On her web page, Camilla Martin mentions that while she was in Canada recently, she played a lot against the Canadian male players, and that it was "funny" (I assume she means fun). I suspect she won... Can anybody in Canada try to find out? A couple of years ago Camilla visited one of Sweden's best clubs, Taby Badminton, where she played against some of the best Swedish Men's Singles players. This event was sponsored by large IT company Ericsson. There was money at stake -- it was arranged so that Camilla would get a sum of money for each won set, but lost points reduced the sum accordingly. She won all sets, without losing many points...
I bet the men psent more time looking at her as oppose to looking at the bird, no wonder she didn't lose a point.
Maybe she meant it was funny (as in strange) that there much fewer people than expected watching. Or was it funny, that their standard couldn't match hers.
I think the exhibition in calgary, canada was more as an friendship and social event between canadian and danish team, that's why the event wasn't highly publized. It lasted from 6-8pm. Not to be disrespectful, i doubt CM can outplay any men players of A- and above caliber. I'm also very sure CM had play with danish men players back home as part of her training program.
Re: Camilla vs men I can tell you that she plays a lot of exhibition matches against the male star of the locals clubs her back home. That is of course often a better match than if it was Gade or if she played the local girls! As far as the level - she keeps on beating the boys - I think - until the level we call 3.division - meaning that only the 200 best boys in Denmark can beat her! But then again - she is able to beat the other 149,800 males that play - and probably she won't leave a single point for the 149,000! PS: I don't really know if the number is 150,000 but that’s my guess since the two federations have 117,000 and 80,000 and many people are a member both places like myself! Jan
Actually, I think not. There was a LOT of prestige involved in this, maybe not for Camilla, but for the guys.
"Not to be disrespectful, i doubt CM can outplay any men players of A- and above caliber." I'm not so sure. The Swedish players were elite players (E class), plus a few juniors. And "not to be disrespectful", but I don't think the Canadian national squad would be so much of a harder task. And of course she plays with the Danish men in her training sometimes. (Did I say she doesn't?)
Mag, my previous comment about CM vs A- or higher men single players is purely subjective, as i haven't not seen CM compete with MS players before. Subjective meaning mental comparison of what i have seen CM on tapes and lives in 1992 in WS. Where i l live, A players are consider just a notch below pros or national players while D class is the lowest level catergory. I have seen A MS in our countries and they seem very fast, hard hitting players. I personally just can't visualize how CM could outplay men players with these attributes.
My opinion is CM should be able to beat Canadian A level men players - but should be a good/close game. With her experience she would be able to read the player's shot. But if she played against Wong Wen then I would bet on Wong.
Male vs female Well, I can see how you are reasoning, but I think you are under-estimating the world-class female athletes! In fact, if I hadn't known otherwise, I'd probably have thought like you do. The main difference between female and male athletes lies in physique, or to be more specific, physical strength. And it is easy to exaggerate the importance of this in badminton. Remember that Camilla is one of the very best in the world in her discipline. This means her strength may not be up to par with the top male players, but her tactics, her shot placements, her feints, her psychological strength, and probably even her speed would far exceed that of any A player. And I would say this holds for any of the top ladies players. With these attributes I personally can easily see how CM (or any other top female player) can outplay men players.
Re: Male vs female Mag, you had made some strong points. Like viver had said, games between A players and CM could be close. In canada, i feel the recent crops of A to national players are not as good as those before them. I hope viver can back me up on my last statement. ie i don't see the current best in canada come close to Humble, Poole, Wen, Sydie, Dawson or Goss.
Re: Male vs female Cooler, that's the Wang I was referring to. Other Canadian players I do not know well, watched a few of them - Sydie?? and forgot the other, but did not pay much attention to their playing. I'd say I would believe that CM could beat Canadian national male players but serious doubts against Wang, due to the latter technique. The reason I believe CM could beat a Canadian national level player is because technically she is very good. But male players being physically stronger, could just play a simple and fast game to minimize the technical gap. Therefore I said, it would be an interesting game, not sure who the winner is. In my opinion, strength (muscle power) is part of the technique.
Re: Male vs female I once saw the ladies no.2 singles playing a training match against a male county first player in UK. I could well believe CM taking on Canadian National team players and being on par with them.
Re: Male vs female viver, that what i was basing it on that canadian MS 'A' players would employ its speed and power over CM, as i'd doubt the MS could match CM's finesse and stroke techniques. You and Mag have good points but i'm still sticking to my opinion that CM equates to our A- MS players (points wise) and therefore could not beat our A or national players. Not only A players know how to read the opponents, everyone have seen how CM play before (from tapes) but i doubt it's the other way around. Actually, i think all the other canadian MS names that i have mentioned improved after wang wen arrived in canada. They taped all his tournaments and studied them. They learn new techniques as well as help reading W. Wen moves and strokes. When Ken Poole beats W. Wen around the W. Wen's 3rd years in canada, it was a big upset in the canadian badminton scene. It sure does helped him to land a nice job as a 2nd coach in command at glencoe club. I'm sure he would get the head coach job when the head coach retire, not too long from now.
Pics of Camilla @ Calgary There are some pictures available at http://www.badminton.ca/bcnews/2002/pr020129.html
Re: Pics of Camilla @ Calgary Cooler, I would expect an interesting match between CM and Canadian national men players. Power (plus a bit of technique) is good against technique (strokes) and vice-versa. I believe that physically Canadians men players are much stronger and also not sure how well CM could read their game. If she could anticipate their shots or match their speed then fine, otherwise there will be trouble for her. I'm really not a good player, probably at my best, could play at Canadian provincial level. Then, I had chance to play against some ex-top Chinese female players - most well known one was Liang Chau Hsia, Susi's coach, in a mixed doubles match. She was playing at the back and the man at net. Believe me, it was like hitting against a wall. Everything I sent was returned back without cerimonies and nothing seemed to work against her. I believe I had good strokes technique but she moved with incredible speed - and she was already retired then. Having said that and watched some top female players play, it would not surprise me if CM beat Canadian men national players. But it won't be just a walkover for either side, in my opinion.
