The price off ambition

THE PRICE OFF AMBITION

We have made many calculations what it will cost to develop someone to a top player, we have done that from the information we get from federations, from private badminton schools and from players who are going their own way in our sport. It will not surprise you to find that federations are by far the most expensive, up to 3x more expensive than good alternatives like badminton academy’s.  The second in the list is to go your own way, unless you have a very good manager like the father of Erik Meijs. We made a calculation of a player with a lot of ambition started very late to play badminton coming from the World top in a totally different sport. He pays about 30 euro per hour for private training (6 hours a week) and 27.50 to rent a court for 1½ hour and he has the costs of his shuttles 2 or 3 doz. Per week the total costs will be 1500 euro per mount (only for the private training). Extra costs will be transport, club en tournaments adding 250 euro more to the price. But still this is ½ the price what it will cost if these things  are done by a federation, most of the extra costs of federations are the enormes overhead costs (between 30 and 45% depending on what country it is).

Things can be done a lot more cost efficient and with better results by working with Badminton Academy’s, but there are big differences between them. First of all not every academy has the possibility to house the players, not every academy can make development plans for the players and have consistent training in a good location. And most important can deliver al this at a very competitive price.

To start a badminton academy is relative simple but to start one with a total vision is something else. It has taken us many years to develop this total vision for our academy and to meet all the criteria we have for what in our eyes make a good top sport climate in the academy. First of all you want the coaches to have Danish know how in technical and tactical training, Denmark is by far the best country in the World for this know how. Many people say no your not right because Asia is better than Denmark, than I say you are wrong because the share number of people that play badminton in Asia is in the miljons on a population of 1.8 billion people. With this kind of numbers talent will come up and it has nothing to do with the know how of training. In Denmark we have 6.5 million people and 170.000 are a member of the federations, here we have to make something up against Asia and that something is Know How. This is why Denmark has been in the top of the World for the last 70 years. If this alone was good enough we could just keep our academy in Denmark.

In Europe we have to many countries which don’t have the know how, the money or the organisation to even get 1 player into the top 10 of the World. Belgium and Holland should already for many years ago have joined forces when they were still substantial large, today they are midgets in Badminton Europe and of no importance in the rest of the World. So has usual they have mist the boot again and have to start looking for other ways to keep in touch with reality. 

The answer in my eyes is outsourcing to specialists and this will NOT be in there own countries. You want your players to take there training under Danish technical supervision but with the mentality of the Asian player. So NO 5 star hotels, but home stay, NO Air condition in the hall but play like Asian players have to do the training, and most of all don’t do it in Europe but do it in Asia that is where the competition is, badminton in Europe is a joke (it even start to be a joke in Denmark). 

With a group of Asian companies we are working on a new Academy in Asia, where we can have both players from Asia and Europe in one Academy, It will be good for Asian players to learn about the Danish technical and tactical training and it will be even more great for the players from Europe to learn the hard work done in Asia. If federations are wise they will join in a cooperation with a badminton academy like this, it will save them a lot of money and they will get better results.