Singapore Badminton Association structures National Intermediate Squad to elevate player skills
The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) has structured the National Intermediate Squad (NIS), to elevate the skills and proficiency of their young players and achieve better results at the international level.
For this purpose, nineteen shuttlers between the ages of 12-17 years have been selected from different schools for this intermediate squad.
Chief Executive Officer of the SBA, Mr. Bobby Lee said that the NIS has taken the step to work in the right direction and produce world class shuttlers from this squad of young players. He also revealed that the performance of these players will be evaluated
at regular intervals, which will determine their future.
Lee said, “It will be partner-centric. Half-yearly reports will be given to the players and their parents, and a final report will be drawn up when they reach 16-and-a-half to let them know whether they will be promoted to the national squad.”
Coaches of SBA visited the whole country to find the best players and succeeded in finding 19 shuttlers from different schools. The selection of these players was made on the basis of their skills, physical fitness, mental strength and their passion to represent
their country at the international level.
SBA will spend a hefty amount to provide world-class training and coaching facilities to the players. The short-term target of SBA through these shuttlers is to win medals in the Youth Olympic Games of 2014. However, the bigger goal of the SBA is to prepare
the new breed of players to win medal in the prestigious event of the 2016 Olympic Games.
The CEO is optimistic for the formation of NIS and he believes that it will play a key role in the development of the game. Lee said that there is no shortage of talent in the country and the NIS will put everything on the right track.
He added that, "I don't think (we are in the doldrums), in terms of motivation and enthusiasm, you can really see it at the schools level and the sport is very popular now ... Without the pipeline (like the NIS), badminton will be in the doldrums."
Fuhua Secondary School’s coach, Liu Qingdong, has been appointed as the Coach of NIS. The SBA will hire another qualified applicant to fill the vacant space of Assistant coach.
The 19-player squad will participate in five competitions in the preceding year. They will compete in three domestic and two international events, including the Tangkas Junior (Indonesia) and the Thai King Cup (Thailand). The performance of players in these
events, will determine their future spot in the squad. The best NIS performers will be promoted to the National team of Singapore, which will surely expose them to an entire new level of the sport.
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