Filipinos can learn from Thai experience

Filipinos can learn from Thai experience
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=129177

By GERRY CARPIO
The Philippine Star

BEIJING — Philippine sports officials said we should learn from the lessons of the Beijing Olympics to give Filipino athletes a higher level of competence and improve their medal chances in international competitions.

Philippine Sports Commission chairman William “Butch” Ramirez said the Philippines should now focus its efforts on the very few sports which give the country a realistic chance of winning a medal.

“Talent identity should start very early and those chosen must have the commitment to train long – eight to 12 years – to win a medal in the Olympics,” he said.

Thailand, which won two gold medals, one silver and two bronzes in the Beijing Olympics, had put its full support behind weightlifting and boxing and is now reaping dividends.

kitams. ok ang weightlifting sa mga pinoy pero yung boxing duda ako doon. sure nakapagproduce tayo ng mga magagaling na pro boxers pero olympics ito pre. sa olympic boxing tatlo ang kalaban ng pinoy boxer.
1. kalaban na boxer
2. referee
3. judges

open sa daya. hindi ko alam bakit pa tayo nag coconcentrate sa boxing at taekwondo. mahirap talagang manalo kung ganito.

The majority of Thailand’s 21 Olympic medals came from the boxing ring with the sports of weightlifting and taekwondo adding medals to the tally in recent years.

Light flyweight Payao Pooltarat won Thailand’s first Olympic medal, claiming bronze at the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada, but the country had to wait another 20 years to crown its first Olympic champion.

Featherweight Somluck Kamsing won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and became a national hero. Similar honors were bestowed on flyweight Wijan Ponlid when he won gold four years later at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.

Thailand’s most successful Games was in Athens where, on the back of an outstanding four-medal haul by the country’s female weightlifting team, it collected a record eight medals, including an unprecedented three golds.

Light welterweight Manus Boonjumnong became the country’s third Olympic boxing champion while female weightlifters Udomporn Polsak (53kg) and Pawina Thongsuk (78kg) also collected golds.

Its Beijing achievements were two golds – by Somnit Jongjohor in the flyweight class in boxing and Jaroenrattanatarakoon in the women’s 53kg in weightlifting. It had a silver from Boonjumnong in the light welterweight in boxing and Puedpong Buttree in the women’s –49 kg in taekwondo.

The talent-identity program for boxers in Thailand starts at age 10 since this is the time kids are introduced to muay thai, the national sport.

There is at least one muay thai boxing tournament every day throughout Thailand and there are more on Saturdays and Sundays,” Pradit Nitiyanant, senior editor of a Bangkok newspaper said.

They are trained since they are 10 years old in the national boxing pool, from which the best Olympic materials are chosen to undergo intensive training in Cuba under Cuban mentors then sent to Europe to test their mettle in a series of tuneup tournaments.

in short grass root level ang training nila. dito sa pilipinas basketball lang ang ganyan

Pradit said Thailand didn’t know much of international boxing until over 40 years ago when boxing legend Gabriel “Flash” Elorde went to Thailand to teach muay kids his art of boxing.

“Your Gabriel Elorde and Papa Sarreal (the father in law and coach) introduced international boxing to Thailand,” he said.

Pradit said Thailand trains three generations of weightlifters under a resident Chinese coach that handles one lifter for at least five years until he is ripe for Olympic competition.

The young generation of lifters ensures that the country has new successors for retiring Olympians, he said.

Before the financial crisis hit Indonesia in 1996, the country was the world’s best source for top archers. Now, Indonesia’s main concentration for the Olympics is badminton. Eighteen of the country’s 26 medals come from badminton, with its 2008 delegation contributing one gold, (men’s doubles), one silver (mixed doubles) and one silver (women’s singles). All five of Indonesia’s Olympic champions are badminton players.

dapat talaga focus ng pilipinas ay sa mga sports na definite ang results, sports na kita kaagad ang result ng effort mo, like weightlifting, archery, at shooting. forget basketball, height is might, eh lahi tayo ng malilit. kahit puro fil-am ang padala mo sa mga qualifying tournaments eh talo pa rin ng china at korea. pang south east asia lang tayo. swimming forget it. again pang matangkad at mahahabang braso lang ito. boxing ang taekwondo, masyadong controversial. palagi na lang talo sa mga judges.

Football is the national sport of Indonesia but badminton has a very large base of practitioners like muay thai does in Thailand. Their domination in the world has produced a steady supply of international talents for the Olympics.

It has also gained headway in weightlifting where it won two bronze medals in Beijing.

Vietnam, toughened by one of the longest, brutal wars in recent history, has put emphasis on its taekwondo training. With its lean delegation to the Olympics, it had only two Olympic medals – the first in 2000 and the second in 2008 – both in taekwondo.

Malaysia is shifting from the medal-rich event of swimming to badminton while Singapore is into table tennis, a low-profile sport ruled traditionally by China.

Ramirez said giving all 36 sports in the Philippines equal support would not only spread the resources thin but will lessen the full support elite sports need to be competitive in the Olympics.

“Even if you have a P30 million Olympic program a year, that won’t solve the problem because it s just a short cut. We need long term efforts and long term commitments,” he said.

nasaan ang basketball program ng thailand at iba pang asean countries? wala. alam kasi nila na waste of time ang basketball sa sports program nila.