Hi there, Im a intermediate provincial player located in Toronto and Denver and Im traveling to Seoul in early June and would love to play at some clubs close to Seoul. Could anyone provide any suggestions or verify if posts in older threads still have locations where the clubs are still running?
Well, if you widen your net to 'close to Seoul', as you have, then you don't have to worry about clubs still running. Particularly in the satellite cities, there are plenty of publicly run gymnasiums where you can pay a low admission fee (usually 1000-1500won) and play for 2-3h in what is a dedicated badminton facility. There are 3 or 4 good ones in Yongin, all near fast buses to downtown Seoul, at least 6 in Suwon, one that I know of in Ansan, and most other cities in the area have them, too. There are usually wood floors and most are open all day, like 6AM to 10PM. Some such facilities exist inside Seoul, as well, but I've never played in any of them and I know some are slightly more expensive. Search on 'magok' or 'gyenam' in the Seoul thread for those, or look for details on the dongdaemun gym. If you go with one of these facilities, the only question becomes what level of players will be there at what time of the day or week. I'm leaving momentarily to play at one such gym where there just happen to be a bunch of good players playing between 10Am and 1PM on weekdays. This is not typical, but a lot of serious players there work swing shifts at some local factories and this is prime exercise time.
