Singapore’s youngsters start their first professional training session – Badminton News
Singapore’s young players, who qualified in the trials for the National Intermediate Squad (NIS), have taken their first training session in Singapore, on Monday, May 30.
The 19 qualified players, who are between 12 to 16 years of age, received their training from professional coaches. The squad of eleven boys and eight girls will be working under the supervision of competent coaches.
Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) is directly working to supervise the performance of these selected shuttlers from all over the country.
Li Qingdong is the official coach for the squad and has been given the responsibility to improve the tactical and technical skills of the youngsters. Former national shuttlers, Liu Fan and Jiang Yanmei, will assist the coach in training sessions.
The coach said, “If Singapore badminton wants to reach great heights, they players will need to go through this strict training and the tough schedule.”
The players are being selected after a close observation and evaluation in the trials. Now, the coaches are working to understand the players from different aspects of the game.
The coach added, “We’re observing their strengths, weaknesses and style of play right now. We will also focus on correcting their techniques, and enhance their range of skills, and even work on making them stronger mentally in order for them to become world
class players.”
The training schedule has been designed for the shuttlers, according to which they will be working hard for three hours on a daily basis from Monday to Saturday.
It has been decided that the training will be divided into two blocks and every slot will take four to five months. The players will be free for about one month for their educational exams.
However, it will be mandatory for every player to attend at least 85 percent of the training session, failure to which will expel the player from the squad.
The SBA has taken a positive step in the right direction to promote Badminton in Singapore. If everything proceeds according to plan, these young players will bring glory to their country by playing well at the international level in the future.
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