Luca Crippa: “I believe that Ukraine is in a good position to succeed!”
Just a month ago, the Ukrainian Badminton Federation made an announcement about the new role for Luca Crippa. Since May 12th, Luca was publicly presented as a new Technical Director of the Ukrainian badminton federation. It was said that Luca would take care of the High Performance and Development.
Italian, who has 10+ years of experience in working in European badminton at the top level and who was a member of the organizing committee of the European Championship in Kyiv, now has an ambitious goal.
His aim is to create a system, which shall bring results on the international level.
Together with Luca, we have discussed his upcoming plans and vision on the development of Ukrainian badminton.
Dear Mr. Luca! That’s a pleasure to see you here, in Kyiv. Before we start our interview, can you please tell a few words to our audience about you and your previous experience in badminton?
Hi Maxim! My pleasure to talk to you too!
I’m Luca Crippa from Italy, 35 years old or, when you publish, probably 36… I’m Italian and I have spent all my life participating in badminton, starting from a club in Milano and then in the Italian Badminton Federation.
After my work with Italian Federation, I was invited to join the Badminton Europe team and managed a few projects there. In particular, I was responsible for the Badminton Center of Excellence in Denmark, where few Ukrainian sportsmen had already had a chance to train.
Author: Anna Mikhalkova, the Bronze medalist of the Ukrainian National Championship-2020, has been training in the Badminton Center of Excellence in Denmark since 2019. Artem Pochtarev, former Champion of Ukraine, who has already qualified for OG-2020 in Tokyo, had a chance to train in the center too.
My relationship with the Ukrainian federation lasts for 3 years, maybe more. We started with some projects together, in particular, Shuttle Time for schools. We also had some Para-Badminton events held in Kyiv. Step by step our trust was growing, and now I am here.
I like the idea, the vision of the Badminton Federation of Ukraine and I accepted to take part in its ambitious project because I believe that Ukraine is in a good position to succeed!
Can we immediately tell our readers more about the idea, which is behind your appointment?
The idea of the Ukrainian federation is very clear. It is to grow and to develop a high-performance system in the country. Ukraine has very good potential. It has qualified players at the international level and the idea is to take this experience and to grow more. Together with the plan and schedule, with some work that is going to come, we will make another step to high performance and badminton development. We are going to develop a group of clubs and players that play badminton in the country.
We understand that it may take you several years to implement such a system. What is your personal goal? What was your key ambition when you decide to accept the challenge?
I accepted the job because I agree with the idea and not vice versa. Now we have to build up the program to make the idea real. What is my goal? In the short term, it is to create a national team, a very specific group of players that will represent Ukraine as a team around the world. This is the short-term goal.
Our long-term goal is to win medals, European and world medals, to get more Olympic qualifications for the players.
But, first of all, we need to start with the creation of a group that we shall call the Ukrainian national team. They will train, live, travel, work, grow, and develop together. The keyword here is together.
Before this interview, I received the information that there are plans to open a high-performance training center for the national team. Are we going to see the opening of the center soon?
Yes, you are right. We can call this the Ukrainian national training center, a place where the Ukrainian national team, but not only, also players that want to try a high-performance career, can train together under one leadership of the Ukrainian federation.
So yes, it’s true. We have sent out an application to all the regions and clubs to wonder if they are interested to host this national center. They can apply for it. When we receive the application, we will decide where the best place for this national center is.
What are the key criteria for this application? We have a few badminton cities in Ukraine: Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv. How are you going to select the center?
The first criteria is a willingness to do it because it’s not an easy job. We need to find someone who really wants to have a national training center. The second criteria is, of course, the infrastructure. Courts must be available, rooms for sleeping must be available, restaurants and facilities for food must be available together, maybe with some gym facility or university because, if young players come, they must study and have facilities for traveling.
I understand that right now you’ll spend some time on the research and discovery. Are you going to present the full program to a broader audience? When can we expect the plan to be published?
Yes, we will do that. First, it will be presented to the board of the Ukrainian badminton federation and then, when it is approved, we will go public. I’m already talking with people about this project, it’s not a secret and the project is real. We are going public with the website, Facebook, and everything else. Details will be presented to players, coaches, and clubs. When we have the city and the place, we will start building up the details of the product.
I’m almost sure that you will get a lot of skepticism from badminton trainers and maybe even journalists or bloggers. You know, people who are in the background, will say, “Ah, that’s the next initiative which can’t be implemented because there are no facilities which are good enough for that. There is no financing which is enough. We don’t have, let’s say, players who won bronze, silver, and gold medals”. What can you say to those skeptics and how are you going to, let’s say, overcome all the objections?
This criticism is already coming. So, it’s not the future. I’m already seeing it every day. I’m receiving messages like: “No, it’s impossible”, “No, we can’t do this”, “No, it will never work”, “No, it’s Ukraine”, “No, here is different”.
Okay, to these people I already tell three things. The first is that if we never start, we will never finish.
The second is that Ukraine is the same as other countries because these problems are everywhere in the world. So, Ukraine is not different. Ukraine is good but it’s no different. So, these things are everywhere.
And the third thing is that this is the only way to develop because all the world goes there. All the world goes in this direction. If we don’t do it soon, we will lose our way. So, this is up to people, coaches, and clubs to decide what they want to do.
Can a club manage a high performance or an Olympic qualification? No. Who can? Only the Ukrainian badminton federation together with clubs. There is no way in the world, not in Ukraine, that the club can assist a player for a world championship, an Olympic qualification, or a medal. So, as every winner starts from zero, nobody starts already with the medals.
Sure, the results will not come in the near future, but we agree on this. All the Federation agrees on this. So, we can wait and we will see small growth every day.
One of the steps to be taken is to find a head coach for the national team. Vladyslav Druzhchenko, when we had an interview with him, told us that we already have to start preparing ourselves for the next Olympic games in 2024, in Paris. What are the criteria that you are going to publish for that head coach? You also mentioned in the vacancy that it can be a person from abroad, not from Ukraine. Are you seriously considering someone who is going to be a coach, or would you prefer a Ukrainian? Can you please explain more about that?
The first thing to say is that we haven’t received any Ukrainian applications for the head coach. So, nobody from Ukraine applied. We got 55 curriculums from all over the world, from America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and one from Oceania, but nobody applied from Ukraine. So, the choice of answering your question is quite easy. I cannot choose someone from Ukraine because nobody applied and it’s a very open and clear process, it’s public with the job advert.
Those who are interested can apply, a Ukrainian, not a Ukrainian, and from anywhere. So, it’s a bit strange, yes, I agree, that nobody from Ukraine applied. We have a long list of coaches. We will shortlist, let’s say, 10 of them. After the first phase, we will shortlist 3 names, those who will go through our assessment process and do their “homework” better than others. There will be another selection with another process and we will choose the coach out of these 3 names. I hope that we will have this name very soon.
There are no applications from Ukraine. What do you think about the reason for that? Was it because of some specific criteria which you put into the application process or, maybe, that’s a boycott from national trainers when they saw that you are also considering some foreigners?
The meaning of the job advertisement is to give the same opportunities to everybody. It would have been very easy for me to choose someone who I already know, without any job advertisement, but I think it’s important in Ukraine to show that we are doing things with a method. This method is the competence, the value of their competence.
Everyone has the same opportunity, in our case, a coach. But players will have the same opportunities too if they show that they are competent, that they are willing to do it and they can do it.
If the Ukrainian coaches decided not to apply, I can’t tell you why. But I really hope that next time I will receive 10 Ukrainian curriculums instead of zero because if you feel that you are competent and you can do it, you should try to do it.
Absolutely. Have you already spoken to Ukrainian badminton leaders? What do they say about the idea, about the project, about this openness?
I’m in talks every day with the coaches. We have under 15, 17, and 19-year-old national team coaches. We are still in talks with them every day. I’m in touch with players as well. Not all of them because I need time.
I care about the reaction of the players. The players are at the center of the project. So, everything they say, everything they think, everything they want is very important for me. The same for the coach and clubs that are stakeholders and are very important for the federation.
…The players are at the center of the project…
We are open to receiving critics or ideas from everybody. But, please, don’t think that only negative is coming. I also receive a lot of positive feedback and cooperation from coaches. Surely, that’s normal when you do not have all the trust at the beginning. But it will be changed soon!
This time you stay in Ukraine for a week or two. How often are you going to be in Kyiv, in Ukraine? I’m sure, that the personal presence here is also important at this stage.
Yes, it’s very important. This time I will be here for 8 days. I will be in the training camp for the preparation for the Olympic games.
Then, probably, I will be here later, in July or the beginning of August, during the tournament, because, probably, we will go to Denmark with the team. Then I will be here for the preparation for the European championships under 17. I mean, I don’t have a fixed schedule. I will be here very often and I want to have direct contact with players and coaches.
Is there anything you would like to say to our badminton community? Some words to finish our interview.
I want to tell people to trust this group of management of the federation. It’s important to work all together to succeed. It’s not only about medals because, as I said at the beginning, the main goal is also to create a team. If we create a team, we win first, then we can focus on medals.
And the only way to create a team now is to work all together and to have trust in the Ukrainian badminton federation, not in me or the head coach. In the system, in the Ukrainian federation. Even if in the past there were problems or fighting, it’s normal, but that’s the past. We can’t change the past. I’m telling this to every coach and player. We can’t change the past, but I can promise that we can try to fix the future. I will tell that also for 2 or 3 years if necessary until I see that everybody works together.
Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Kyiv also wasn’t built in a day. So, Luca, thank you very much. I am sure that many readers will have more questions, and that’s also one of our goals, to motivate people to ask and to engage.
Of course, they must ask. I’m available 24 hours. You are welcome to write and to ask me!
By Maksym Sydorenko,
Kyiv, Ukraine, 2.07.2021
Special thanks to Olesia Nikolenko and the whole Ukrainian Badminton Federation Team! Subscribe to know more: https://www.facebook.com/ukrainianbadminton
