The following article by David G Joyce is extracted from "Peak Performance". It is interesting and could well apply to a badminton professional who wants to turn really "independent". "Hi everyone! Tennis is an incredibly difficult sport to train for and the strength coaches who work with the top players do an amazing job as they are faced with all sorts of challenges. When we look at the demands placed on an elite tennis player, they include: • Aerobic power • Anaerobic power • Muscular strength and power • Flexibility • Straight line acceleration • Agility and change of direction speed • Muscular endurance • Mental strength • Technical and tactical skill To make things even more complex, because of the injury profile of the sport with high rates of lower limb tendon disorders, shoulder injuries and low back dysfunction, as coaches we seek to maximise these capacities in a manner that seeks to reduce the load. Ok, so many sports require these capacities, but few have to deal with the travel demands of a professional tennis player. In fact, it is thought that the top players in the world will travel in excess of 77,000km in a season. This is an awful amount of time in the air and in transit, adjusting to different time zones, new hotels, environmental conditions, new cultures and the like, not to mention the intense demands on their time from media and sponsors. Additionally, they may not necessarily have access to fantastic gym facilities in the far-flung reaches of the world that tennis tournaments are now played in. It’s easy to see how complicated the task of conditioning the tennis player actually is! It’s very difficult to make physical gains in-season and so the majority of the physical preparation work takes place in the “off season”, a couple of months at the end of the calendar year. It is during this time that the performance coaches seek to improve strength, conditioning and resilience against injury in the hope that they can invest enough during this period so that the player can withdraw on it throughout the remaining 10 months of the season. No easy task I can assure you! I always aim to bring you the stories behind the stories and my objective with this week’s piece is to highlight the outstanding work the performance coaches of the world’s top players are doing. Nadal, Djokovich, Murray, Williams, Azarenka and Li Na are all in fine shape and can sprint, jump and dive for hours at a stretch in searing heat and the huge credit for this can be laid at the feet of their strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, masseurs, biomechanists and exercise physiologists. In my opinion, the tasks they face are as tough as anyone has to face in professional sport." David is the Head of Athletic Performance at Emirates Western Force in the Southern Hemisphere’s Super Rugby Competition. He holds Masters degrees in both Sports Physiotherapy and Strength and Conditioning and lectures in Sports Physiotherapy at the University of Bath (UK) and in Exercise Science (S+C) at Edith Cowan University (Australia).
Just imagine they have to play in the demanding heat that hovered 40 degree C in this year Australia Open.
Indeed, and compared to badminton in airconditioned comfort, yet we still get complaints from professional players if the hall gets warmer!
Well I find the article interesting and informative, coming from a coach with a varied experience. So I share it with others. And the input from the author is not very much different from what is required in badminton as regards the physical demands and exertions on the body in training to be a top badminton professional. As badminton professionals aspire to become independent like the top tennis professionals, they have to be reminded of what it takes. However, as most would agree, for badminton professionals to become independent, they would need much higher financial incentives in prize monies and sponsorships in order for them to be able to be well supported by professional coaches who specialize in their respective fields. Additionally, they have to take care of air fares, accommodation, living expenses, etc. Right now professional badminton players still have to depend largely on their national associations and well-meaning sponsors. These are often insuffcient for most professionals to lead a good life compared to their tennis counterparts. Prize monies are still relatively inferior.
Until badminton can generate TV revenue, the prize monies are never sufficient for a the professionals hiring a team to maximize their potential. However, watching Tennis on TV is more enjoyable than watching badminton on TV. It is because Tennis is more easy to follow and the viewers are more connected to the action on court. It is mainly due to the fact that Tennis is missing two elements which are vital to the game of badminton, height and deception. Tennis is mainly rallying with ground strokes and for those who never play the game still able to follow the pace of the game. The same can not be said with badminton, viewers can not tell where the shuttle is going until after the bird leaves the racket. It means the causal fans will not watch on TV and the chance of badminton getting a TV contract is slim. It will stay this way in our lifetime.
good point, considering the average viewer. The amateur badminton player knows what is behind the strokes and the speed of movement, so he watches the game from a different perspective. I myself watched a number of tennis games in the past. Now it's simply unbearable - soooo slow, such long pauses and toweling downs between such short rallies and hearing about the physical demand of tennis (compared to badminton) seems almost ridiculous.
maybe not the lower ranked, but i'd be surprised if the higher ranked player don't fly in 1st class and get accomodation in the best hotels once they arrive. i don't think similar can be said for poor badminton players.
wouldn't it be cool if they record and broadcast badminton in 3d? now, i would buy a 3d tv just for that!
I thought that the scoring for tennis is inferior to badminton, as it is difficult to understand why one should start with 15-love, instead of 0ne-love, especially to a newcomer.
One of the frustrated part of watching badminton on TV is I never can tell the bird is in or out. I will buy a 4D if it becomes available.
Kwun, we are focusing on having a team of specialists supporting one single player full time. At this moment, I believe only LD may be able to afford a team on part time basis.
Kwun is referring to air tickets and accommodation and even for these, only a few successful players and associations can afford first class treatment.
Coincidentally I came across this column yesterday "The great myth about tennis: It's a country-club sport, province of the wealthy and privileged. The reality: You can find a decent racket for $150 that will last years. A can of balls costs $3, slightly more than it did in the 1980s. And there are abundant public courts worldwide. The prohibitive expense comes from trying to make it as a professional. The USTA recently estimated that the annual expenses of a fledgling pro, including coaching, equipment and travel, total roughly $143,000. Most players in the WTA and ATP computer rankings are members of the tours' working poor. While a star like Wozniacki earns tens of millions of dollars in prize money and endorsements and has residences all over the world, Giorgi's life is entirely different. She flies coach. She buys her own sneakers. Yes, she's played Wimbledon, but she's also played low-level events in Albuquerque, Charlottesville (Va.) and Clearwater (Fla.). In the last of those her run to the quarterfinals earned her a check for $686. In part, this is a story of the financial strains under which so many players operate. Camila was introduced to tennis at age five, when Sergio took her to a club in Italy. Her talent was glaringly obvious, and by age eight she had caught the eye of agents, including Max Eisenbud of IMG, who represents Maria Sharapova. But when Camila turned pro at 14, her parents faced a dilemma: With three other kids at home, where would they find the resources to help incubate Camila's career? Camila and Sergio, a native of Argentina who had been a soccer player of some distinction, often traveled together and found ways to economize. For instance, taking an overnight train to tournaments in Europe meant saving the cost of a night's lodging. Even so, their finances were tight." Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20140110/camila-giorgi/#ixzz2qMy52vNY
The tennis scoring has a learning curve a two-year old can handle . Apart from that it is superior to badminton because it creates a lot more meaningful points/moments. Every game winning point opportunity is a deciding moment (forgot what term I'm looking for) and the breaks in between a couple of games leave much needed time for advertisements ... Why not have badminton sets to 11 since they're already holding a break there? With I guess a best-of-seven as a best-of-five only requires winning one and a half old-score sets. Maybe best-of-five for the ladies ...
That's ridiculous. Of course you can say - "play every point to the fullest so the target score won't matter". But it's simply utopian. I watched matches from CBSL with 11-point scoring - they were uninteresting, there was no intrigue, the game has just started and bam - it's finished. There're a lot of incredible comebacks in badminton, like Ratchanok agaist Li from 12-19 to 22-20, Fischer/Pedersen agains Ko/Kim from 15-20 to 30-29. It's just incredible to watch when players can get a hold of their nerves and their game, stop making mistakes and start controlling the pace to come back from large deficit. It deserves a great deal of respect. Quite often several gamepoints are being saved and that's just so exciting. I myself always feel a great charge and a rush of adrenaline, when playing and it's 19 all and the hands are shaking a bit. Surprising to hear such nonsense from you. Not cool.
And that happens ... once a year? They said the same thing you are saying now about the current badminton scoring or any change in the scoring before. It takes time to adjust to it, using CBSL as an example says nothing about the longterm outcome. On the other hand you could say tennis needs more decisive moments in the form of games and breaks to remain interesting for the viewers because a set takes so long in actual time whereas one badminton set can be completed in relatively short time ... All big money sports rely on tv money and sponsors and tv get's it's money from advertising therefore badminton needs tv for big $$$
Me, as a viewer and a player doesnt care about the money you keep talking about. So what are the benefits of lower scores for me as a viewer and a player? The decisive moments in tennis - that's hilarious, there're so many so that they don't decide anything basically.
