Interview with Bo Omosegaard - Seeking the science of badminton (Part 2)

You can read the first part of the interview by clicking here.

Part-2 of a detailed interview with Bo Omosegaard, a pioneer in many ways in badminton. The current Talent Development Manager of Badminton Denmark was among the first to conduct detailed scientific studies on physical training for badminton players. Badminton, until the 1980s, depended on conventional wisdom; there was little scientific work that had gone into the particular requirements of the sport. Omosegaard, who has authored a thesis on bio-mechanics in badminton and was sports physiologist at the University of Copenhagen, is an author of several highly-regarded books on physical training.

How much has changed since you wrote the book?

It’s still valid. The whole game has developed. Earlier players had different grips for forehand and backhand, and they held the racket tight. These days, you have a looser grip, and you change the grip according to your position on court and so on. You’re using finger power. So things have become more sophisticated, but techniques have built on old basic technique. But the movement pattern is still the same.

We’re doing much more strength training; heavy resistance training. In the old days, they were avoiding that because they thought they would get slow. But if you see the sprinters, they have big muscles, they’re doing explosiveness training, so if it works for them, it will work for badminton players also. These days we do a lot of strength training.

Are there any fundamental difference between the body structure of a typical Chinese athlete and a typical Danish athlete that defines playing style?

If you see the general population, the Chinese are generally smaller and a bit more skinny, but then look at the players, and you have some heavy players and some thin Danish players. As long as you’re fit, you can have composition of any kind.Chinese players tend to be more explosive.

Is it a matter of training, or is it genetic?

It’s a matter of training. And attitude. And how you practice. I’m completely convinced. For example, you don’t have many Chinese sprinters; it’s a matter of tradition. You have some Danish players who are very fast on court, like Jan O Jorgensen is very fast, he is an excellent runner. Viktor Axelsen is a different type;, he’s not so fast, although I hope he will be.

So you don’t believe some countries have particular qualities? You think any player can become anything he wants to be?

More or less. But sometimes you can see… if you see from a distance, a player with Indonesian style, very relaxed… then you have Indian players, you can see them from a long distance, always nice and easy and clean hits…. but then again, some Indian doubles players, they’re explosive, so it’s all about training.

I’m asking this because in India there’s this debate about how to train a player. Like, some say the Chinese method has to be adopted, but others argue that Indian body types can’t take that load.

If you’re playing men’s doubles, you need to do a lot of fast and furious training, because otherwise you wouldn’t get there. But in singles, I think the genes you have with you are setting limits, and giving you opportunities. I mean, if Prakash (Padukone) was playing today, and if he was moving at the same speed, he wouldn’t have a chance, but he would be forced to move fast, and then some of his beautiful nice swings, he would remove them and take shorter swings. You need to develop small swings, lot of deceptive strokes, fast recovery and so on. And that goes for footwork as well. So I think the Indian players have to speed up, just like us Europeans too.

What does your current job involve?

I have the overall responsibility for concepts and methods we’re encouraging the clubs to adopt. We have some players in our elite groups, like 45 players selected for our under-13 elite group. We have a part-time junior national coach, and he takes care of them, and he has certain activities with them. He’s doing what he can. Because he’s employed by Badminton Denmark, I’m in charge of what he’s doing, the training principles. We have some local talent development centres. But the most important place is in the local clubs. The coaches there are employed by clubs, or sometimes by parents. I encourage them to do this (training). I’ll make the description of basic concepts of developing young players.

Why is Denmark producing lesser talent now in singles?

The Chinese are dominating the whole thing. Due to cultural differences, in Denmark we are not training that much at a young age. So that means at the age of 18-19, we are way behind at the world junior championships. But over the next 8-10 years, our players are developing and sometimes overtaking the other top players. At the world juniors, we are moving closer, gradually.Women’s singles is a different story. We’ve always had one big shot, like Camilla Martin, and after her, Tine Baun. The next in line was Nana Brosolat, but she was injured for two years and then she gave up.

Now we have this gap. So we took the consequences. We’re developing the Women’s Singles 2016 project. The oldest is 23, and the youngest is 16. They’re in a fulltime training setup. It will take time, but I can guarantee you we will get there. Talent development is a numbers game. I’m confident we will keep the production line going. There are a number of players in the pipeline.

Are you curious about what the Chinese are doing?

I have an overall idea. I must say I’m very impressed by the Chinese, because getting to be the world’s best is tough, and now they’re improving their position. But also, I hope, with the growing wealth of the Chinese, they will produce fewer players. They’re working hard, resources is not a problem. We will never be able to compete in resources; our way to get close is the quality of training.