They always saw third times the
charm, well in this case it definitely wasn't. This is the third time that I
will be training in china and the fourth time that I've been to China. Third time training what a charm it
was indeed. So things started out with
my flights from Calgary to Guangzhou encountering some problems; the Calgary to
Korea route as my flights got canceled. I got re booked and was soon on my
way via air canada. There was bad
weather around mainland China and Korea as a typhoon was moving into the region
from the south. I caught a lucky break in the weather but still
experienced a lot of turbulence while
flying and some menacing looking clouds. The only consolation to this series of
unfortunate events that took place was that my direct flight to Tokyo saw me
have a whole row of seats to myself so that was really nice. From Tokyo to Korea
I had another whole row to myself and a complimentary upgrade to preferred seating.
Then I had a business class ticket on air China from Korea to Beijing then the
same from Beijing to Guangzhou. So after spending the night in Korea and 3 long
days of traveling with some complications I was finally at my destination and
ready to train.
So there I was in Guangzhou ready
to train with Xiong Goubou at his international communication badminton center.
This place was pretty much a dorm set up and was not the nicest but this is
coming from a person who lives in north america. In reality the place was more
than livable, and I didn't mind having to squat down to do my business. What
bugged me was when the coach said that everything Ardy Wiranata, Kim Dong Moon,
and coach Wong (the provincial team coach in Nanning) had taught me was wrong. During
a defensive drill one of the coaches said that I should never left leg lunge
out to the side because it's wrong, I asked why but there was no explication
just that it is wrong to do. His overhead forehand swing is a very unique one
for sure and goes against what Ardy had been working on with me. This new
Chinese coach wanted me to start from scratch and learn all his techniques, I'm
positive that he is/was a great player in his time and that his technique worked for him and if there are years to practice
it under his supervision then am sure it works just fine. But I was going to be
there for a month and it was not in the cards to learn everything completely
from scratch.
He showed me pictures of just a
handful of Chinese players (2 to be exact) that use something similar that
technique and I showed him pictures of many players (10+ just to start) that
don't and all he had to say was that it's not right how they swing. His
technique was so ridged and stiff and only allowed for one shot to be played in
many instances. I tried it out in a game and it felt horrible. There are
aspects of his technique that I took because some elements are partially useful
when modified...needless to say that was not going to be the place for me to
train at all and I had to get out of there.
Some unfortunate circumstances
arouse that caused me to be able to leave the center. After getting there just
a few days and having a little time on court I knew that I didn’t want to train
there. Part of me was happy because I didn't like this guys style yet part of
me was frustrated I had spent all that money to get to china to train and then
I would be leaving there before a week had passed.
I had been attempting to set up
something for me to train and make the most of the rest of my trip to China
through a contact I made year’s earlier training in Nanning. But that was
troublesome due to coaches/players not being available. Upon arriving at the
airport there were Canceled flights left right and center. There was a storm
moving up the cost of china and to get to Korea or even to Beijing just wasn't
going to work it seemed. Long story
short the entire ordeal was dealt with and all was settled I ended up in Shenzhen
training with a coach who is very famous and very good; Luo Guohui. The downside
is that it is substantially more expensive to train at this new place. But I did
like the coach and how he teaches as well he's very friendly and speaks english
too so that was very nice. He didn't try and change any techniques that I have
instead is just working to make everything better and changing/modifying little
things here and there. Along with him were 3 other coaches (1 guy and 2 girls)
that would be working with me while I was there. Its funny comparing the two
coaches the other one from Guangzhou was so stiff and that really hampers what
could be done where as in Shenzhen it's all about being lose and relaxed in the
wrist which makes more sense and I liked it more. But yes completely different
than the other place and techniques looked more normal to say the last. The one
downside was there were not many other players to train with, there was one
athlete from Hong Kong but he would go back and forth for exams. I did get to
train with some of the other coaches (there were 3 other guy coaches) and they
would do drills with me and games.
The training was good, I pretty
much got 2 hour private lessons every time we had training and we trained
multiple times a day 2-3 times. I can say there is one thing I won’t miss and
that is the heat, I will be happy to not sweat buckets every time I step on
court. From 400 pushups, 300 crunches, 300 squat and lunging strength training
to the 10 sets of 40 shuttle multi-shuttle training; Shenzhen was a great
experience and I truly enjoyed my time there. One of the coaches near the end
wanted to hang out with me outside of training. One Monday when we only had to
train once for the day in the morning we went out in the afternoon to the mall.
We met up with her friends and her friends little brother to go to the arcade,
ice skating, and then eat at a fancy restaurant. It was a great experience and
I enjoyed doing something other than badminton for the day.
So that was not the end of the
emotional roller coaster no no no, there was still the matter of getting back
home. Originally I was to leave china on september 8th but that wouldn't work
anymore as to the added cost and due to when classes started. So I began the
long, tedious and annoying (not to mention extremely costly) process of
changing my flights. All in all it cost me around $530 to change my flights but
that means that I need to spend 3 days 4 nights in korea so add another $330
onto that for hotel and well this trip got pretty expensive very very fast. Spending
the time in Korea and paying for hotel was still the cheaper option than
getting a flight any of the earlier days that's how crazy (and expensive) things
were. I don't like how much extra money
this has cost I know that things don't always go as planned but dang things
went bad this time. All in all this may be the last time that I will be coming back
to China to train cause of the cost of things.
The next Olympics are 4 years
from now which means that the qualification period starts in 3 years (2015). I still have such a long way to go before I
can even consider making an Olympic run. I need to get to that level where I
will be a threat on the international scene and not just some persons free pass
to second round. If I'm serious about this I will need to move away and I'm
thinking that europe will be the best bet but it is very expensive to move and
live there. I want to finish school first that shouldn't take to long within
the next year and a half I should be done and then could potentially move away to train and work anywhere in the world
I can get a job and the training is good. I'm just unsure if I will be able to
get to the level that I need if I stay in Calgary the next 2 years. But
regardless of that I have great resources available to me in Calgary with an
amazing coach (Ardy Wiranata) who had been so helpful to my game and is always
helping me at every turn. I am truly grateful that I have Ardy to help guide me
through my career.
The strongest part of my game is
my fitness, no matter what I will not get tired. Even doing the 20 minute
drills in china that require jumping all over the court. I will need to work on
my Badminton fitness and more so leg strength that is what I need the most
within the next 6 months I will work hard to increase my overall leg strength
and power. Work towards getting more explosive on court. As well I will be
doing more footwork with the 20lb weight vest I have access too. All this along
with on court training in order to try and up my technical side (especially
consistency) but I also need to focus on the mental and strategy side and that
seems to come mainly from match play and competitions. It's been 5 and a bit
short years and while I have come a decent way. I still have a climb ahead of
me but I have stopped looking at the whole mountain and am just taking on piece
by piece bit by bit. It's almost impossible to see my own progress (except when
watching videos of matches or training, which I have found to be very useful
recently). I have a few more years left to chase this dream; if I do things the
Danish/European well I could still play well into my 30s at a fairly high
competitively level. Some of my good friends on the international circuit are
in there very late 20s (27+) or early 30s. They may have had the before of
starting when they were young or in their early teens but doesn't bother me
that I discovered this wonderful sport at 18 and started to train soon after.
Well that is all for this recap
of my end to summer 2012, not much in terms of going camping or enjoying the
summer haha. More just training as hard as I can and traveling around the
world. I had poor performances at the
2012 US and Canadian Opens but I have accepted, analyzed and moved on from those
for the most part. I am hesitant to enter anymore international tournaments
this year but know that I will need to in order to maintain/improve my world
ranking. As of Thursday August 30th I am ranked 330/1651 in the
world for men’s singles. Highest this year was 318 in the world. If I do enter any tournaments I may go to either the
Peru Pan Am Individuals in October, Miami International in October or Puerto
Rico International in November. We will see what happens and where I go from
here.
