IanClark
1st June 2004, 11:53
I read, with interest, the two articles in the Badminton magazine written by Stephen Baddeley and John Havers. I found John's forthright views very much to the point.
One only has to look the performances of the England team over the past 12 months. In summary, we missed a medal at the European team championships, missed qualifying for the Uber Cup, and only just scraped into the Thomas Cup but where we failed to win a match at the finals losing all of our singles matches.
Not to be too downhearted, we have seen a number of individual successes, notably Nathan and Gail's Eurpean gold and Nathan and Anthony's silver medal. But there appear to be some alarming signs.
The success of our singles players has received much publicity. I personally would not blame the individual coaches because if you haven't got talented players it's very difficult to coach them to world level.
My other big worry, despite our success, is the lack of depth in the doubles events. In the men, clearly Nathan and Anthony are world class, and Rob has done well in the mixed events. We hope Simon can get back to full fitness as we so desperately need him. The two following are Kristain Roebuck and David Lindley who both went to the Thomas Cup. But who are the next up and coming stars. I personally don't see any others.
In the ladies, Gail and Donna (when she's fit) could regain a world position.Ella and Jo have done reasonably well but can they reach a high world position. Again we don't have the depth in other players coming through at that level.
Finally, as far as mixed goes, we have some reasonably talented men which gives us a reasonable depth. I do not see the same depth in the ladies currently playing mixed.
It really is frightening so see such little depth - God forbid we get any injuries. So what now? John Havers refers to a fundamental review of the whole system. I would have to agree because we need to find out why we cannot produce many international class players, never mind world class players. Is it the lack of badminton in schools? Is the problem after they leave school? Do we have sufficient high level cells around the country with the right standard of coaching? Have we got the right level of coaching at world level? It is encouraging to see the U17's and U15's doing so well - we need to ensure that we do not throw away this talent
The number of questions is endless but we need to stop this serious downward spiral. We need to look at what other successful countries are doing.
Finally, as regards coaches, I hear that Rexy Manaky's contract runs out next year. I do hope the BA of E have the sense to talk to Rexy as soon as possible about extending his contract - that's assumming he wants to stay, of course. I saw him play at the recent exhibition at Leicester - he was fantastic. I gather he's a great coach too and that the players really respect him.
John (Havers), thank you for your openess and honesty. I look forward to hearing about the BA of E's plan for the way forward.
Views anyone?
One only has to look the performances of the England team over the past 12 months. In summary, we missed a medal at the European team championships, missed qualifying for the Uber Cup, and only just scraped into the Thomas Cup but where we failed to win a match at the finals losing all of our singles matches.
Not to be too downhearted, we have seen a number of individual successes, notably Nathan and Gail's Eurpean gold and Nathan and Anthony's silver medal. But there appear to be some alarming signs.
The success of our singles players has received much publicity. I personally would not blame the individual coaches because if you haven't got talented players it's very difficult to coach them to world level.
My other big worry, despite our success, is the lack of depth in the doubles events. In the men, clearly Nathan and Anthony are world class, and Rob has done well in the mixed events. We hope Simon can get back to full fitness as we so desperately need him. The two following are Kristain Roebuck and David Lindley who both went to the Thomas Cup. But who are the next up and coming stars. I personally don't see any others.
In the ladies, Gail and Donna (when she's fit) could regain a world position.Ella and Jo have done reasonably well but can they reach a high world position. Again we don't have the depth in other players coming through at that level.
Finally, as far as mixed goes, we have some reasonably talented men which gives us a reasonable depth. I do not see the same depth in the ladies currently playing mixed.
It really is frightening so see such little depth - God forbid we get any injuries. So what now? John Havers refers to a fundamental review of the whole system. I would have to agree because we need to find out why we cannot produce many international class players, never mind world class players. Is it the lack of badminton in schools? Is the problem after they leave school? Do we have sufficient high level cells around the country with the right standard of coaching? Have we got the right level of coaching at world level? It is encouraging to see the U17's and U15's doing so well - we need to ensure that we do not throw away this talent
The number of questions is endless but we need to stop this serious downward spiral. We need to look at what other successful countries are doing.
Finally, as regards coaches, I hear that Rexy Manaky's contract runs out next year. I do hope the BA of E have the sense to talk to Rexy as soon as possible about extending his contract - that's assumming he wants to stay, of course. I saw him play at the recent exhibition at Leicester - he was fantastic. I gather he's a great coach too and that the players really respect him.
John (Havers), thank you for your openess and honesty. I look forward to hearing about the BA of E's plan for the way forward.
Views anyone?