things up.

    2. No original content, no "real" news from the players other than from the BWF YouTube channel/website. More medias are needed to create a different kind of content with different opinions, free from the BWF influence. Obviously when the BWF goes to Danemark to film Axelsen, he won't be criticizing them and even if he does, he would be censored in the end.

    3. From a fan point of view, it is hard to follow the sport and get some real insights of what happened during a given tournament with real reporting. Also, we don't get to know the athletes on a personal level like other sports propose. I can follow football for example and get entertained because I will watch a match, then check a player's interview or watch a "day in a life with ____", read an interesting column about an historical match or a "where are they now?" interview of a former player, and in return I might just follow the sport even if I am not playing because there are some actual content other than the matches themselves. In badminton, we have to follow a forum to get the best news available thanks to a few users translating interviews or doing some reporting.
    Overall, I really think badminton need more medias to help in providing an alternative dimension to the sport.
     
  15. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Aren't you the one who suggested people pay to play badminton professionally and coaches work for hardly any income?

    Your ideas are definitely humorous
     
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  16. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    You mean the one that is being promoted by BWF in recent years with a different design shuttlecock.
     
  17. EsikResik

    EsikResik New Member

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    Badminton is doing more than fine, people just need to get over their inferiority complex with regards to tennis and accept what is in front of them.
     
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  18. vozer here

    vozer here Regular Member

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    more than fine is:
    1_ the sport have it own place, world champions must be the most important one, or whatever most important tournement must not be olympic. Like wc in football and grand slam in tennis
    2_ famous in every side of the earth and produce a lot of money. 2 will make 1 work
     
  19. EsikResik

    EsikResik New Member

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    This is a lot more than fine, you basically want it to be tennis. You know it's funny in tennis forums, people are all doom and gloom and act like tennis is heading for a "sad future" but badminton fans obsess over it and wish it was like that. It just shows me that people will never be happy with the product shown to them and will always have something new to complain about.
     
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  20. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    It’s difficult for any sport to grow in USA so I wouldn’t worry about that market. FIFA (and it’s resources) has been trying for decades to increase the popularity of football and the men’s team is still mediocre in world terms. Women football in USA is far ahead though.
     

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