Im sure players from all over the world practice hard, but China is always winning. Is there something special about their diet, mentality, or even genes? Does anyone have any theories?
There was a video I watched maybe around beijing olympic said how China like supports their players more. Like they are full time players whereas many other nations do not take badminton as serious, can't be full time. Take U.S. for example badminton is nowhere near popular except like probably a few states like CA. More popular a sport is seems more easy to find competition and higher standard of play.
One reason is the training is completely different from USA. Plus, they are funded by the government to be train. Here you most likely have to shell out tons of $$$. And I know they live together or dorm together and they all train from day - night.
Given the resources China throws at the badminton team the real question is why isn't China more dominant in badminton? I bet their budget for shuttles is more than Canada spends on the entire badminton team.
Because they have a super organised system, their coaches are sharper( key factor) and more dedicated, their players are more disciplined and they cheat whenever they have to.
Practicing full time without the right competitive environment is useless. Badminton is played throughout China and is a top 4 sport in China, along with ping pong, basketball, and football. So why is China not a top nation in basketball and football? Because the competition just isn't there. As for the posters above who emphasize funding makes a difference, it does, but not as much as they think if the competition isn't there. I simply point them to Vietnam. I doubt that Vietnam provides more funding for Tien Minh Ngyuen compared to other western countries but yet, Tien Minh Ngyuen can beat many western players. The reason is, the level of badminton in Asia is simply much than other western countries and Tien Minh Ngyuen benefits from this. Your location says Africa so if you think of football, I doubt that Africa provides more funding for football than China. Yet Africa produces better football players than China because the level of football in Africa in general is higher than Asia (except for Japan and Korea). Where funding makes a huge difference is if it allows a country to hire a world class coach for a player and the funding is so much, that the player can train & compete full time OVERSEAS with the best players in the world. If the player can live and compete overseas where the competition is higher, he/she is bound to get better. For instance, Kevin Cordon who represented Guatemala in badminton at the Olympics trains and lives in Spain. Edwin Ekiring (who broke the top 100 world rankings) who represented Uganda in badminton at the Olympics lives and trains in Holland. There is no way Kevin Cordon or Edwin Ekiring would play at the level they do if they trained/competed solely in their home country.
1500000000 people, a rigorous sports system that literally drills thousands of children from early ages onwards, almost indefinite ressources (coaches, courts,...), relatively poor people (so that being an olympic champion is a real motivation for the kids...), badminton as a major sports (besides tabletennis), you need more reasons?
It's just like applying to Harvard or MIT. They get to choose from the pool of well qualified students. E.g. There are 100,000 students applying for let's say 100 spots. Chinese National team can pick the cream of the crop. In terms of funding, China's government is so cash-rich they can afford the very best facilities, medical care, etc.
it's all down to the system to get the basics right, like a world-class pool of players. a) infrastructure for continuous talent development. (grass-roots, schools...international) b) genes - contriubute to body frame, intelligence and dedication. c) a master leader, Li Yongbo.
As some of the posters have stated. It is a very very popular game in China, with many people playing it. Just like football is very popular in Brazil, Argentina, most European countries and they produce world class players. Or basketball in USA, hockey in Canada etc... If a sport is popular in a certain country and they have the infrastructure to support it. Than they will be able to produce world class players. Government support is also very important. Now each country obviousily differ from the way that they train their athletes. For the Chinese they basically started training when they're young and badminton probably is the only thing they know and they do have a very very rigerous training program. It's not just badminton, look at table tennis, gymnastics and diving... Genes probably does have something to do with it as well as I don't think China will ever be able to produce let's say a Usain Bolt or long distance runners like certain African countries.
. Genes? I would think not. IMHO, I believe a Jamican living in China, or a Chinese living in Jamica, can both do well in their country's most outstanding sport. .
take the age structure into consideration, India population for playing badminton (16 year old - 30 year old) actually is larger than China. So population is not the reason for China's success. China is not only good at badminton, just this Olympics, China has just won 30 golds and 61 medals in total, while Indian got 0 golds, and 3 medals in total. At badminton, China got 5 golds, while India got 1 bronze. So relatively speaking, China's badminton is less than 1/6 in its total sports, while India's badminton takes 1/3 of its total sports achievements. Same thing applies to Malaysia, Indonesian and Denmark, those countries's badminton are all relatively out performed China's badminton comparing to their own total sports. There are very few Chinese in India, while Jwala Gutta is half Chinese, half India. The number of Indian in India are astronomically outnumbers Chinese in India, then how come Jwala Gutta is the best female double player and also the best mixed double player in India? I don't think either population or coaching are factors there. On the other hand, we didn't see any Indian in Chinese as great badminton players. Talking about coaching, actually Chinese in China learnt badminton from Chinese from south east Asian. Some provinces in China like Canton, and Fujian, employed some coaches from Indonesia. Anyhow many other provinces, such as Liaoning, Jiangsu, they didn't have any people from south east Asian. The coaches there actually leaned from textbook with the players together. In Jiangsu club, without any famous coaching, also from small population, many big names were created: Zhao JH, Yang Yang, Ge Fei, Gu Jun, Sun Jun, Cai Yun,...
just my thoughts. from the deep pool of young players, only the ones with the strongest mental strength survive their rigorous training from young. their training is long and tough to the extent that many other countries feel that it is child abuse, but the children are willing to go through the hardship from young, learning "never give up". many came from poor families to begin with, so they know from young that they need to work hard to have a fighting chance of success. Before anyone start saying that it is the same in other countries, ask yourself if you are a parent, would you be able to let your kid endure such training without complaining. I cant speak for people in other countries, I am sure where I am, probably most of the parents will throw in the white towel after the first day training. For coaches like tang xianhu, hou jiachang from indonesia, they came back to china back then because that was a period where indonesia wanted to drive the chinese out. who is at fault? but I am glad that it happened and brought up the level of play back then. to those who insisted china cheated because of team strategy, I am sure china is not the only country doing that. even england cyclist admitted to purposely fall to get a restart and still got their gold in the end, so that is fair? Even when the world no 1 wd pair is disqualified, china still take the gold. What does this say abt their depth of their team? it is the same like when ye shiwen won and broke the world record, ppl will think she is taking performance enhancing drugs.
u r wrong. can usain bolt become good badminton player in china? yes, definitely bcos he has athlete body, but can he become a legend like lin dan? cannot imagine so. and it is also not true that popular sports produce world-class champions. look at boleh-land. their most famous sport is football and badminton. but football they can get beaten by philippines (basketball). and in badminton, the thais are starting to overtake them. LOL
Genes matter. Scientist have isolated a gene that's specific to the Jamaican population (5%) of the island have this gene where their muscles contract faster, thus producing faster sprinters. If Bolt grew up in China and was picked to train like Lin Dan, I have no doubt he will be more successful simply put. Genetically, he will be 5% faster.
I think this modern obsession for equality really needs to stop at some point. What used to be called talent, is now called engineering. And to answer your question, who's to say Lin Dan or that the Chinese population doesn't have a gene that makes them better at Badminton? If Bolt grew up in China and was picked to train like Lin Dan, he might be good and he might not be. The real reason why China is good is because of their massive resource base of players to choose from.