About Danish Domination in Europe

[Zhao]

Hi
I've come back from the 8 Nations U15 and the domination of the Danish Team was incredible! It' like a European Champs.
There were 3 or 4 in semi final of MS, MD, MX and they won MS, MD, LD, MX and the team event.
In the MS, they just detroy the others players !
I don't think another sport is just dominating by 1 nation like that, in Europe.
If you look tennis, squash, table tennis, handball, volleyball,... Maybe ski with Austria???

:confused:
Just Three question about that:
- How they can produce this results? What's the secret?
- Why the big country (Germany, France, Belgium, Holland,...)can't manage that?
- Do you thing it's good for the badminton in Europe? For me that's really bad for development!!!


Thanks

[Dreamzz]

i reckon it's because of culture, perception and tradition. danes prolly see badminton as more of a serious sport than the other european nations and therefore have better facilities and club level competitions which breeds the next generation of national players. and with such a long and proud tradition in badminton history, there are more role models and coaches as well to help their players succeed.

[jerby]

since when is Holland a 'big' country?;)

anyways, it's sport popularity and training/coaching facilities mostly...those factors provide Denmark with a greater Talentpool (talented youth get better training and are motivated to keep training) and you onyl need a couple of them to succed.

If you reckon Peter Gade teaches/coaches/trains some of those kids..heck, who wouldn't want to train more?:o

[aindro]

I spent more than 2 years in France, and I can say to you that badminton is a quite popular sport there. I lived in a small city, there was a badminton hall with 9 courts, and most of time it was full. But they play badminton only for pleasure, not more. In addition, I never saw badminton matches on television. They are not historically a badminton country, and I really think that they will not be.

[Smautf]

i reckon it's because of culture, perception and tradition. danes prolly see badminton as more of a serious sport than the other european nations and therefore have better facilities and club level competitions which breeds the next generation of national players. and with such a long and proud tradition in badminton history, there are more role models and coaches as well to help their players succeed.

Hey Dreamzz - I think you've got it, but don't forget the Danes often do well in football as well, causing "upsets" at European and World Cup level, so I think there's a national mind set at work here.
Also, have you noticed how rarely you see Danish Badminton players wearing knee/ankle supports, strapping or other braces? I'm no expert, but I guess that this might indicate a healthy "holistic" approach to training and competing. What do people think?

Smautf

[Trang]

Hi
I've come back from the 8 Nations U15 and the domination of the Danish Team was incredible! It' like a European Champs.
There were 3 or 4 in semi final of MS, MD, MX and they won MS, MD, LD, MX and the team event.
In the MS, they just detroy the others players !
I don't think another sport is just dominating by 1 nation like that, in Europe.
If you look tennis, squash, table tennis, handball, volleyball,... Maybe ski with Austria???

:confused:
Just Three question about that:
- How they can produce this results? What's the secret?
- Why the big country (Germany, France, Belgium, Holland,...)can't manage that?
- Do you thing it's good for the badminton in Europe? For me that's really bad for development!!!


Thanks

Well, if it was a secret there's no point in telling it. :p

For starters Denmark picked out the best players to play for the danish team.
I don't know how other countries train their youth-players, but Denmark has got a lot of projects going on. Similar to the Malaysian young-project trained by one of the Sidek brothers. (Don't remember what the project is called)

You say bad development. I wouldn't call it that. Especially, that Denmark has been able to work with talents as big as they are - it's not their fault. Maybe the domination can give motivation to other countries to work harder or find new methods of training or whatever might happen.
Of course, I live in Denmark and I'm an youth player so I think that the development in Denmark is very nice, but frankly. It's up to other countries to get better and develope the sport in their countries. This is something that every association has to struggle with in their respective countries.

[Zhao]

Of course it's up to other countries to develop but that's what they try to do!!! With no result! Why ?
In Germany or France, they have very professional young triaining structure but they can't reduce the gap with denmark.
I understand that denmark stay the best in badminton (culture, club system, ...) but not with this difference!!!
That's not a question of beating Denmark but just compet a little...
And in the last 8 Nations, there was no competition in MS MD and MX !!!:(

[Dreamzz]

and the only reason there's competition in the WS is because most the top players from france, germany and holland are from china!
:D

[Zhao]

:D YES
Thtat's right!

[Trang]

Maybe it's the generation. No question that last time Denmark weren't as dominating, but it could be that Denmarks projects has finally 'paid off'. I actually don't know - it's important that the players get the right envoirement to work in.

[Zhao]

And the European Champs with 4 danish MS players in 1/2 final.
That's not crazy?
Gade
Jonassen
Kaldau
Boesen

Give me one another sport with this kind of domination! ;)

[yy_ling]

the reason i think should be because Danes are more into badminton, while other european nations although have badminton players but are more into soccer

[phaarix]

A Danish girl came to NZ a couple of years ago. She won the Girls Singles, Doubles and Mixed in the South Island U16s. She'd only been here a couple of weeks and I think she said she was ranked 5th in Denmark for her age. 5th and yet she slaughtered us (I don't think she did quite as well in the national champs, just the south island's, but still...). Of course I'm not complaining, I'm a guy so it didn't affect me and she was quite good looking as well lol (fit).

I don't think it's bad that Denmark dominates Europe. I think they're setting a standard for other European countries to work for. If they all just gave up and decided to play rubbish I don't think it would help the rest of Europe improve.

[Yojimbo]

Well, if it was a secret there's no point in telling it. :p

For starters Denmark picked out the best players to play for the danish team.
I don't know how other countries train their youth-players, but Denmark has got a lot of projects going on. Similar to the Malaysian young-project trained by one of the Sidek brothers. (Don't remember what the project is called)

You say bad development. I wouldn't call it that. Especially, that Denmark has been able to work with talents as big as they are - it's not their fault. Maybe the domination can give motivation to other countries to work harder or find new methods of training or whatever might happen.
Of course, I live in Denmark and I'm an youth player so I think that the development in Denmark is very nice, but frankly. It's up to other countries to get better and develope the sport in their countries. This is something that every association has to struggle with in their respective countries.
The Malaysian junior project is called the 2010-2012 Project Squad and it is under Rashid Sidek.Just a little extra info.:D

[Trang]

That's just he one I was talking about. Thank Yojimbo. ;)

Zhao, what I meant with the domination. Denmark weren't as dominating in the cup last year as they were this year. :)

[Yojimbo]

You're welcome, Trang ;)

[Eurasian =--(O)]

If they have a solid group of players it benefits all players training. They can encourage and each is always trying to beat the other so they all improve together.

[Yojimbo]

One more reason the other European countries aren't dominant in Badminton is because the lack of support in terms of participation and funds.

[virtualkidneys!]

not many people in england really see badminton as a proper sport, they see it as just a activity so no one pays any attention to it. For this reason, they dont excel like in denmark they take it as an equivalent of football in england.

[Zhao]

This danish domination in Europe and Chinese domination in the world is not good for badminton for many things:
- Badminton is not interesting for the media in the big country because of that. Always the same winners
- Badminton is not interesting for the big sponsors or just because they have business in China;)
- Youg people doesn't want to try to be a champion in badminton because they see always the same winners and the wall is too high!!!
Danish destroy the others europeans and chinese destroy danish...:mad:

Badminton will be attractive when 10 or 15 countries can win the world title in MS. Today, it's only 3 or 4 (thanks gade for Denmark and Taufik for Indonesia)
That's very very poor!!!:(

[Trang]

Yes, China produces many talents and they tend to win quite a lot of tournaments. But I think you're wrong when you say that it's their fault. :)
First of all. Every country wants to be among the worlds best teams. You can't blame them for that. Especially when it's a competition. Just because it's succesfull that doesn't mean that they suddenly have to stop joining tournaments.
Second of all. You probably want your own country to be one of the best, right ? (Maybe you want to be the worlds best yourself - who knows).
Third of all. Instead of just blaming it on others, try to look at the countries that might not have the bigger succes in fx badminton. What are they doing wrong? What can they do to improve themselves?
Fourth of all. You say young people that are not willing to try? There's only one thing to say. That's lack of ambition.
Fifth of all. It's wrong when you say that young players are not willing to try. Maybe you, yourself, have that feeling? I don't know. I'm not here to judge you. If you feel that there's not enough competition in the sport then do something about it. Help your club by promoting it or something like that. If you want to change something the last thing to do is to sit and type all your frustrations out on the web and then do nothing. On the other hand, if you are doing something for the sport then the only thing I can say is - keep on doing it :D !
Because I know many young players that are willing to practice hard to get succes in badminton.
So, honestly I disagree with what you're saying. But I can easily understand that it can be frustrating to see the same players over and over and over again.

[Zhao]

Sorry but you don't understand what i've said.
I don't blame Denmark or China. They do a very good job for badminton, and that's not their fault if they win everything !!!
But if you like badminton you can't be happy with this situation.
You have to look the reality and try to change that if you want badminton's developement.
If you are a young danish player, you can dream of medals bacause of Gade and C Martin. But for the other countries, for young people, it's very difficult !
It' much more easy to dream in tennis, handball or swimming because a lot of countries can win. That's not like that in badminton.

Just an exemple:
In the last Austrian Open, Ella Karachkova, 21 in the world, 5 in Europe lost in the first round 12/21 11/21 against a chinese girl ZHU Jingjing. This chinese girl is not in the top 15 in China, not in the world ranking!!!!!

That's just the reality in badminton. You can say that's not important but not for me!