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The 2005 World Badminton Championships have come and gone and China’s men’s badminton team was sent home without taking any of the highest honours. Maybe it’s because that the team was playing on unfamiliar territory in the US with questionable court conditions, so despite the fact that all the team members put in their best efforts, the results were much worse than expected, and fans can only accept this disappointing outcome.
Nowadays Chinese badminton fans are starting to focus on the Beijing Olympics, and they hope Team China, especially the men’s team, will take the gold on home court. Currently when compared to world class players of other nations, the Chinese men’s team can’t say that for sure that they’ll be able to win the gold medals for singles and doubles in the next Olympics. The best badminton players in the world all have similar skill levels and the thing that determines who wins and who loses in competitions comes down to which player or duo can perform at the highest level when on the court. So how exactly can a team attain this important goal? Other than giving the player the best physical and mental training and preparations available, there is another factor that can’t be ignored, and that team strategy and planning.
Many people know that in order to get more countries to participate, the International Badminton Federation made a rule that states that each country can only send 3 players (or 3 pairs) into any particular competition event (ex. only 3 players to men’s singles, 3 pairs to men’s doubles…). This rule has the most impact on countries with strong badminton traditions, such as China. As long as this rule exists, Team China’s strategies and planning will be limited by this rule.
In order to have more chances to win the gold medal for men’s singles and doubles in the next Olympics, it would be better if China could send the maximum number of players allowed into the events. China should also choose the players with the highest world rankings to avoid two teammates meeting early in the competitions. The best scenario is if Team China has two players or pairs in the semi-finals, such as the case of the 2000 Olympics men’s singles. If the teammates are matched up with each other in the semi-finals, then at least one player or pair will make it into the finals and do so without having to go through a tiring match beforehand, giving this player or pair an advantage. If the two players or pairs are placed in different semi-finals, then the outcome will depend upon performance on the court and true skills. Obviously the goal is to win and make it to the finals, but even if the match is lost, the player or pair should still try to wear out the opponent as much as possible, so that if the other player or pair on the same team make it to the finals, he/they would have a better chance of winning the gold.
There are still three years until the Olympics start at the time or writing. The Chinese men’s badminton team needs to train and develop a new generation of players for the world stage. Team China need to put more effort into researching and analyzing the world class players of other nations in order to better understand and develop strategies against those players. Badminton is a sport that depends a lot upon physical conditioning. No matter if it’s singles or doubles, a player has to have speed and endurance and can’t depend on skills alone to win the match. I wonder what time it takes China’s male players to run 100m, 1500m, 3000, and 10000m? Without a strong track and field background, it’s much harder to perform well on the court and advance in skill level.
The last point is that Team China shouldn’t pick two singles players and slap them together into a pair for the doubles event. The successes of Indonesia, Denmark and South Korea should have already demonstrated to China what works for men’s doubles and what doesn’t work. Despite the current disappointments, the Chinese men’s badminton team still has a good chance of winning the gold medals in Beijing. We, as fans, hope that our wishes will come true.