China 2012

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. 

2012 Canadian Open Grand Prix

The 2012 Canadian Open Grand Prix was held at the Richmond Olympic Oval this past week July 11-14^th. The oval is one of the toughest venues to play in due to the large size (both length and height), ice rinks which create cold conditions as well as drafts, and unfortunate lighting. I played in this tournament right after playing in the US Open GPG which was in OCBC in Orange, California.

I was drawn against a Canadian player named Sirgey Shantako who is an amazing player so it was going to be a tough match right from the get go. I did not however expect it to be that tough to be a blow out. I was able to rally with him and not make things entirely easy but I was not able to win points, unforced errors killed me as well as playing the wrong strategy. Watching the video I can spot things that are wrong with my game in the technical sense, footwork/movement, technique for shots, etc. He is a very very consistent player so already it was a tough match based on that, I needed to take chances but I didn’t do that =/

Playing the flat game with him was the better strategy to play as I felt comfortable playing that as well it was easier to see the shuttle that was as opposed to hitting high. Playing the net was not the easiest thing; his net shots were tight and usually always rolling over making it hard to return. But I feel that it was/is the mental side of things that killed me these two tournaments (US Open and Canadian Open). Because of this I am a little weary of attending anymore tournaments in the immediate future. I also hate to let down my country and feel horrible about having results like that then requesting to attend another international tournament. It is just a horrible compounding feeling that feeds off of itself.

I feel that I put too much pressure on myself based on expectations. Earlier this year I competed in Asia and I did so much better I felt better on court and that was reflected during my games. After coming back from that I tried to train hard and get to a new level but with that I expected myself to get better results and thus putting unwanted and unneeded pressure onto my game. This didn’t allow me to relax and play naturally to have fun on court and made me tense and uneasy. I am not entirely sure why I have these high expectations for myself and need to readjust my mentality before I step on court again for a tournament. It looks like it is time to make a trip down to my sports psychologist in Calgary when I am back.

All in all I am mentally exhausted, completely drained up top and that definitely showed in these two tournaments (US Open and Canadian Open) I added unneeded expectations and pressure only to further mentally burn out.

I am back for just under 15 days and then I head out to China again to train for a month and a bit. So much to do in those 15 days though that time is going to fly by and then I’ll be flying over to Asia again to train. I am really looking forward to that, to bring my game to the next level. Get stronger, faster, smarter, and keep on pushing forward.  

2012 US Open GPG (California Love)

Things started out rocky with me not even sure if I would even get to go to the 2012 US Open Grand Prix Gold tournament this year. There was an issue with some outstanding fees for another Trinidad player and the payment process thankfully went through and my entry was accepted by the BWF into the tournament. That would make this my 3^rd consecutive US Open. Due to it being the Olympic year a lot of big names didn’t come, leaving the draw wide open. This means that for the first time I would not have to qualify and would be in the main draw.

My first round was against a player from Mexico, Lino Munoz, and it was a gong show to put it lightly. I could not win rallies at all. Neither one of us wanted to lift; whoever lifted more or less lost the rally. Lino is defiantly a level above my play and I can only hope to train hard and reach that level in the very near future. Overall not to happy with how things played out, I’m not mad that I lost its more I’m mad at how I couldn’t win rallies and have a closer match.

It gets tough when all I do is train hard every day, on court off court all aspects that I can just to be beaten like that at the US Open. It can be so frustrating, knowing I’m not fast enough, strong enough, consistent enough, shot quality isn’t good enough and strategy’s aren’t solid enough. So much left to learn but I cant forget how far I have come already, these past 6 years since starting have flown by and I am truly grateful for where I have gotten. I have that urge and that desire to go even further and push this as far as I can. Every day, in every way I am getting better and better. Every day I wake up and will work my hardest no matter what, there is no giving up, no looking back, only forward and up. 

That being said the 2012 US Open is done for me, I got a decent amount of ranking points for losing first round so that will add to my ranking in a way. I play in the 2012 Canadian Open Grand Prix Gold next week (July 10-15^th) and play a top Canadian player first round main draw. I look forward to the match which will take place Wednesday July 11^th at the Richmond Olympic Oval at 2:30pm.

I have just 2 more days In Calgary before heading out to Vancouver for the week for the tournament (Leave Sunday July 8, 2012). After Canadian Open I will be back in Calgary for approximately 17 days and then I will fly out August 1^st to Guangzhou, China to train for a month and a bit at a badminton academy.

Summer has pretty much come to an end for me as I don’t really have much free time left. I have taken 4/18 flights for this summer already. All those flights will occur within a 3 month period, that’s most likely more than most people take in a year. And the year isn’t done yet still on the agenda will be Pan Am games in Peru in October. Miami International end of October (This falls on Halloween so that means that I won’t be partying this year), and Puerto Rico International in November. As well I may finally take my 1^st ever vacation in 4 years to Cuba with my family, strictly vacation, no badminton at all. I am not sure on that one though depends on if it works with my school schedule and if I can take the time off.

So much to do so little time, so many people to see but schedules don’t align. There are a handful of people that I really want to see this summer before I head back to China; hopefully all works out for that to happen. Some I haven’t seen since last year before I was in china in 2011...

Summer 2012

Not much has been happening lately in terms of travel and tournaments. I am in Calgary training, taking spring classes and working (coaching) lots pretty much every day is busy. Summer break is nonexistent for me. I have been getting on court every day for at least an hour to do footwork (on top of training shots, weights, and fitness) which I feel is making a great change in my on court movement. As well the most significant change I am making is getting a “badminton body” doing lots of badminton muscle workouts and also general strength stuff as well to help my game. Also who doesn’t want to get a nice looking body in the process haha.

All that being said I am awaiting word if I will be attending the 2012 US Open Grand Prix Gold and the 2012 Canadian Open Grand Prix beginning of July. After those two tournaments, if I am able to attend them, I will be going back to China for the entire month of August and a bit around 40-45 days in total. I will be going to Guangzhou to train with a different coach, Xiong GuoBao, who has an international training center there. So for 9 hours a day, 6 and a half days a week I will be once again spending my summer in China training hard.

That is everything badminton related happening in my life. Other than that I haven’t really done much else apart from finally being around to take spring classes. There is a weird feeling with all my friends graduating now or have graduated last year, seeing everybody moving forward with their lives. Somehow I feel like I am staying behind even though I am following my dream of trying to go to the 2016 Olympics. Life has an interesting way of playing out though and we will see where the next 4 years take me. 2015 Olympic qualification period will sneak up on me in no time and I have to be ready for them.

2012 Osaka International Challenge

I was lucky enough to use my aeroplan points to book my flight from Hanoi to Osaka but had to go through Seoul, Korea. The plus side to it was traveling in business/first class on ASIANA Airlines which was an amazing experience way better than 1^st class on any North American airline by far. It took a day to make the trip due to a long layover which was spent in the lounge working on homework. From Seoul to Osaka I flew on 747 which I thought was ridiculous for an almost 2 hour flight but the plane was packed and I was ever so thankful not to be back in economy. The Osaka International was April 4-8, 2012.

Upon arriving in Osaka I instantly fell in love with the city, it is such an amazing place and I would go back in a heartbeat. It took an hour and a half of driving from the airport to get into the city and to our hotel. The organizers rented a bus since I wasn’t the only one to come in; part of the Indonesian team came in the same time. I checked into the hotel and then the tournament venue was pretty much right beside the hotel the Mouriguchi City Gym. So I took a walk over there to the venue to check it out and saw some teams practicing. I had a practice time for the following day at 7pm at night after the team managers meeting. When I went to the gym for my practice time I ran into 2 friends that I trained with in China which was amazing and I was so shocked to see them there. I hit with them for about 30 minutes to get use to the facility which was a lot nicer than the one in Vietnam but still was a huge venue. 

With these huge venues the depth perception is what messes me up personally because of where I train in Calgary it is only 32 feet high. These stadium/larger venues have ceilings that are 70+ feet in the air and it messes with my perception if I don’t get to practice in a place like that long enough. Eventually I’m sure Ill adapt and get use to it. The second thing with large venues is there is no sound you cannot hear your own shots to the same extent as in a small club gym. You can hit a huge smash and it sounds like absolutely nothing meaning when your opponent smashes hard you can barely hear the full sound.  

I played a guy from Singapore and it wasn’t a bad match, he was a lot stronger than me and had a very powerful attack. He also out played me at the net, spinning back any net shots that I played against him. His pushes didn’t put me out of position, neither did his clears but it was his smash that did the most damage because of how accurate and powerful it was combined with his flat aggressive drive play. What worked to my advantage were slices though especially on my around the head corner I won most of my points with that shot. Overall not a bad match and a learning experience for sure what the level is like over in Asia. I got to watch matches every day and saw everything from players getting completely destroyed to some of the closest most entertaining games. 

Being in Japan I ended up eating a lot of Sushi, from both the supermarket and from restaurants. As well I enjoyed lots of other kinds of foods too. I was not able to bring myself to have McDonalds after the tournament though; it has been 4 years since I last had a burger from there. I will save that moment when it is truly deserved to eat a burger from a fast food joint. I did a lot of my shopping for food in the supermarket and it worked out to be really cheap to eat while there for the week. 

The days after I was knocked out of the tournament I went browsing around Osaka. I was fortunate enough to visit a Yonex warehouse and see all the products that they had available, as well was fortunate enough to receive quite a lot of Yonex products while in Japan. I was also able to visit Osaka Castle and walk around the surrounding area, spending a good 4 hours doing that and not completely covering the entire area. The day before I left I was able to see one more sight so I went out into the “countryside” taking a 45 minute train ride (switching trains 3 times) to a shrine/temple. I enjoyed that area but got a little scare when it looked like it was going to rain on my parade, fortunate for me it didn’t and I was able to enjoy my last day in Japan before starting to make my long trip back home. 

 

I had to catch my shuttle to the airport at 6am in the morning because I had an early flight out of Osaka back to Hanoi to spend a night and then fly back through Korea to Vancouver and finally Calgary. It took 48 hours from the time I left Osaka to the time that I landed in Calgary. I was fortunate enough to get an upgrade to executive class on my flight from Korea to Vancouver; I was not looking forward to spending that time in economy on such a long flight. The service did not even come close to what I received on ASIANA Airlines though.

Overall my time in Asia was a great experience and I was happy to be able to see the level of play over there. I was happy to be able to have the opportunity to train with local players in both Vietnam and Japan that was truly a unique experience and something that expanded my knowledge of the game. I just need to continue to work towards my goal, to improve become faster, stronger and most of all more consistent.

After those two tournaments my rank went up to the highest it has been to 362 in the world for men’s singles. I know that is not that high but for me it is incredible after not playing badminton that long and working so hard for this. I can only hope to break into the top 300 in the world by the end of 2012 or even higher. As of April 26, 2012 my rank is 382 for men’s singles and that will remain around that area until I play more tournaments in July. My next 2 tournaments will be the US Open Grand Prix Gold and the Canadian Open Grand Prix both in July. I can only hope since its Olympic year and the Olympics are later that month a lot of players will skip over those tournaments and I will be fortunate enough to get main drawed instead of going through qualifications. But that is all for another blog.

2012 CIPUTRA Hanoi Vietnam International Challenge

So recently I spent almost 3 weeks in Asia for international tournaments. I went to Vietnam and Japan with spending some brief time in Korea.

The flight to Vietnam was a long one taking me 24 hours to get there; I had to transfer in Vancouver and in Seoul, Korea. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get an upgrade to executive first on my flight from Vancouver to Seoul so that meant 9 hours in economy class (not the worst I know). I was able to sleep on the plane according to the time in Vietnam as to try and avoid whatever effects of jet lag that I could which did work to my advantage a bit.

The first stop on the tour was to Hanoi, Vietnam for the 2012 Vietnam International Challenge March 26-31. I was originally in qualification with just 1 person above me in qualification but due to some last minute withdrawals I was bumped up to main draw. There was 128 men's singles players present at the tournament. The greater majority were from Asia with a few from Europe (Slovakia, Russia, Italy, etc) and me the only player from the Pan American region.

The tournament started the Monday with qualifications but I didnt have to play a match until Wednesday. I didnt get into Hanoi until Saturday night pretty much Sunday morning though. I was only able to hit in the main stadium hall for 30 minutes of which 10 minutes or so of that was trying to find somebody to have a hit with. After I found somebody it was a different expirence hitting in such a large venue the depth perception was not helped by the giant stadium lights which made it impossible to see the shuttle when looking left or right. 

After practicing at the stadium Sunday I would not be able to play in it again until my match on Wednesday which was not ideal. I met a friend in Vietnam (Quang) and he took me to a local hall to play which was nice I was able to adjust to the shuttle speed and everything. Shuttles at the tournament and playing in general felt a lot heavier and very different than playing in Calgary. Wednesday came around and my match was scheduled to be on the TV court (Court number 2) but the matches were delayed quite a bit so an hour and a half after my match was scheduled to go on the match before me was still on court 2 so they moved my match to court 3.

I played a player 14^th seed from South Africa and it was an interesting game. In the 1^st set I was completely shell shocked I could keep a rally but simply could not win the points. In the 2^nd set I felt a lot better and started to settle a little more into my game playing the net and winning some points there. I felt alright moving and playing the net but anything that went up I didn’t feel comfortable hitting down and attacking that was ultimately my downfall.  

 

After that I was knocked out of the tournament in round of 64, I got to watch all the rest of the matches including finals which was amazing. As well I went out a few more times to play with my friends at the local hall they played at and met even more amazing people. I got to play against a former Vietnam International player as well, she was still very talented. In the mornings there was a training hall and I was invited to train there with the Vietnamese players that were no longer in the tournament that was a great experience.

The food in Vietnam was great, I had Pho of course but there were quite a few cafes on my street which served fruit drinks and food as well. It would cost about $2 Canadian for a meal and $1.50 for a fresh fruit smoothie which was delicious. So I was able to eat all that as well as experienced many unique Vietnamese foods as well when going out with my friends that I made there. 

For some reason the hotel Wi-Fi did not work for me during the day and would only work in the lobby as there was no Wi-Fi in the room’s only LAN cable. I brought only my Toshiba tablet so I could only use Wi-Fi for that. Anytime after the hours of 11pm and 7am the Wi-Fi in the hotel lobby would work for me. So I spent a lot of nights in the lobby after I was knocked out on my tablet catching up with people or doing some school work or simply browsing the internet. The guards got very familiar with me and one night we all sat together watching a soccer match on the TV. Although we didn’t understand each other we all shared the common bond for the love of the game and it was a great time. I also got to watch a lot of badminton on TV both in my room and on the TV in the lobby as well which was incredibly nice. Not many English shows were on but there were a few.

I did get to do some sightseeing in Vietnam; I made it out to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which was only about a 15ish minute walk from my hotel. Walked around that entire area and saw all the government buildings and monuments that were dedicated to Ho Chi Minh. As well walking around the area near my hotel seeing a lot of stuff for sure. I ran into tons of players from the tournament that went exploring through the city and made some friends to browse with and have lunches with (mostly Indonesian and Malaysian players). The weather was nice, it was around 28 degrees Celsius but it didn’t feel hot at all which was both nice and not as nice. I left Calgary which had snow hoping for some sun and heat but can’t complain I was happy for the week without snow.

The time soon came to leave Hanoi, Vietnam and make my way to Osaka, Japan for the Osaka International Challenge. Overall I enjoyed my time in Hanoi, Vietnam the city was great and the people were friendly and amazing. I would go back in a heartbeat.