I think these are the two local-born who have made good improvement after the abrupt departure of our top shuttlers not too long ago. There are other local-born who signed up about the same time to play badminton full time but are still stagnating. However, it depends on how seriously both DW and AC want to become true professionals. Training is tough and the immediate incentives are relatively negligible unless they win big tournaments. There are other distractions and most young people still choose the easier 'paper qualifications' route to carve out their careers. But if they can make it as badminton champions and become household names, then all their effort will be well worth it! For how many can achieve this? Go, ask Datuk LCW whether it has been a fantastic journey for him. So for DW and AC they must believe and have self-motivation to climb the road to success.
Maybe Singapore needs to inverse the process. Send the promising players from Singapore for extended periods to play and learn in other countries. This has worked wonders in many instances. Many players from India for instance (Padukone, Gopichand, etc) spent extended periods of time in Denmark, training hard with their top coaches, and their standards improved tremendously as a result.
Yes you need variety, strong sparring partners and lots of competition. If Spore were to adopt your suggestion, I believe it will be done nearer home in China and Indonesia, since our badminton links with these powerhouses have been close in terms of our coaches and players. It seems to me that our SBA will be more than happy to support talented players, especially those local born who can make the grade. From time to time, some of our selected players spend brief training stints in these countries.
I wish the MAS backup players can go to Singapore and learn a thing or two about fighting spirit from Derek Wong & Ashton Chen.
Agreed in general, except for the part emphasized above. A brief training stint is more like a short seminar, an extended period has many obvious advantages. I also sometimes wonder if the lack of long-term commitment to the game (on the part of the player) has anything to do with the fact that players from Singapore would in general tend to be more well-off (financially/materially etc) and find that the sport cannot help sustain their lifestyle with the kind of results they obtain. This is just a thought -- I could be completely wrong, though!
My view is there is no physical power to push them to the next level. There have been coaches many years back but still it is not working. The other combination is also how much hardship can they take. If you see the imported players, they have been through that 'pain' and exposure cycle to consistently mix and play with the best since young. Not to discredit the locals, its just the 'mass' which is not enough. Can't say much for denmark though.
Some good news from CWG2010... Chayut/Yao Lei from Singapore beat Clark/Oliver(England) 19-21, 21-8, 21-12. England have been traditionally strong in doubles.
Yes you are right. For most Singaporean youths their parents provide for most of their material needs and hammer into their heads that a good education is the way to a good future. All the children need to do is to study hard to get at least a degree. Not that the parents' are wrong as they came up the hard way, many of whom are without university degrees. That's one reason why foreign talents from less materially endowed countries are willing to take up the challenge because the incentives from the Spore authorities are relatively attractive. In fact, the offer of a million Sing dollars for an individual Olympic gold, half-a-million for silver and a quarter million for bronze could well be a world record, yet the locals have not been committed enough to take up the challenge as professional sports people. With more incentives and sponsorships and the government's ambition to make Spore an international/regional sports hub, things are changing a bit but the sole sports school that we now have is insufficient to produce the numbers. Therefore there are now other institutions or academies being set up to augment the sports school.
That must be an achievement for the Sporean pair, but Yao Lei must have been experiencing fatigue for playing in so many matches. She and partner Shinta Mulia Sari almost lost to the Australian pair in the WD QF this morning.
"City states" like Singapore and Hong Kong, by the very nature of their extreme urbanization, can never be strong in sports because of the lack of depth and diversity of its people. It is more like an office working environment where the sole driving need is to earn a good living. This allows little time for serious sports. Soccer is a classic example, with both the game in Singapore and Hong Kong becoming a real joke. At least HK is not disqualified from the Asian Soccer Federation but Singapore has been removed from it because of its domestic league being too "foreign". That is why both HK and Singapore are forced to import foreign players, more for PA reasons rather than effectively building up a strong and permanent sporting culture. Such imports will continue because locals will not be effective permanent replacements.
For quick success and glory, YES (coz they are rich but lack of talents) For long term success... errr... BOLEH lolx
I wouldn't say that as a number of our local shooters have already beaten the best in the CWG. Let's say our talents have more choices than just sports.
Don't take this too seriously. It depends on the objective. Foreign players inject variety and a higher standard to the local league and make it more interesting to the spectators. Otherwise the game could not advance and generate greater support from all angles. It may die a natural death. Long time ago, Spore played in the Malaysia Cup and the opposition were mainly 'kampong' players. Spore has moved away from that and managed to stand on its own with a domestic league comprising of locals as well as foreigners. Now Spore players have acquired a higher standard and managed to hold its own at regional games like the SEA Games. Just look at the current CWG and you could see 'foreign talents' everywhere. If Msia thinks it could do better without them, so be it but it does not mean that others have to follow.
oic.. so spore never got suspended la... just an illustration lol remember last time i watch Spore Vs Thailand, I thought it was Aus vs thai
The real reason is simply that Singapore was not good enough to rub shoulders with other Asian football giants. Its facilities and spectator attendance are still at the kampung level. See www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sportsnews/view/1085372/1/.html and www.todayonline.com/Sports/EDC101005-0000085/S-League-no-longer-among-Asias-top-10 One wonders who is footing all the costs and covering all the losses with such low attendance and almost no spectators. It is like Hong Kong where huge losses are assumed by playboy millionaires who do not mind watching all the local games by themselves with hardly any paying spectators.
In general, I don't know what's so strong and attractive about Asian football giants that Spore has to rub shoulders with. (Source: World Football: http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/r...r=m/fullranking.html#confederation=0&rank=196 The giants in World Football are Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, England, Uruguay, Portugal, Egypt and Chile, the top ten. The better Asian countries in the world top 50 are: Egypt (WR9), Croatia (11), Serbia (15), Slovakia (16), Turkey (21), Japan (30), Isreal (36), Czech Rep (37), Montenegro (40), Lithuania (42), Korea (44), Romania (46), Below them are: Hungary (51), Bulgaria (54), Iran (57), Saudi Arabia (73), China (82). UAE (90), Syria (94), Morocco (95), Kuwait (96), Uzbekistan (97), Jordan (99) Then the rest above WR100 are: Sudan (101), Thailand (102), Qatar (104), North Korea (106), Iraq (107), Singapore (119), Vietnam (125), Indonesia (131), Hong Kong (136), Myanmar (141), Malaysia (144), India (160), Pakistan (162), Philippines (165), etc, etc. Singapore is ahead of most of its Southeast Asian neighbours and why should it be inferior to the so-called Asian football giants? Maybe a better exercise to compare the 'Asian giants' with the world giants to see where Asia stands.
