Ivana calls for focused talent scouting<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Find them young.<\/p>\n
That is the message of former top badminton player Ivana Lie,
\nwho believes the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) needs
\nto start scouring elementary school playgrounds for a potential
\nwomen's champion.<\/p>\n
\"At present, we lack talented shuttlers in the women's
\ndivision as young girls may not be interested in playing
\nbadminton and prefer to do other things,\" said Ivana, who
\nintroduced a scaled down version of the sport for juniors in
\nJanuary.<\/p>\n
\"The situation is exacerbated because clubs don't have uniform
\ncoaching standards.\"<\/p>\n
The association has traditionally relied on the club system to
\nhone the talents of players, but there has been little to cheer
\nabout among the women's players since the retirement of Susy
\nSusanti in 1998.<\/p>\n
In the 1960s, the country boasted Minarni and Retno Kustiyah,
\nfollowed by Verawaty Fadjrin, Ivana and Imelda Wiguna in the
\n1970s and '80s. Susy took all the world's major titles in the
\n1990s, including Olympic gold in 1992, but no woman has taken up
\nher mantle since Mia Audina moved to the Netherlands in 1999.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2004, not one Indonesian woman was ranked in the
\nworld's top 20.<\/p>\n
Ivana, the 1980 World Championship runner-up and a former
\nwomen's coach at the national training center, said some players
\nrecruited to the center still displayed elementary technical
\ndeficiencies, including misholding the racket, stemming back to
\ntheir club days.<\/p>\n
\"Such a basic mistake takes a long time to be corrected.\"<\/p>\n
Ivana advised PBSI to use sports teachers at schools as its
\n\"eyes\" to identify physically gifted girls.<\/p>\n
\"We can begin by measuring the girls' ability, such as through
\nspeed, strength, their posture and growth, because badminton
\nbasically requires all of those things. Through such a method,
\nsports teachers could recommend PBSI approach the students to
\ntrain as shuttlers.\"<\/p>\n
Most Indonesian women's players today stand around 160 cms,
\ncompared to the relative giants of China and Korea, many of whom
\nare above average height. For instance, China's Zhang Ning is 175
\ncm, while Korean Ra Kyung-min is 178 cm.<\/p>\n
The reliance on clubs to find new talent was flawed, she
\nadded, because parents brought their children to train there on
\ntheir own initiative.<\/p>\n
\"Therefore, if girls are reluctant to play badminton, the
\n(pool of) new talent will be limited,\" Ivana said.<\/p>\n
\"Worse still, I don't see any new talented girl shuttlers
\nbetween the ages of 14 and 18, so we cannot expect much from our
\nwomen's squad.\"<\/p>\n
Coaching techniques at the club level must also be
\nstandardized, she added.<\/p>\n
\"If we have a coaching standard, we will be able to see
\nrelatively similar type of shots and footwork from players.\"<\/p>\n
She is not the only former player concerned about the future
\nof the women's game.<\/p>\n
Tan Joe Hok, the first Indonesian to win the All England
\nchampionship, said the going would be even tougher if prize money
\nin the sport was ever brought on par with tennis.<\/p>\n
The winner's purse for the women's singles at the Korea,
\nIndonesia and China Opens, as well as the new China Masters, the
\nsport's richest events on the 2005 calendar, is US$17,250 --
\nabout half of what a second-round loser gets at a tennis Grand
\nSlam.<\/p>\n
\"If the money went up, you'd have all the Russians, Czech
\nwomen going into the sport. Indonesia could forget about it.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ivana-calls-for-focused-talent-scouting-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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