Unfortunately, Badminton is not a true Professional Sport at the moment. Hi sabathiel, What a fantastically good post, and I agree with most of the things you wrote. Unfortunately, Badminton is not a true Professional Sport at the moment. All players are still under the National Team Structure. And all players are still required to undergo their vigorous National Training Schedule. And this is one of the main reasons why older players quit/retire. You could imagine how hard it is for a 36 year (or even, not as old) trying to cope with new recruits, just 18 say, in their tough physical training. Some National Coaches are saying that "If you are not fit enough, you should retire". And these National Coaches realise that these older and experienced players could produce better results, but they know they that they cannot make exceptions for them not to undergo their vigorous training. So... what I am saying is that these older players retire because of the pain of training, not that they could not produce good results at tournaments. After saying all that... I hope that Badminton will become a true Professional Sport as soon as possible. And when that happens, experienced players will not need to undergo their National Training Schedule. They can be independent, like Tennis players, and they can hire their own private coaches. They don't even have to play for their country if it interferes with their professional income, although most of them would, as we can see, like for the Davis Cup in Tennis. Cheers... chris@ccc
Oh well, i think i'll just end it here... (rest of sabathiel's post snipped for brevity)... ..i can somewhat agree on what i've highlighted above..but i must concur wholeheartedly on what chris@ccc wrote that: i don't know if you're a professional athlete or not, but unless we ourselves are professional athletes(or actually in their shoes), we won't know how much it feels to compete and sacrifice all our lives to set out what we want to achieve..therefore we can't "label" pro athletes as such and such without actually actually feel what they've gone through ourselves.. Anyways, well, sabathiel, as much as i'd like to respond and continue with this discussion, but after seeing/reading quite a lot of your past posts which ended in 2 threads being locked, incl. one which was locked abt a yr or so ago and contained a very dual-toned discussion(which involved yourself & not to put you on a negative term), i realized this particular discussion is, essentially, going no where(probably some BC members are laughing at us for continuing discussing this silly topic). It's been an interesting discussion & i appreciate your efforts in responding, nonetheless. But rather than risking the fate of this thread and ending it like your other locked related threads, with kwun locking this thread, i think for the sake of keeping this thread *on-topic* & alive, i'll refrain and halt from making further replies to your posts...In a way, I should've known abt this before i started my "off-topic" discussions with you.. Anyhoo, I think for now, let's just say you, me and everyone else are entitled to our own opinions..And to an extent & be fair, let's just say there are no right nor wrong answers/thoughts/opinions and we both can somewhat agree on each other's opinions..So, on that note, i'll end it here and we can take what we've wrote & go our own respected ways-unless if anyone else want to take you up on the discussion and continue this further... For now, hopefully, we can get back to discussing the original topic at hand once again..Once again, to kwun and others, sorry again for the off-topic discussions..
For discussing/examining Badminton players' feeling/thinking Hi ctjcad and sabathiel, For discussing/examining Badminton players' feeling/thinking and also what the BWF is planning for them...... please be invited to this thread= http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39747 Cheers... chris@ccc
Off topic-Thanks for the invite... ..appreciate for the invite, chris@ccc ..but i think for now, i'll just end this discussion as is; one that, after reviewing, IMO, is a bit "silly" to start/keep replying with if i'd known and read sabathiel's past posts..of course, i'm not prohibiting you or anyone else to continue with this..
The discussion might not be directly relevant to the topic but sprang out from the topic and is thus indirectly relevant. In the absence of a warning from the authorities (eg Kwun) it is fair and safe to assume that we are free to continue with our discussions. The discussion is intellectual and civilised. I don't see why we shouldn't carry on for the benefit of badminton. It is better to carry on rather than let the thread die off slowly which it will eventually happen anyway. The thread that got locked about a year ago was locked because the discussion was heated and began to become uncivilised. I was arguing with Indra about who is greater, Rudy Hartono or Taufik Hidayat. I didn't know Indra but on hindsight after knowing how subjective and ridicuolous Indra (proven by his silly and unrealistic match predictions) is in regard to Taufik is I should not have become involved with an argument with him. I am not a pro athlete becaus badminton is not a pro sport but I have been involved in national competitions representing my home state and at a university level represented Australia overseas. So I can seak from direct personal knowledge of the game. I also trained with Mia Audina and her less known brother before she joined the national team under the coaching of her father. I quit badminton totally at a relatively young age of 24. I recently make a come back at the age of 37 by playing competition again. It took me awhile to get into form and now I'm playing A grade badminton again and is competitive in singles and very competitive in doubles. The only thing that has declinedis the speed. In terms of stamina and endurance as proven by marathon runners players in their late 30s can still have high endurance on court. I trained with much younger player and can match them in the stamina department (after losing some weight). It maybe true that the training isn't as vigorous or demanding as the training in national teams or club training in Indonesia (I trained with Mia Audina and her brother under teh coaching of Mia's father) but it is still hard training especially for someone my age. So I am speaking from experience in this matter.
Firstly I must take my hats off to Kwun for such a thought provoking subject and his foresight in locking the thread when BC members become personal in their attacks on the players or other fans. Secondly, it's comforting to know that there are still many BC members who exercise professionalism, are impartial and cultured. That's why this thread is still on. Keep going guys.
I didn't read too much in this thread, but just wanted to add... In the very near future, I think Chen Jin can be added to contenders list. It didn't dawn on me, until I saw his face again, with recent video footage... that I finally recognized, and put a name to his face... But I did watch a few of the junior national & international tournaments this kid participated in quite some years ago now... He is extremely talented... he's improved even further from his junior competition days... I predict within the coming year and a bit, he will be butting heads in the finals with the other already greatly established greats of this generation. (edit: by this I mean, we should see him in final's of tournaments very very frequently, and even winning against some of his seniors) Again, just my opinion Now I wonder, if we could do an imaginary competition, and pitted all the greatest single's players against one another, in their prime... who would come out on top
was searching for more details on the heavenly four king's exhibition match last weekend and found this thread. 4 years later and looks like kwun was correct on his prediction on the new four kings! i wonder who will replace the current four kings: Lee Chong Wei, Lin dan, Peter Gade and Taufik Hidayat
I do agree with you that TH performed not as good as we all expect. However, it is very enjoyable to watch him playing. I believe it is one of the major reasons he has quite number of fans out there & consequently being selected by LYB in the 4 Heavenly Kings Battle.
In no particular order I predict: 1) Viktor Axelsen 2) Kenichi Tago 3) Chen Long 4) No solid contender yet.
