18 months last week and loves watching his dad play. Actually when we have our club night he grabs 3 or 4 club rackets and walks onto the court at the end of the game. He's looking for someone to play with. I'll have to bring that string to the club to keep him busy. Some kids have a blanket or a soft toy but not Kristian, he sleeps with his badmiton racket and I dare anyone to take it off him. He's half Indonesian so maybe it's in his blood. We have another on the way so maybe he'll have a sparing partner. The future of Australian badminton might be good!! Tim H
Not sure who that is but Alan Budikusuma commented on how he holds the racket well for a baby! We travel to Indonesia every year so he'll get plenty of oportunity to get coached if he wants to play badminton. We are trying to grow some ties between our club and the Kalapa Gading club in Jakarta so we can expand badminton in our new club in Darwin. I decided that with Indonesia being such a short distance from Darwin we might as well use a Geographic location to its advantage. Sons follow what they see so if he's always seeing me play he might go down the same path.
I caught him chewing on the feathers when he was only 3 months old. They say babies put things in their mouths to learn touch. I guess I'm lucky he didn't get some kind of flu, lol.
ah, if he's half indonesian then he's started way too late! 18 months? i hear they start at 12 months over there!
BLESS! The bottom picture looks like a textbook reverse slice; I can barely do those. I wish I'd taken badminton up at that age - I came in fairly late at 13. Geographically (and genetically) he's very well placed - I look forward to seeing him humiliate Great Britain in the 2028 Olympics...
Good to hear.. ..now, the question remains, when he reaches a certain age and ready to compete internationally, will he choose to play for Aussie or............................INA???..
That's an easy answer unfortunately. He will have dual citizenship until he's 18 and he'll choose then, but Indonesia doesn't give the same support to their athletes like Australia does. This can be seen by the numbers they sent to the Olympics compared to other countries with similar populations. Other professional players (whom I will not name) are constantly complaining about the Indonesian Governments support for athletes, many of the big clubs rely on cigarette companies or private support for money. I plan to learn everything I can from the big name Indonesian coaches so that I can put it to good use here in Australia. I want western countries to become interested but to make that happen we need to be competitive. Hopefully my son will be more than just a good badminton player but also help to form a bridge between the two countries. Sharing of knowledge and skill sets that lead to a bond between countries is the essence of the Olympics if I'm not mistaken. He may hate the sport but with his mum & dad playing it regularly he'll most likely want to challenge his old man one day. We have another one on the way so he'll get plenty of competition, lol.
Yes, Australia prefers football, cricket, swimming & tennis but in general Australians just love sport. With a population of just 20 million we had over 450 athletes at the Olympics and finished in the top 10 on the medal tally. On both the Institute of Sports web page and Badminton Australia's web page there is a push to find athletes for sports we've never medaled in. Badminton is at the top of the list with big money for the fist ever gold medalist. I we can have world champion squash players we can do the same with badminton provided we get better and consistant training. Yes, Maybe 2028 for my kids. I've alraedy set aside a nice area in the backyard to string a net, then comes the cement truck. Who needs grass anyway.