Continuing from last week's terrible post about badminton!

Apparently there's a lot of you guys out there. I should have expected that since this community is like 99% Asian.

To be honest, I have no idea why badminton is such an Asian sport. Not only do Asian countries dominate, but it seems like every person that plays is somewhat "Asian." Freaky.

If you play badminton, are you Asian?

Every week on Saturday, I signed up for some badminton club training course at a not-so-local badminton club here in Toronto.

And every week so far, I've been beaten to death. It'd be fine, yes, were it not that these are kids I'm playing with. I am in Grade 12, graduating this year. The second oldest kid is in Grade 10. Everyone else is younger than Grade 9. It's humiliating. And each one of them can thrash me multiple times.

But that's not my goal. In the words of Day9, I'm playing to be a better gamer. And it's true. I have improved.

My one goal was accomplished this week: make it through warm ups. I don't know how that's even a goal, but last week, I collapsed halfway through. Warmups. WARMUPS. But this week, I just barely made it through.

Warms up consist of the standard things, arms down to legs. I was surprised more time wasn't spent on the calves and ankles, because I nearly sprained it a bit afterwards.

After high knees, kicking my ass (again) and some hopping diamond cross legged exercise, we did 6 laps. I am glad to say I did all 6, cough cough, some lazy peoples, even though I came in 2nd last. But I made it through without stopping, that's all that matters.

We're still doing high clears, which is nice. I still can't hit it, but it's easy enough for me. Coach keeps saying I slice too much. I know I do, but it's very difficult for me not to.

The coaches also said to keep the elbow bent at 90 degrees on the horizontal. I'm going to say, that is very very painful. I lost feeling in my arm that day.

We moved on to cross court high clears (yay), which strangely enough, I could do better than regular clears.

Then it was on to smashes. Nope, not the fun half court smashes, but net smashes. Where your partner throws a birdie at you and you're supposed to smash it. That didn't work out well at all. My partner couldn't throw for his life. But then again, neither could I.

After 20 or so minutes of failing, we ended off with suicides. Thank God it wasn't crazy hard suicides. I was on a similar swimming course one time, and they decided to do suicides. Swim the length, 10 push ups, swim back, 9 push ups, and so forth. Now THAT was painful.

All we did were lines. Sprint to first line, touch, sprint back, touch, sprint to second line, you get the idea. After I wasted all my energy getting first after 3 runs, they decide to say the top 3 get to leave early. I wasn't even close. Then they said the top 5 get to leave next. I was prepared to run, but nearly collapsed, and had to walk the rest. A disappointing day.

But I've learned so much, and it's so much more helpful to have real coaches that know what they're doing, it's not even funny. I hope some of these skills translate into the real badminton games I play in the future.

__________________________________________

After practice, I went to look for the darned Razer BlackWidow, since I can't get mechanical keyboards anywhere else, and I hate SteelSeries with a passion. Couldn't find one. In the middle of the store, my gut cramped or something and all I could feel was this enormous pain in my left side.

For the next 5 hours, I couldn't even stand up. The pain was unbearable. I couldn't even eat. And it got worse when I tried to rest.

And then poof, it was gone as suddenly as it came. Kind of annoys me, but also kind of scares me. That is pain I never want to experience again.

5 hours of being completely helpless, completely useless, all because of some pain in my side that I had no control over.

__________________________________________

This also in, CAKE, the band, released their first new album since 2004(?). Cake has a really unique sound. I have not heard anything like them. But the best part is they haven't been sucked into the group of bands that sound awesome in the beginning, but 5 years down the road, turn towards pop music.

And the weird thing is, I never really even liked Cake. I heard it a few times in one of the streams I frequented. Never liked it at first, but then it started sounding alright, and then it started sounding awesome. So I kept track for a while (6 months lol), and it turns out they have a new album.

So without any further ado, I present

CAKE's SHOWROOM of COMPASSION

+ Show Spoiler +

Sick of You

Long Time

I recommend Mustache Man, Bound Away and The Winter, but I can't find good Youtube videos of them. That isn't live I mean.

Not from this album, but look for Take It All Away, It's Coming Down, or many many more.

Cake is awesome!

Enjoy.

Or don't enjoy. Just spreading the message.

Eti307

Canada3442 Posts

January 18 2011 02:52 GMT

I'm not asian and I play

Agama

United States72 Posts

January 18 2011 03:05 GMT

That pain you described sounds really terrible <_< I'd be hesitant to work that hard again...maybe work up to a point before you overload yourself again.

Also Cake is pretty awesome ^^

Comfort Eagle, one of their best albums.

HudsonK

China172 Posts

January 18 2011 03:31 GMT

you're so lucky to have such a facility.... I wish there was badminton training here. There used to be a coach in our area when i was younger (5th - 6/7th grade), but he left after a couple years. I still play at a community center, but it would be great if I could train.

Redmark

Canada2129 Posts

January 18 2011 03:37 GMT

Being tall feels like such a huge advantage in badminton, even moreso than in basketball/volleyball/etc.
Though I still can't compete with people who actually train and play regularly, both because they're that much more athletic and because they actually know how to serve without getting smashed.

29 fps

United States5718 Posts

January 18 2011 03:41 GMT

it's okay to be beaten by younger people. im decent at it, but ive been beaten by top class 10 year olds. it's really humiliating, and i learned that there are some really talented people out there. they train so much, so of course they're better than me.

n.DieJokes

United States3443 Posts

January 18 2011 04:07 GMT

I showed up for club badminton a few times, me and my friend were the only white kids... I liked it though, everyone improved pretty quickly, pretty good cardio (the way I play lol), wrecked my shoulder though

Linx_101

Canada166 Posts

January 18 2011 06:03 GMT

I don't think TL is anywhere near 99% asian.

ssj114

Afghanistan461 Posts

January 18 2011 07:19 GMT

On January 18 2011 12:37 Redmark wrote:
Being tall feels like such a huge advantage in badminton, even moreso than in basketball/volleyball/etc.
Though I still can't compete with people who actually train and play regularly, both because they're that much more athletic and because they actually know how to serve without getting smashed.

The current world number one is 170cm tall. And he's been number one for most of the last three years or so. That's about 5 foot 7 inches by the way.

It's not very tall by any stretch of the imagination.

Shaka_Kon

Canada112 Posts

January 18 2011 07:32 GMT

#10

Im asian...and i suck at it....not like beginner but more like intermediate...i took this tournament in school i got owned by this kid (maybe he was in gr 8 vs me (gr 11 at the time)...I didnt really raged or get mad kuz all i could think was ...daaaaamn that kid has skillsssss...and also i had a lot of fun him just dominating me.....
moral of this post = just enjoy

shindigs

United States4795 Posts

January 18 2011 07:59 GMT

#11

Badminton is like Starcraft to me, so maybe Asians have an affinity toward these kind of games? :p

I like how Badminon is either single or doubles, so you have to rely on less in terms of teamwork and there is less "randomness" in a sense. The games are also very fast paced and quick so I'm not standing around waiting for something to happen. There is also a good amount of strategy involved and also fun mind games, but if your mechanics aren't up to par then the last thing one should worry about is mind games and rather how to avoid being toyed with on the court.

I was really bad at drills and stuff because I always felt I rather be playing games, but it really does help a ton. Sometimes I would absolutely be awful at a drill, and I come back the next day or next week, and I have improved a ton on the technique. Gotta just try it out first and practice it a ton and then rest - it'll all come naturally to you eventually. Proper hitting techniques are tricky but once you get them down it's all second nature.

Good luck on your warmups though! They sound super brutal, I absolutely hate suicides.

Kimoleon

United States210 Posts

January 18 2011 08:31 GMT

#12

Wow I just play for fun, what you described sounds like torture lol. Oh yeah I am asian, and I wish there was a badminton training course near my area too T.T. You're so lucky you get to play people higher than your level, you'll improve much faster. Good luck with your training ^_^ and watch some vids on youtube, badmintonfreak uploads tournament stuff weekly (I think).

Shauni

4077 Posts

January 18 2011 13:05 GMT

#13

If you're tall you have certain advantages such as it can be easier intercepting a drive (I think that's the english word?), and you only have to take one step in many cases. You can hit the ball earlier in many cases, resulting in a better angle. But being short holds other advantages such as you'll be faster down on net returns and it's easier to do around the head. You're generally a bit quicker if you're short.