Fernando Rivas is the ‘King Midas’ of badminton. What he touches he turns into gold. He created his own method more than 15 years ago, based on a scientific and innovative approach that applied data analysis in training. – today so common but then pioneering – and the professionalization of each area that surrounds the athlete (sports psychologist, physiotherapist and physical trainer).
The best example of the success of this method is Carolina Marín, Olympic champion, three-time world champion and eight-time European champion. Together they have had a truly prodigious decade.
Two years ago, the French Badminton Federation signed the Carolina coachWhats Next combining both facets, with the aim of making a leap in quality on the international scene. Since then he has served as ‘head coach’ or senior manager of said Federation.
Y Rivas has just seen the fruits of these two years of work at the European Championship in Saarbrücken (Germany). Since the first edition of this tournament, in 1968, France had never managed to reach the top of the podium. She has now done it twice: gold in mixed doubles (Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue) in women’s doubles (Margot Lambert and Anne Tran). This last case is curious because when Rivas arrived they wanted to separate, “they were not a team but two people who played together.” He has made them so now.
Fernando Rivas with the European champions in mixed doubles.
Besides, Toma Junior Popov was individual silver after eliminating the world number 1, the Danish Viktor Axelsen, in the semifinals and losing in the final to Anders Antonsen. Three metals that placed France in the European medal table only behind Denmark.
Build a winning mentality
What has been the secret to achieving the leap in quality? Rivas has the answer. “When I arrived I found a group that played very well but was unprofessional in the sense that they didn’t know what it took to go from being good to being the best. In France – with 200,000 licenses – they have a very deep-rooted club culture and they teach them to play very well, but high performance was very far away. There was a very big jump from junior to senior that they were not able to materialize.“, Explain.
And to achieve it, created a structure based on data, physical preparation, tactics, technique and mental preparation. “No one went to the sports psychologist and now everyone goes. There was a ‘complex’ of thinking that they were not capable of winning and we had to make them believe that they were,” she adds.
Nobody went to the sports psychologist and there was a ‘complex’ of thinking that they were not capable of winning
Fernando Rivas, coach of Carolina Marín and ‘Head coach’ of the French Badminton Federation
He has adapted his methodology to the personality of each player and French culture.. “It has not been easy. It’s not worth imposing, you have to convince the players through data and many conversations. Everyone wanted to play World Tour tournaments but they didn’t have the level. I like to build performance based on training. Their intensity was not what was desired nor the speed of the game. We have framed the strategy of the tournaments and we have given them technical, tactical and mental tools to face them“, Explain.