Badminton cup inspires young talents
- Badminton, Sport -
By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net
PASIG CITY, Philippines — Start them on a sport while their young.
This has been the inspiration of Toby’s Youth Badminton Championships. Now on its sixth year, the cup continues to attract young talent to compete with other badminton players of their own age.
Toby Claudio, vice president for operations at Toby’s Sports said starting sports development at the “grassroots” level — meaning the youth — is the best way to keep the local talent pool fresh and helps offer better training to athletes.
“Often, we believe that training is for a selected pool of very talented athletes. But the key to develop and hone players is to offer the opportunity to as many kids as possible. From here, players will emerge as they learn in the court and during their early training,” Claudio said.
One of the challenges for young badminton talents is how to get exposure and experience in competitions, given that most of these cater to the yuppies and working class players. Through their badminton cup, Claudio hopes they are helping the youth gain experience and exposure while playing at the court and get acknowledged as they publish results of the competition. At present, 10 to 15 players from the cup were drafted in the national team.
