After a period with injuries for Jacco Arends and Niclas Nøhr, they have finally made their way back to the courts. In the 8th episode of Badminton Europe’s podcast, the two comeback kids also have a conversation about the difference in training environments in Denmark and the Netherlands, and why European men’s doubles are great competition for Asia compared to the other events.
Arends from Netherlands, partners up with Selena Piek in mixed and Ruben Jille in doubles, thinks that the reason why European men’s doubles compete a little better with the Asians is because of one thing; tactics.
- In Europe, I think in all disciplines we are maybe a little bit further in the tactical component of the game whereas the Asians are better physically and maybe skill wise, but in the doubles, we can tackle that better I think.
- I totally agree with Jacco. If I can say anything about the Danish team; we have had a really strong group in Denmark with actually four pairs that is now competing at the Superseries level full time. And I think with that in mind that we have a strong practice back home, so we can always keep pushing each other to the next level but the tactics is really important in the men’s doubles, and the physical is maybe a bit higher in the other disciplines.
Coming back
Niclas Nøhr is coming back from a knee injury and has started up the partnership with Sara Thygesen once again. He is playing with Kasper Antonsen in men’s doubles.
- For me personally it has been a long period without playing badminton especially in the mixed I lost Sara to Mathias [Christiansen]. But I am pretty happy to be back with Sara and of course there has been a lot of talks about this and it’s almost one and a half year ago since we last played so there have been changed a lot of things.
Arends and his mixed partner Piek have also been making their comeback after injuries and they are working their way back to the world top. When asked if an injury puts a strain on a partnership, Jacco answered:
- As an athlete of course you want to win and play all the time. But the good thing for me and Selena was that we were injured both of us at the same time, so we were able to share the pain a little bit. But yeah of course it is hard when you are injured, but like with tough matches you just try to make the best of it, pull through and also learn and grow as a person.
Stay tuned for episode 8 which will be available from the coming Monday on February 5th.
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