Just thought there should be a thread devoted to Chinese Badminton in general without limiting or restricting it to any topical issue. Similarly for those who wish to talk about the history of Chinese badminton, I’d suggest another separate thread specifically for it would be more appropriate. Here we are free to discuss and report on anything current on Chinese badminton as it unfolds, no agenda set as it would be presumptuous of me to do so.
We can, for example, discuss the latest news,happenings, developments or problems CBA or Team China is facing, say, in respect to their future goals. As we know, Li Yongbo has recently made public his view that after the London Olympics clean-sweep-of-golds pinnacle performance that henceforth even for the majors he’s making a distinction between Team and Individual championships, saying the former is a must-win goal for CHN as it is for collective national honour but less so the latter as it’s more for individual glory.
In fact,for the just-concluded WC’13, he actually set a ‘modest’ target of only three golds in a half joking but , to me at least, significant remark of ‘better not win too many lest some people get angry’. On the other hand, LYB also explained that CBA is presently undergoing a changing of the guards with the ‘old’ being replaced by the new and younger players and therefore during this transition period there is bound to be some hiccups resulting in temporary setbacks which should be resolved over time. No doubt, this year’s WC is CHN’s worst showing in recent years with only two titles won;whether this signifies a trend or is just an anomaly, only time will tell.
Needless to say, it also implies that CHN may no longer strive to win every non-major title/tournament they take part in – even the All England is not given pride of place but treated by him as just one of the 12 Superseries events in a year. I remember Chen Long upon winning the AE’13 specifically saying the AE is regarded by many as a mini-WC as well as Li Xuerui, who won AE’12 , commenting on it as special for its long tradition and illustrious history. Well, it’s CBA/LYB’s prerogative what targets they want to set and why.
Presumably,it is fairly widely understood and as, if I remember correctly, 2cents once briefly pointed out that CBA has the practice of concentrating on their elite 3 or 4 players/pairs at any one time or period, Olympic cycle perhaps. This to me effectively means denying or neglecting the other promising prospects of the chance to shine in the world stage with detriment albeit for only a couple of years unless he or she is truly exceptional as in the case of Li Xuerui. I think the hardest hit are their child prodigies which I believe CHN has no lack of, possibly comparable to Thailand. Say, He Bingjiao, first discovered at age 14 as revealed to us by RedShuttle, now turning 16, but currently still have to wait her turn to participate in the WJC let alone the regular adult international circuit (incidentally, I saw her name originally registered for the CHN Masters’13 next month but, unfortunately, for unknown reasons, subsequently withdrawn). By the way, I recall reading somewhere that Zhang Ning said she’s going to work on the junior players.Indeed, it’s pretty hard to be a CHN national player, and tough luck for many of them.
Of course, we may also discuss Chinese badminton in terms of their training,techniques and overall growth,promotion and development or in relation to their sport science and even sport management if you like.
