I am 19 yr old and studying 2nd yr engineering in Computer science in India[Maharashtra]. But now I'm not interested in doing job in computer science and want to choose badminton as my career. I am playing badminton since i was in school and took little training too (but never regular). I know to play the basics well at a beginner level. I m too very much passionate about badminton and i have the confidence that I can play well if i work hard. But i feel starting at the age of 19 might be late to choose Badminton as my profession. But i cant live without Badminton. Is it ok to take risk & just focus on training and quit studying engineering(which i don't want to) ? What i can do ? Please help.
Well this is a very big decision in your life, one that will probably shape your future for better or for worse. Beginning badminton at a late (albeit still relatively young) age becomes a problem because you have other responsibilities (normally school, financial, etc) to take care of, and often as much you want to, you can't have a complete focus on badminton, which is something you will need if you want to train and play at a high level. That being said, if you really feel like this what you want to be doing in the future, go for it. Plan accordingly since training, and eventually tournaments, will end up costing a lot of money, so make sure you have some sort of financial source. Make this decision with the help of friends and family, and hope that they support you in this new venture.
I talked about it to my parents but they want me to continue with my studies as they have invested money for my college and dont belive that i can play well. But i really dont want to study or do ordinary jobs anymore. I dont have much money problems if my parents support me in playing. What are the problems caused due to starting late ? If i could overcome those problems then may be it would be easy for me to take a leap in Badminton.
If you want to be a professional player: Just forget it. It's the most stupid idea of your life! If you want to run some kind of badminton-related business (a shop, a centre, a club...): make a business plan and go ahead.
Well, this is certainly a very big decision in your life. you need to think about it clearly, do you really want badminton as your career? let me give you few questions (sorry for the caps lock, it is to make it easier for you to understand the point): 1. do you think you can find SPONSOR to sponsor you for training? because training will costs a lot. gym facility, trainer for conditioning, many hours for your coach and renting court (plus going to another city / country for tournaments). 2. do you think you will be able to reach INTERNATIONAL level? 3. remember, in each tournament, there will be ONLY 3 winners. do you think you can be ONE of them? 4. do you believe that you can MAKE MONEY / living out of badminton? because if you don't win, then most likely you will live on small wage from your federation. 5. do you think you can stand to be VERY POOR while trying to become a good international player? do not look at big stars such as TH, LCW, or LD. you need to look some people below them which never / only few times reached podium in span of 5-10 years they are playing. 6. do you think you can stand to lose EVERY SINGLE time and then keep fighting like an idiot until you can win? 7. lastly, if it doesn't work and you are just too tired to continue and decide to change your career. what kind of job you can get? (being a trainer will not gonna give you a lot of money. it will give you satisfaction yes, but it will drain your energy, time and emotion for little money) I don't want to scare you, but this is reality, and you need to think about it. look at different angles. only 3 person that can win in each tournament. and usually it is dominated by the top 5 in the world. if you want the be a professional badminton player, then you need to aim that high. can you? I think Mr thumpsky can give us some enlightenment about world of pros
There is a guy in HK, he beat players in the HK squad even though he wasn't part of the junior HK training programme. He got invited to the national team during University, based on his results of beating the national squad players. He decided to try badminton for a year. In the end, it didn't work out as he didn't have the edge to make it as a top professional (in his own words). He went back to his course. It's a very interesting story. This University student was already at a very high standard of badminton so he should have had the best prospects of making it as a professional player. To become a professional player is incredibly, incredibly difficult at 19 years old - I can't recall any professional who has managed it. However, to become a very good player is not impossible.
is it possible? yes. (afterall, we only need one success story, right?) is it realistic? no. it doesn't sound like you are even at the national level or even regional level. just a kid sick of sitting in front of a computer and came up with a dream. dream is good, but there is only one Peter Gade, who started at 16 i believe, and was an exceptionally gifted athlete to begin with. behind Gade, there are thousands if not tens of thousands of gifted teenagers trying very hard and playing very good badminton, but they never go any where beyond the local level, if that at all. if you love badminton, go ahead, try hard and enjoy it, but don't give up your schoolwork. over here in the silicon valley, there are many accomplished engineers from India. all of them are not only gifted intellectually, many of them are holding high posts in the tech companies here, they are also very good athletes. there seems to be a good and well rounded system in India when it comes to balanced education as well as sports. how do i know? every year, we hold a corporate team tournament that has up to 32 high tech companies here. majority of the players are Asians and a large percentage of them are from India. there are many many very good players from India, some of them got as high as ranked juniors in the country, but at the same time, they are well educated. could some of them have become professional, the next Gopi or Saina? maybe. but the chances of that is really small and i bet most of them started at 8 or 9 years old. but they ended stuck to their education and have a good future as a result.
This ^^ Gade must have started younger - he was world junior champion at 18years old. Colin Haughton ex-england no.1 started at 16 years old.
Your game must be good as you are from Thane. Thane's standard is the best in Maharashtra, when it comes to badminton. However, it is no where when compared to the likes of academies in Andhra, Lucknow etc., from where the majority of the top players come. Also, 19 is a bit late, unless you are an exception. If I were you, I'd try to balance both. Education still maters in India. You will realize this 10 years down the line from now.
1. I don't think i will need a sponsor if my family will support me. They can afford because much amount of money i need for my education too. 2. I think if i work really hard (which i am ready to do) and i get family support and good coaching I CAN do it. 3. I wont say i will be in top 3, but i would say i will keep improving till i get there. 4. I don't really have any idea how much money i will make. But would prefer to be a coach and live happy even with average amount of money rather then earning too much and staying unsatisfied and pressurized or regret in my life later that i should have taken other decision. 5. I can stand poor and keep trying to be like TH,LCW or LD. 6. Yes. I am ready to fight till i win. Anyways i will have only option which is to keep fighting. 7. If it doesn't work i would choose to be a trainer and use my dedication for the one's who want to play and dream what i do. I am ok with less money, i know i will do some or the other thing for my living and not stay poor my whole life. I would keep trying to be the best trainer then. I usually like to aim as high as i can, so that I land up at least somewhere and improve than what i am today. Thank you for your questions.
My game is not too very good today. But am sure i will improve by time and regular coaching. The thing is i m learning engineering. And i m not interested in it and i don't wanna do any job in engineering. And when it comes to manage both, i don't get to give proper time and money for badminton. My parents want that i should do job, but i know i cant do it as i lack in the skill and interest too. I want to know what difference will it create if we start to play late ? If i would overcome those obstacle i may do something good.
A man with big dreams is a good thing to support, so I wish you every bit of luck in the world. But those two sentences of yours seem to be revealing. You don't like the hard, boring work of studying to obtain an 'ordinary' job? So, are you going to be able to stick with the hard, boring work of gym training, early morning practices, lack of a personal life, etc., that go along with the 'extra-ordinary' job of badminton professional-in-training? That is an answer for which you must look deep --and honestly -- inside your soul. No one on a badminton forum should be telling you what to do with your life. But, based on your admitted level of badminton skill, would it not be a reasonable option to stay in school for a while (perhaps change your field of study if you hate computers) and train badminton on the side until you can get an honest appreciation from a good coach about your prospects in the sport? Good luck.
How bout get a coaching and officials license 1st and see how it works out. Use those license to gain all the things u need in the future: 1. Money 2. Experience 3. People I suggest you can start doing it as part-time and see how it goes. If you wanna be a trainer, u need to have good knowledge about sport sciences too. So this path is gonna be completely different than anything you had learn for the past 19 years of your miserable life. . As officials, i'm not sure how it goes in India, but i suppose they have at least 3-4 tournaments a month around the country. You can gain some money from there to survive and gain more experience in badminton field. Knowing a lot of people who is in the field will really help u out in the future. It's almost the same as any proffesions in the world except that it'll consumes your time and energy probably a lot more than you expected. My 2 cents.
I suggest you do some research about how early/late other good/top Indian players started, and assess your chance of making it into National team. In addition to everything that's brought up this far, you should also be prepared to deal with injury/pain - and you still need to persist in training stress/nervousness/sleeplessness - as now your game results could directly affect your living your competitive life might be quite short (say 4 years of full-time training, after which you may have 6-7 years of competition before you turn 30) If you don't like engineering, maybe there're other options than badminton. Badminton as a career is a tough route (esp. when you're already 19), though it could be fun as a leisure activity. If you're only in beginning phase of badminton, how can you be so sure that you'd continue to love it so much that you can overcome all issues?
The only one thing i want to know is- How can i cover up the time now that i have started late ? by doubling my training ? If i put all my efforts only in one thing then i might be able to cover at least 1 or 2 years in my next 7-8 yrs of game ? Can this be done ? Please suggest me ideas if anything can be done in a different way rather then quitting or changing my field of interest ? I want to find a way out of this age thing, i don't want to run away from it. And what can be the maximum age till i can play as a player ? i guess 35 ?
Sports are not like attending a college or university. Before you starts dreaming to be a pro before you are 30, i suggest u back to earth immediately
I am not trying to be mean, but, how could you double your training if other athletes already got no life? their schedule (rough schedule): 6 in the morning wake up, morning exercise, breakfast, resuming exercise, lunch (break for 1-2 hours), afternoon session till 5, dinner (break for 1-2 hours) then night exercise till 10 at night you just can't double the amount of training because it is already so packed that adding more is actually will give negative effect to your body and to remind you, everyone did this from they are very young (I remember it is not this severe, based on what I read, they finished like at 3 in the afternoon then they got 2 hours of normal education) you lost almost 12 years worth of training. can you make up with it? you might be able if you got superb talent like PG, but even then he even started from 16 (And already played from 8 if I'm not wrong) and you are already 19 right now maximum age? IMO 30 for singles, 33 for doubles
