If you compare these 2 pics on how WL stretched for her shoots. I can understand why some players like shorts over skirt. Now, you can also say that skirt is not well made for badminton and can be made better. For me, I like her skirt look better
Here's an interesting article written by a young BC member who is also an up-and-coming junior player from Canada. It address the issues of sportsmanship, being a "character" on court, entertainment value, and how this translates into more interesting viewing... http://bradmear.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-views-on-sportsmanship.html
News from the BWF website says is that the BWF is launching an official youtube channel for video streaming and video on demand! http://bwfbadminton.org/news_item.aspx?id=50130 Every little step towards more media coverage around the world is an improvement. Even if it's not quite to the TV level but at least we're starting to get something better on the internet. Here's the youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/tsabadmintonworld?ob=5 It's not quite ready yet but hopefully we'll see good things from it in the future. Edit: Go subscribe to the channel to support it! Edit #2: Evidently I was quite slow to realize the channel's presence as there is already a thread on it. Oh well, it's still very relevant to the thread.
That was an awesome press conference, thank you for posting that! I wish the badminton players had such relationships with each other on screen (keyword, onscreen, it's not to say that they don't have this relationship). An interesting note while watching the finals matches of the Singapore tournament was that Lin Dan pulled out of the final vs Chen Jin due to an illness and obviously everyone was pissed and skeptical because the Chinese have done similar things in the past at such crucial stages in a tournament. Gillian Clark made a comment that badminton players have a lot to learn from tennis players in promoting the sport and going to press conferences to showcase their personality and sport around the world like Li Na has very successfully done. Back to the case with Lin Dan vs Chen Jin, I think the concept of the "safety net" that people have talked about provided by being on the national team is on display here because really Lin Dan doesn't have much to lose by giving up the final. Of course you have to take into the account the massive amount of personal achievements he has already made so this title doesn't really mean much to him anyway. But if it were an upcoming player who was independent and his or her financial status and other things depended on the final, there would be much more incentive to not casually throw aside matches like that. Whether Lin Dan really was sick we will never know, it's just that China has a history of walk overs when two Chinese players are matched up against each other. This wouldn't happen if it every player was independent and they were playing for themselves rather than for their country. But then again that is a fundamental cultural difference between the West and the East.
Well said. Independent players will never do such thing because it will damage his/her personal image. Even BWF has severe punishment for WO, they can go out there, casually play a game, and collect their checks. This is unfortunate and shameful to CBA.
. I have just posted this message in another thread; http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...day-June-19)?p=1704182&viewfull=1#post1704182 .
..all 12 pages..it's pretty much can be summed up as "How to make badminton more popular".. some related threads (plus a few more which i might miss): http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/43080-Badminton-v-Tennis? http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/22956-Badminton-Popularity-The-Role-of-Yonex http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...4-NEWS-IBF-plans-to-make-badminton-attractive http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...ashion-Appeal-The-KEY-to-badminton-popularity! http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/1517-How-to-make-Badminton-more-Popular
The premise of this thread is faulty. You can't compare tennis with badminton. Tennis is a sport while badminton would be better classed as sports entertainment. If you want to compare badminton to something the best comparison would perhaps be World Wrestling Entertainment(WWE). Think about it. In both cases the winners are predetermined and the BWF has taken a page out of the WWE's play book with their recent attempt to spice up the show with their mandatory skirt trial ballon they floated. Maybe next we'll se LD and LCW wearning face paint and entering the court to their own personal theme music. Badminton is a joke and it doesn't deserve to be in the olympics in it's current form. If the BWF doesn't want to do it's job then perhaps the IOC will.
@ thunder.tw I agree, initially I wanted to focus specifically on tennis compared to badminton and what badminton can learn from its cousin racket sport, but as the thread went on it's more what badminton needs to change overall rather than just in some aspects when compared with tennis. I wish I could rename the thread but again, that's what I wanted to focus on initially. The thread just evolved into something bigger than that =p.
Good call! As brutal as it sounds, that might be the best way of waking up BWF. I mean if they don't hear the alarm bells sounding already, they're definitely in their own dream world.
Skirt or no skirt, badminton is still percieved as a backyard sport. Every afternoon, I pass by girls on the street hitting plastic shuttlecocks, wearing slippers and laughing about. I wonder if they even know that it's a sport that involves a court and a net. I doubt if they even know the rules. Finance: In my country, badminton is mostly accessible to those who have the means: those who can buy shoes, rackets and shuttlecocks, and those who can afford court fees. Awareness: Most of my fellow players don't know Koo Kien Keat, Tan Boon Heong, Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng, Lee Yong Dae, Jung Jae Sung, Boonsak Ponsana, Sony Kuncoro, Tien Minh Nguyen, etc. They only know Lin Dan, Taufik and Lee Chong Wei. Why? Because they're not exposed to these players. They don't watch tournaments because these are not readily available on TV. Even in cables, badminton tournaments are sched during office/school hours.
Thread was merely hijacked into something else. The original post subject is still a good one, too bad there's not enough focus to stick to that subject.
[video=youtube;MBTmOMT2he4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBTmOMT2he4[/video] [video=youtube;NK1ZNUuP8ws]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1ZNUuP8ws[/video] [video=youtube;I7OfaRAWEXA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7OfaRAWEXA[/video]
