Another one?!! I am amazed that there is so much demand in your area......Will USA be revived as a badminton super power in the next 10-15 yrs?
yes. another one. i lost count on how many already, is it 14? 15? the kids are getting better, but still no match against the other countries. it will take a lot of work.
On the note that US young atheltes are no match against the other countries. I was at the BWF World Junior Championships 2010 last couple of days and saw China won this year WJC. It is mostly true when US face Asian and top Europe coutries. However, there are some games which are close and the US team had a good chance winning a game or two, but overall US young atheletes have to train more. The difficulty is we do not have big sponsors like other countries. In other countries, they have sports school, so the atheletes study in the morning and train int he afternoon. Our kids have to work really hard at school and practice using whatever time is left.
continuing discussion from this thread: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84038
NGRA, i didn't mean any offense on my statement. just my observation. this is the way i see badminton in the US. as you said, most badminton powerhouses have a better developed system, there are sports school, county/province teams and government sponsored national teams. the coaching development and catchment areas are very well defined. promising players are identified early in the schools and pushed up the system to national level. in the US, we have none of those. badminton is supported mainly by not well organized school teams and by parents. coaching is expensive and is only afforded by affluent parents. affluent while love to see their children succeed in badminton, but almost always prefer them to succeed further in schools. in less developed country, being a somewhat successful badminton players can actually earn a good living.
Some observations. I went to one of the high school badminton team selection trial. Most of them are Asian. It is not diversified. It will be good if it can attract different races to participate this sport (like swimming). I went to Pan Am Junior tournament last year. Other Pan Am countries have most of the local native people. Even I saw Canada has some blond hair players. However only black hair for US team (may be except one player). When I open the local community recreation guide, I can see a lot of sport selection for soccer, basketball, tennis. Plus it has all different time slot to choose. Badminton is just starting. It still has a long way to go. But we are getting there, just a matter of time.
What is NGRA? Can someone explain the demographics of the area? ie. age of users, gender, nationality/ethnicity etc.. I find it hard to believe how an area can have so many courts & still more coming, & they can be profitable, surely the standard should be improving quick if a number of the players are young, and with the quality of coaches/players of international background you have their? And why is it suddenly so popular? Cost? Marketing?
In BayArea most of the folks are from Asia origin (Chinese, viet, Indians etc..) and most of these folks have played badminton back home and these folks are working in high tech companies. Hence a lot of badminton Clubs are coming up in BayArea and they are profitable because these clubs charge a LOT for Training, Monthly due fees, Pro-shops, Tournaments, Endorsments etc..
It's a high tech, very affluent area, with many, many immigrants of Asian origin and/or descent. My high school in Cupertino was like 70% Asian, and we were regularly destroyed in basketball and football, but always kicked ass in tennis, badminton, and math (lol).
We've touched on this topic before in other threads.. IMO, a lot of it has to do with the mentality and perception of the sport/culture. Perhaps lack of exposure... One example i'll share which might not be directly related to the U.S. I recently chatted with one coach, who is from Indonesia, but is now coaching in Mexico, and he told one of the things he noticed from the kids he's training is their mentality in playing the sport. It's totally different than in other Asian countries. In Mexico, people love their futbol even before that person is born. It's like it's already in their genes. But when it comes to badminton, it's totally different. They just don't have the passion or some say the love of the sport as in other countries. Maybe it's because badminton, tennis is more of an individual sport. Americans tend to enjoy more team oriented games/sports.
I can't comment on what the reason are, but it can surely be only a good thing that more & more people are playing. The more people play, the more sponsors will be interested and of course the more people the more competition which should eventually translate into a higher standard. Even if it is only in a concentrated area, with this level of involvment there will surely be long term benefits....