Written Transcript of Peter Gade s Video Interview Part 1 Peter Gade: Then there was someplace else in Demark, that place was a very good place for youth projects, for talent projects in Aarhus another part and that made it a natural time for me to make a decision whether I should play badminton or football. And I choose badminton because I was more an individual, I was more on my own, I could take full responsibility, that s what I liked at that time. Since I ve been missing the team part and being part of the team, but I don t regret my decision, probably it was a good decision. Chau Yap: You were quite good in soccer as well I mean football? Peter Gade: Yes I was quite good, yeah. Chau Yap: Oh ok, what position did you play in? Peter Gade: Midfielder. Chau Yap: A mid-fielder, oh ok. That explains why you have so much stamina. Peter Gade: But quite attacking, but that also explains Chau Yap: Yeah, ok, ok. So, it s when you turned you said sixteen, right, that you decided to play Badminton professionally, was it sixteen? Peter Gade: Professional was when I was seventeen, eighteen, I moved alone, I moved from Aarhus to the main capital, to the Copenhagen area and that was the final professional step and say now, this is what I want to do. But since I was fourteen, fifteen years old, I was very focused and this was the only thing I wanted to do. Chau Yap: What would be the national sport for Denmark is it Badminton or is it football? Peter Gade: No, I think it s handball and football. Chau Yap: Handball and football. Peter Gade: That would be the primary national sport and then you ve got Badminton coming close behind. Chau Yap: Oh, ok. Why is it such a tradition, as in Badminton and Denmark? 1
Peter Gade: I don t know, I think it s a matter of history, we ve always done well in Badminton and we have a very deep club tradition. We have a lot of small clubs, everyone with the youth department, the junior department and the senior department and it s always been like this, it s a natural development. It s very wide spread, Badminton. It s not that high profile as Handball or football, but it s very widespread and a lot of people play it and a lot of small Badminton venues are placed around in very good stadiums, small stadiums very small, but really, really good and that s the main reason I think. Chau Yap: Ok. For you, which is the hardest skill to master or perfect in Badminton? Peter Gade: I don t know. What I like so much about Badminton is it s a combination, it s not only one thing, it s not only about running one hundred meters or throwing a shot put or whatever. This is complex, you need to have a great stamina, you need to be mentally, extremely tough, you need to be very fast, you need to be technical at the best, you need to be very explosive and very fast in your fast movement. All these things you know and you have an opponent on the other side, you never know what s going to happen. It s a mental game and the combination of all this I really like, that s what makes me really like the sport, it s not only one thing. Chau Yap: Ok, how much of Badminton is mental rather than skills and physical attributes? Peter Gade: It s difficult to divide it into percentages, but what I like so much about it is that if you miss one of the elements, you re not going to be good. Chau Yap: That s right. Peter Gade: If you lack one, you re going to fall behind and you need to be at the top level, the best players today, they are at the top level at every one of these areas and that s why they are at the top level. Chau Yap: Ok. Peter Gade: If you re number ten in the world and below, that s why they lack some in some areas, but when you ve got all the other things, the mental part is hugely important. Chau Yap: Ok, great. Do you follow the other disciples like women, doubles or mix? Peter Gade: I follow them, but I have to say my primary interest goes to the singles. I think this is where the main challenge, where you see the best players in the world is 2
competing. But I also respect the men s doubles a lot because it s quite fun to watch and there s a lot of fast action. I think the ladies doubles, you know only one or two pairs three Chinese pairs in the world the rest are not even close, makes it a bit uneven. I follow the other categories but my main focus is of course, men s singles. Chau Yap: Have you ever played doubles at the start? Peter Gade: Yeah I won the world junior championships in Chau Yap: World Junior Championship, oh ok. Peter Gade: I was world junior champion in double and I ve played double a lot of times, I really enjoy it, I think it s fun, it s fast, attacking but the games has changed a lot the last five, eight years because of the serve being so high. Chau Yap: That s right. Peter Gade: It s such a big crucial factor it almost, determine everything else and that s a shame. I would like to see the serve being taken out of the doubles game that would be good. But I like doubles; I think it s really fun. Chau Yap: So right from the start, you played two disciples? Peter Gade: I played doubles and also played mixed doubles very early age and around, until eighteen, I played both men s doubles and men s singles, after that singles. Chau Yap: Ok, great. Which player are you closest to on the circuit? Peter Gade: Danish players? Chau Yap: Danish players, we start from the Danish players. Peter Gade: I have a good relationship towards some of the Carsten Morgensen and also the other single players Jan Jorgensen, I speak a lot with the others guys some of the other guys. I m a bit older now, I m one of the older guys so, I like to have a good relationship with them when they re traveling that much together, but I like to also have a bit of fun and that s in a good way. I like to have variety; I like people to have a good sense of humor so things are not getting too serious. Sometimes, I am so serious about my game, I know some of the others are as well, but sometime we need to relax, we need to have some fun, we need to make some jokes and some of these guys are I like to spend some time with them, having some fun. Besides that, my best friends are at home. 3
Chau Yap: Oh ok. Peter Gade: And on the other circuit, I have Wong Choong Hann is one of my very best friends. He s a really good friend and I ve always been friendly with him for many, many years and on occasions, I speak with the others, most of the Malaysians are very friendly and I have a good relationship towards them. Chau Yap: Ok, ok, great. What do you do in your spare time? Peter Gade: I am very committed to some of my interests beside Badminton and one of them is wine. I m a wine collector and I ve been doing this for the past eight years and gotten more and more serious. So, I have quite a valuable cellar now, I like to chase these bottles, I like to find the best price possible and I like to invest in them, see how the prices develop. Of course I like to drink them as well, but only occasionally. When I still play it s not often I have the possibility. Sometimes I do tasting, I spit, I don t drink, I only spit, but it s a huge interest of mine and I like to follow that very closely. Music is another really big interest of mine; I play a little bit of guitar myself. I listen to a lot of music, if I have the possibility, I go to concerts as well, that s two of mine and then the last one is maybe cooking. Chau Yap: Wow. Peter Gade: Which goes together with wine, I like to cook a lot. Food is a big interest of mine as well. I like to chase good restaurants, good food, not necessarily fine dining but sometimes the best raw, quality, food is what I go for, I like that very much. Chau Yap: Ok. Part 2 Chau Yap: Do you like Malaysian food? Peter Gade: The only thing I have eaten is the chicken curry, the Malaysian chicken curry, nasi lemak? Chau Yap: Nasi lemak, yeah. Peter Gade: Nasi lemak, I like that, beside that, it s not that often I eat Malaysian food, I have to admit because the problem is, the restaurants here are so good, so you tend to go for European foods. 4
Chau Yap: There was once, I think a few years back, you were here for the Malaysia Open, you got food poisoning, from Malaysia or? Peter Gade: No. Chau Yap: No? Ok, ok. Peter Gade: I don t think so. Chau Yap: Ok, good. Peter Gade: I ve never had food poisoning. Chau Yap: No, Oh, ok. There was one Malaysia Open, you fell sick or something. Peter Gade: Yeah, that was the year I won the Malaysia Open. Chau Yap: Yeah, yeah, that s right. Peter Gade: But that s nothing to do with the food poisoning. It happened on the way here on the flight. I had been suffering from migraine, I had an attack of migraine on the flight but luckily I recovered soon enough. Chau Yap: That s right. You need to have really good mental strength to win from Peter Gade: I can t explain it, that was a very special experience. First it happened and then winning afterwards, so it was very special. Chau Yap: Ok. What is your opinion or perception of Badminton Malaysia, like the standards, the administration, training, etc? Peter Gade: Badminton is huge here, Badminton in Malaysia was one of the first countries in Asia I traveled to and I played the World Juniors here so these first trips here I will still remember them, it was a big huge experience for me and I ve always like the enthusiasm and the way the people talk about Badminton here. It s like football in Europe. Chau Yap: Yeah. Peter Gade: And I really like that, it feels like this is one of the homes of Badminton in the world and I really hope that this will continue and not be overtaken by soccer and all the other sports. So it s good for me to see that Chong Wei and the other men s doubles are still doing really good because that s good for Badminton. Chau Yap: Yes. 5
Peter Gade: I ve had some wonderful experiences here and I ve always played quite good here, even though it s in Asia it s hot and all this things the crowd, I ve always enjoyed them. Chau Yap: The crowd loves you too; I think the Malaysian crowd Peter Gade: It s been fantastic every time I ve been here and also this time, even though we were losing yesterday, it was still a great experience. Chau Yap: Ok, great. How is it different from Denmark Badminton? Peter Gade: It s more like, it really means something to the people here, when the team in Thomas cup do well it really means something. In Denmark it s more considered an individual sport and it s more considered we have to deliver medals and all these things. Here it s really emotional and I like that. Chau Yap: Ok, great. Can Denmark continue to produce players to challenge the domination of Asian countries? Peter Gade: I think we can, but I think that we have to step up and really, if you look at the game today, you have the top five in the men s singles, these are really the big guys, they have been there for quite a while now. In two years, three years time, they re not going to be there anymore so it s going to be an open field for some. I think Chong Wei is still going to be there but Taufik, Lin Dan, me is gone. So, it s going to be interesting to see what s going to happen. I think that we have a few young players who are actually capable of going to the world, to the top but we need more. I would like to have to choose from I don t know five, six seven eight kind of different players and it s not easy because men s singles are such a tough category. I think it s possible in the men s doubles I think we have a lot of possible future world class players in the doubles. In the singles, it s really difficult, especially also in the ladies singles and the men s singles, so we ll see. I ll do whatever I can; I have already done some things inside the youth talent project thing. We ll see if when I finish then maybe I m going to do some more. Chau Yap: Ok. Which Malaysian player do you admire most? Peter Gade: It s difficult; I cannot take out one player. For sure at the moment Chong Wei is doing really well and he is so determined to do whatever it takes to be at the top and that s good quality. But Choong Hann is a friendly wise you know he is the guy I respect the most and after knowing him for so many years and he s just a great guy, have a great family as well, but 6
most of the Malaysian guys they tend to play with a huge amount of passion and I like that. I have a good relationship with most of them. Chau Yap: Ok great. Who do you regard as the greatest player of all time? Peter Gade: In Malaysia? Chau Yap: Around the world. Peter Gade: Around the world, I have to say that Lin Dan must be the probably, the way he played at the Olympics at home; he may have been the best player ever. Chau Yap: Oh, ok. Peter Gade: It s difficult to compare different times but actually, I played it for so many years now so I can compare the last fifteen years and for sure, he is the best player no doubt about that, if you look at the skills. Chau Yap: Ok, not yourself? Peter Gade: No. Chau Yap: You ve been on the top for quite a few years as well. Peter Gade: Yeah, for sure I m among them but if you look at he s been winning in three World Championships and one Olympic, no other player will ever repeat that, I don t think so. So, you must consider him as a best player. Chau Yap: Ok, good. Who do you see will dominate Badminton for the next ten years after the Lin Dans, the Chong Wei and Peter Gade retire? Peter Gade: That s what I told you before; it s going to be really interesting to see because at the moment there s not any obvious. Tago may be one of the young players for the future, but I see an open field, I see the possibilities for many countries to go in and take that spot. But for sure the Chinese are going to produce players who are going to be able to do that and I think Malaysia is doing that as well, Korea and etcetera. But at the moment China don t have another Lin Dan and at the moment Malaysia don t have another Chong Wei. We may have a few guys who can take over for me like Jan and Viktor Axelsen but it s still a bit uncertain. Chau Yap: Ok. 7
Peter Gade: It s an uncertain future but it will be good for Badminton if we could have new countries putting in new players; that would be good. Chau Yap: Ok, great, great. What would be your greatest regret at not achieving upon retirement? Peter Gade: When the day I stop, I will not have any regrets. Chau Yap: Ok. Peter Gade: I have given everything in my career and if I may leave, I may end it without a Thomas Cup, without a World Championship, without an Olympic medal. Yes for sure I could have in the Olympics; I ve been losing to the winner all three times, very close, close but doing really good against the winner so I couldn t have done better than I have done. I have no regrets. I left my footprint in the Badminton world in more than one way. One thing is the results and I am very proud of some of the results, I m one of the players from Europe to do the best results in Asia ever and I m very proud of that and I m proud of my all England title and the Grand Prix Final and all these things. Unbeaten one in the Thomas Cup for three years playoffs in the row and all these things. I m really proud of them and that s just the way my career has been and it s just the way it should be. I ll go for some of the titles I mentioned for the next one or two years, but I have no regrets. Part 3 Chau Yap: When will that be, your retirement, not so soon? Peter Gade: I don t know, it s too uncertain to say. At the moment things are going really well and I feel like there s a possibility to do good results in the next future and one or two years, it s possible. But another serious injury, maybe I ll stop. So, I have to be very humble in the way I look at it and have a lot of respect that things can change in a short amount of time. Chau Yap: That s right. This year you are thirty-three? Peter Gade: Yes, this year December, I m thirty-four. Chau Yap: Yeah, I mean at your age, you are one of the fittest players in the singles. Peter Gade: If you ask me two or three years ago, I would never have thought that I could keep on playing, but I work so hard in the fitness area. I have to do that to be able to do what I do and as long as I feel, on a good day I can beat Chong Wei. He may win most of 8
the times at the moment, but I m still close to beating him and as long as I feel that, I will continue. Chau Yap: Ok. Will you continue to be involved in Badminton after you retire? Peter Gade: I m sure that I m going to be involved in some way; I m going to be coaching in some way. It s a very natural way for me. In which way I don t know yet, it could be in different kinds of ways but that s where I m going to head for the moment. We ll see in which areas, it could be national coach it could be national coach outside Denmark, it could be a lot of different things. Chau Yap: Yeah. How would you describe the rewards from Badminton as opposed to other sports and does it give enough for a comfortable retirement? Peter Gade: It s always the question of, do you want to compare it to tennis and golf and these things, then there s a big difference, but I have done really good economically and I m quite happy for the life I ve been living for the past twenty years, it s been amazing, it s been an amazing ride and I have absolutely no complaints. I feel very privileged and very lucky to have done what I ve done. I m going to enjoy it for one or two more years and I cannot just, don t do nothing for the rest of my life, I have to earn my money, I have a family and I m not the kind of guy who just want to sit back and do nothing. So, I m going to find new projects to be part of and we ll see what that s going to be. Chau Yap: Ok, great. What s your involvement like with BestOnCourt.com? Peter Gade: BestOnCourt is a project; it s a brand new project I started about a year ago or something like that. The idea came a couple of years ago, I think from Morten Bjergen and Thomas Engholm both of them created this kind of project which is a way to present Badminton from a coach s point of view, to show exercises, to show different kinds of drills, different kinds of ways to there s a huge amount of information missing in the Badminton world and BestOnCourt is a brilliant way in the future for this to be brought out to the Badminton fans from all around the world. Chau Yap: Ok, great. Peter Gade: And I m happy to be a part of it and we are only in the early stages of what this could be. Chau Yap: Ok, can you explain a bit more on BestOnCourt.com? Like how it started the founders 9
Peter Gade: Those are some of the things I just explained, but it s basically a platform where both players and coaches and Badminton interested people, they can go in and they can actually see me doing different kinds of exercises, they can see an amateur player doing different kinds of exercises, they can see a junior player doing different kinds of exercises and they can actually take these exercises, download them and use them in their daily coaching or daily practicing and this is a brilliant way of doing it and hopefully I ve always wanted to pass on the experience, pass on whatever I have used in Badminton, this is a really good way to do it. Not only this, but also a lot of other different areas coming from this BestOnCourt.com and hopefully we re going to see a lot of this in the future. Chau Yap: Ok, great. So how is BestOnCourt.com different from other Badminton training programs out there? Peter Gade: I think the main thing here, is that you re going to see contributions from many different kinds of players, because you can easily record some strokes, some exercises, some on court exercises, whatever from many different kinds of persons. And the wider the guest, the more interesting it is for the common Badminton coach or the common Badminton player to go in and learn from this. During the past fifteen years, I ve had so many questions on the website and on my email from fans all over the world asking about whatever to do, however to do things, exercises and all these matters and now this is a way for them, they can go in, they have a lot of options and they could choose from it, just take whatever they want. Chau Yap: Ok, great. Is watching videos on BestOnCourt.com just as effective as attending physical coaching classes? Peter Gade: You can t compare them, its two different things. I like to make a combination and then say yeah, you can have your coach take out some things from these BestOnCourt sessions and then bring them on to the court. It s always very important to have a coach, because the coach can make you go you may go 80%, 85% on your own, but the coach may get you the last 10, 15%, that s why you need a coach, that s the main reason. So this is not to do one thing or the other, this is a combination and hopefully this what I miss in the Badminton world is a lot of discussion, a lot of talks all around, debates going on, how you do this, how you do this and if you look at other sports, if you look at football and all the American sports, so many statistics, so many tactical discussions going on. I d like them to take place in the Badminton world because we can all learn from that. We will have better coaches in the world, the more we get this and that is why this is a very good thing. And also, if you are a player in a distant place where you don t have availability of coaches this is going to be the next best thing to go in and watch this, no 10
matter where you are in the world. That s really a good thing. I ve done hundreds of clinics for the past fifteen years and all of them was very successful and a huge response from the participants. This is a way to reach out to even more people in a much easier way. Chau Yap: Ok, ok. What expectations do you have for BestOnCourt.com? Peter Gade: I think it will be one of the biggest sport, Badminton and other sports platform that can be in the future. Of course there s going to be competitors in this market, I know that, but if I look at the possibilities, if I look at the prospect of this, I see a huge amount of potential. So, I m going to do whatever I can to bring it along and the more I can do the better and I ll do my best and we ll see what happens. Chau Yap: Ok, great. For your involvement, it s more towards monetary terms or it s because that Peter Gade: No, monetary reasons, it s distant. You never know what it may be nothing, it may be a bit, it may be more, this is uncertain. For me, the most important thing right now is that I m still an active Badminton player; I can actually combine these things. It doesn t take that much of my time, I can do some things in different matters, like this to help promote BestOnCourt.com and still do what I have to do at the moment, focus on my results on the Badminton court. So that is the main reason why this is an easy project for me to join and also the people behind this are doing this for the sake of Badminton and not for the sake of money and that s the primary issue. Part 4 Chau Yap: You have already reached the pinnacles of Badminton, so what plans or aspirations do you have after retirement? Peter Gade: Oh, you mean after I retire? Chau Yap: Yeah after. Peter Gade: After I retire, well, first of all if you think about actually I have a lot of things I d like to try out with younger players especially. And I like to have a responsibility for the younger players and the early ages and that s just kind of my way of doing things. It s a mix of many things, I ve had many coaches for the past fifteen years and I ve taken the best off each one of them and I really look forward to bringing that on to young players. That s the pinnacle it could be very valuable for me and that s maybe the way I 11
want to live my retirement and I see I have even more possibilities as a coach than I do as a player. Chau Yap: Ok. Peter Gade: I hope so. Chau Yap: What advice would you give to those young and aspiring Badminton players, any advice? Peter Gade: Oh, well for me, it s really difficult because it could be a mix of many things, but the first thing I ll say is that Badminton is quite a comprehensive sport. There are so many good things in it because it s so versatile. It s not only one thing, you have to be mentally really strong as I mentioned before, you have to be physically, tactically, technically really, really strong. That combination it makes you create a lot of tools you can use in your further life and be open minded towards these things, you can always learn. I ve been in this game so many years and I m still learning. You can never sit back and say, I have control over this, I know how to do this, I don t need to learn anything more. The more open minded and the more willing you are to do the hard work because Badminton, especially the singles, are really tough work, there s no easy way, you have to do the tough work otherwise you won t be a great player. Chau Yap: Yeah, that s right. I just want to ask you how BWF can do more to actually promote this sport and maybe make it a bit more lucrative for Badminton, for professional players, what s your opinion? Peter Gade: That s going to be a long one, but if I had to say it briefly, BWF should be thinking about what is best for the sport, the fans and the players much more than they should be considering all the political elements. Because this is what is going to bring the sport forward, this is what you going to choose the right venue, you re going to choose the right format, you re going to maybe start to do only men s tournament that would be quite fun to see. Then you have lesser matches and you can focus on one or two courts maybe. You will promote the game, you will promote the players, at the moment you have big personalities, as you mentioned before yourself, Lin Dan, Chong Wei, Taufik, me. You never know how long we re going to stay there. These personalities they have a huge impact on the game and at the moment, we are the ones drawing the spectators to the big tournament, not anyone else. So, we need this to take advantage of us and they are not at the moment at all. So hopefully they can do that a bit more in the future. Chau Yap: Ok, great, great. 12
And that concludes our interview with Peter Gade. Once again we would like to thank Peter for his time in sharing his experience and wisdom in badminton inside this interview. It s been a pleasure for Badminton-Information.com and we can t thank Peter enough. To find out more about Peter Gade s new project BestOnCourt.com please click on this link:- www.bestoncourt.com All the best! Chau Yap www.badminton-information.com 13