HYDERABAD: For ages, Asia has been the badminton hub of the world, and most European nations who are trying to catch up follow the Asian style of coaching that lays a lot of emphasis on just developing the stamina and playing the defensive game. It works for some, and doesn’t work for most.
The latter was the case with Spain. The nation which is slowly rising in the sport, struggled to match their Asian counterparts, or for that matter other Europeans too. For Fernando Rivas — Spain’s national badminton coach since 2013 — the first thing on his list was to change this Asian approach of coaching.
“I don’t have any problem with the Asian style of training. But for years we tried that, and it reaped no benefits. So when I became the head coach, I told everyone in the team to change our style of training to the one that suits us,” Rivas told Express.
The Spaniard, who has been into coaching ever since he turned 20, has had to introduce a more scientific approach to the game, and an aggressive game. But before all that, he himself had to go through the rigmarole to be able to bring in those changes.
“I brought theoretical knowledge into the sport, which was initially opposed by veterans, but now the results are coming. For me, if you follow a certain style to achieve success, you just queue up behind others. You are not doing anything new,” said the coach.
“Tradition cannot be good or bad. It’s good that we didn’t have any history in badminton. That way, I got to create one, which seems to be working for me and the team,” Rivas added.
A mediocre player during his day, by his own admission, Fernando had to become a champion coach in his own eyes, before producing a champion player. During the early 2000’s, there were no proper training facilities, no infrastructure and he had to fight for the same.
“When I was a player, there was no infrastructure or facilities. Things had not changed much when I took over as coach. Being tenacious paid off,” he opined.
The mentally tough coach believes there is still lots of scope for improvement as far his coaching is concerned, and can learn a thing or two from Denmark coach Kenneth Jonassen.
Also, he wants his ward Carolina Marin to achieve heights that no one ever has been able to attain.
“Denmark’s coach Jonassen is really good. He is doing good work with the whole team. I am in a constant bid to improve, and look to other coaches to learn further.
“Also, motivating Marin to achieve her goals is not a big issue. She still has a long way to go. I want her to be the greatest ever to have played the sport,” he concluded.