I am new here and I just want to share this with the forum. In 1989 when I was 19 I went to Indonesia to undergo badminton training. In Australia I was a member of my State's Under 21 badminton team. When I first arrived in Indonesia I had to play Mia Audina when she was 9 years old. Her father was coaching me and he told me that Mia was the under 12 Jakarta Girl's singles champion and that she could have played in the Under 10s but that would be too easy for her. Needless to say she beat me in three sets and I was a male 19 year old who made it to my State's Under 21 team in Australia and she beat me in few more three set games after that. However after training in Indonesia for 2 months I beat Mia in straight sets but still losing to a 9 year old girl was an experience I could not forget. I thought at the time this whiz kid was going to be a World Champion one day but it is a pity Mia never grew to a favourable height and this is what is causing her problems in winning the major tournaments on the world stage.
Remarkable story! ... what was the difference in your game against Mia, before training and after? Thanks for sharing, and Welcome to BadmintonForum -dave
I lost a few three tight straight games before and during training and I think the scores were close (ie above 10) but after 2 months training I beat her under 10. The training was like hell especially in the tropical heat with I think aluminium rooftops which absorbs the heat. The training was conducted in the middle of the day and I think the heat inisde the badminton hall would be in the top 30's Celcius. In the same hall you can see Ardy B. Wiranata training playing singles against 4 player(one in each corner of the court). I thought I had it bad when I had to play singles and play one corner at a time only when the Coach on the other side can hit the shuttle anywhere he likes. What amazes me with Mia was that it was like playing against a brick wall as she returns everything with precision shots. I can never tell if she was going to do a clear, drop shot or a smash and I had to make my decision as to where to anticpate her shots in the split second after she hit the shuttle. Her back was so elastic and she had great flexibility and I often thought I hit a winner but she did things like the splits on the court to return what I consider a winning shot. She was like a magician and gymnast on court with a never say die attitude but she wasn't a good doubles player.
Thanks for sharing but I don't think it's a lack of height that is causing her problems but rather her fitness/stamina. You will notice that a lot of her matches with the Chinese all seems to go basically with Audina winning the first and then losing the second and finally the third (by a wide margin).
Thats a nice experience. I definately will not last beyond 10 points yet alone 3 sets! ehhehe... kudos.
Ya, great story. Just to add to the above, it's not necessarily the height or just the fitness level but also her weight, which has been mentioned several times in other threads. Yes, I suppose her weight would affect her stamina resulting in many 3rd set losses.
When I was playing her Mia was tiny and skinny. I still have the photos from back then. I suppose with her weight and a little extra height she wouldn't have a weight problem. Another way of looking at it is that she is not fat just not tall enough.
agree. i personally believe the mia could had taken the athen gold WS if she had the stamina. That match turned around in midway 2nd game when mia was gassing out. Mia was reading most of Zhang ning strokes. http://www.badmintonsalon.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17725&page=2
I hope I scanned the pictures okay I don't know how they will turn up on this post. The other guy is Mia's dad who was my coach.
