The Power of Asia: Singapore
Last year, two Singaporean badminton players stole our attention, singles player Loh Kean Yew and Yeo Jia Min. Just a few weeks ago, a pair of mixed doubles stunned us: Hee Yong Kai Terry/Tan Wei Han.
Badminton Asia had the opportunity to interview 2 members of the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA): Martin Andrew (Technical Director) and Hee Yong Kai Terry (Doubles Player) to learn more about what’s actually happening with badminton in Singapore.
We discussed a variety of topics ranging from badminton’s popularity and growth in Singapore, how the players are coping with Covid-19 as well as their training schedule, challenges, and future goals. Most importantly, their preparation for the upcoming 2022 Selangor Badminton Asia Team Championships.
The Growing Love for Badminton in Singapore
The success of a few Singaporean badminton players that we see recently seem to be just the tip of the iceberg of badminton’s growth in Singapore. In the last ten years, a lot of new badminton courts have been installed in different places in Singapore. In schools, badminton is getting much more played by students for them to gain more experience in different kinds of sports.
As the athletes are receiving a lot of publicity in the media for the last two months, it has impacted a massive increase in schools. “Local academies have a 30% increase minimum in their registrations based on the success of our players, that had obviously link with Loh Kean Yew in the World Championships, but also some of our other players, and the success they’ve had because we’ve been quietly working quite hard on” says Martin.
While soccer is still the more popular sport in Singapore, Terry said that badminton is considered as more of a holistic sport that people prefer to play badminton as a way to bond with their families and friends.
Training Through the Pandemic
Terry believes that Singaporean players are privileged to still be able to train despite the Covid-19 pandemic. “Some of them don’t have them and are still having lockdown while we are already training, ” Terry says. As soon as the vaccine was available, athletes and coaches were given their shots. The Singaporean team has been supported by Sport SG and the Singaporean government that gives looser restrictions for the national team to keep training. Restrictions are still applied but SBA and the players managed to work around them. Training during the pandemic is not only hard on the training itself but also on the lack of tournaments and sometimes it caused players to feel a little bit down but they keep training to be better and the result shows: one of their players became the world’s champion at the end of 2021.
Finding Talents and Turning Them into Victories
It’s the Singapore Sports School scholarship that laid strong foundations for Singapore’s best players, including Loh Kean Yew and Hee Yong Kai Terry. Besides the scholarship program, the SBA has got another system coming in called Regional Training Centers. These Regional Training Centers are aimed at young players from the age of 13 to 16 years old and going to be based on training the technical side of the players as well as young players. The main focus is getting work done on the tactical and the mental side, but primarily the programs are going to be technical and physical mainly for younger players. Martin explains that the SBA has to make sure that they are training the young players so that they have “weapons to succeed in the future”. From a younger age, they have to be used to having the correct technique to broaden their performance pathway.
“Singaporean players are naturally competitive,” Martin explains. So to hone their talents, the SBA are doing training programs, internal competitions as well as internships according to their studies and rehab injuries. This has improved their technique and physical side during training.
Despite the solid programs, Singapore has a high-level exit from badminton. Generally, the numbers of girls exiting badminton are higher than boys who are required to do national service. To address the issue, the Singapore Badminton Associations put emphasize in making badminton a sport that gives young players the feeling of social belonging as well as competitive belonging. The SBA makes sure that players are not only getting better but they are actually feeling that the training is fun.
Singapore’s Target for Tournaments in 2022
This year is a big year for badminton players as there are several upcoming competitions. In a few days, we will have the 2022 Selangor Badminton Asia Team Championships and other tournaments are coming after that. “We’ve got the SEA Games, Commonwealth Games, and all of them. If we start looking at the individual tournaments, we've gotten opportunities this year to get our rankings up” Martin says.
"We would love to think we’re going to win everything we enter, but to be realistic about it, it’s about the performances from the players and making sure that the players are doing themselves justice with what they’ve got back in competition at the moment,” Martin describes. The most important thing now is for the players to give their best performance and increase their rankings. Terry, on the other hand, aims to be in the top four. “Personally, my target for the team and for the boys will be to try to perform better. And if we can, I will aim to be in the top four so we can qualify for the Thomas Cup,” he adds.
For the 2022 Selangor BATC, behind the Singaporean team, there will be amazing coaches including Kelvin Ho with the singles, assistant coach Yap Kim Hock, and for the doubles, there is coach Lim Pek Siah.
Another prestigious badminton tournament coming soon is the All England which will happen in March. Since the base to be qualified for the All England is ranking, only Loh Kean Yew and Yeo Jia Min who will compete for this year.
Future Goals for the Federation and Sport
The Singapore Badminton Association has a lot of goals to continue being successful and achieve their dreams. By having a firm performance, the players are able to perform on the world stage and to be successful. Martin explains a few of their goals including “we want them to achieve their optimum level and be able to maintain a series of years”. Moreover, he also said that “We want a higher number of people playing and increasing the participation figures”.
New courts have also been set up recently at the Expo Centre which included approximately 25 courts for them to train. However, due to the pandemic, it has not been used yet. This space will give a good opportunity for the players to improve their technical and physical skills. Martin also hoped that this will create a stronger performance platform for the association.
Mainly, the aim of the association is to become a more substantial organization, Martin said. The pandemic has made a huge impact on the association. There are limited competitions, but. the players are always working hard and always being motivated while adjusting to the situation. This has also given an opportunity for players to keep on training and waiting for the opportunity to come sooner or later. “We got good players. They have the passion, they have the abilities to achieve and I believe they can achieve in what they’re doing” Martin closes.
