Shuttleball competitions
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At present, the unofficial shuttleball
games were organized by the Taipei Shuttleball
Committee which is led by Mr. Deng. Tanmei
Elementary School hosts the official games
sponsored by the Department of Education
of Taipei City Government. Since Mr. Deng
is also a teacher of Tanmei Elementary School,
most of shuttleball games are organized
by Mr. Deng. As early as 15 years ago, Tanmei
Elementary School was the center for promoting
shuttleball and the base of the competitions.
Although there are fewer and fewer shuttleball
teams at present, there are still new school
joining the shuttleball sport.
Mr. Deng is a good teacher and a fervent
supporter love for shuttleball. He doesn’t
have the background in PE, but is highly
interested in PE. He is the responsible
person of Taipei Shuttleball Committee.
Coach You of Xisong Junior High School is
a key cadre in the committee. Mr. You contributes
a lot to the players and shuttleball games.
His job includes selecting national team
players through Youth Cup and Chungcheng
Cup and leading the national players to
go to competitions overseas. Mr. Deng with
his fervent favor in shuttleball leads the
national team to attend international competitions
every year, and sponsored at least 600~900
USD for the players’ expense. The farthest
place they went is Hungary. They often go
to Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou, China.
The competition with the most attendants
ever is the Shuttleball Word Cup in Hungary.
There are more than ten countries participated
at that time.
Currently the shuttleball competitions
are mostly led by China. They tend to be
conservative. Many countries recommend that
the foot shuttlecock should add a ball at
the bottom, but they didn’t change their
mind at all. A shuttleball should have a
ball underneath, in order to be called a
shuttleball.
In order to be well known, the shuttleball
should be easy to play. So Mr. Deng and
Mother of Shuttleball - Ms. Ming-hsiu Li,
have continued to improve the shuttleball
for the ease of play and to balance. Whenever
Mr. Deng found the situations like the orbit
of the shuttleball didn’t go smooth while
flying or some people gave recommendations
about the shuttleball, they would make adjustment.
When the improvement was done, Mr. Deng
would announce the new shuttleball as the
official shuttleball used in the coming
game, and also would ask the manufacturer
to make the balls.
Mr. Deng thinks that under the present
educational environment in Taiwan, the future
development of shuttleball is not positive
because very few teachers and parents are
willing to lead shuttleball teams. They
will still make efforts to promote shuttleball.
Tanmei Elementary School, for example, designs
the shuttleball courses according to the
students’ physical and mental condition.
However, the teachers are still in shortage.
Taipei Shuttleball Committee holds two training
courses for shuttleball judge and coach
training. Mr. Deng encourages teachers to
attend the courses. He said, “Principal
is a key role to promote shuttleball in
school. As long as the Principle is willing
to do so, more teachers will follow.” They
will continue to cooperate with Department
of Education of Taipei City Government,
together to support the development of shuttleball.
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