Training? $1200 a month, $800 for private room in dorm (public dorm is included in price so if you can handle that then only $1200 a month)
That's a pretty good price for such intense training. How is it with the language barrier? Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk
It's not too terrible. The people that need to speak english (coaches, physical trainer) are pretty good. There's a dedicated foreigner point of contact who lives on campus and her english is great and she's usually responsible for any questions international students have.
Training Update 7-12-21 Taking a 3 day break! Haven't played badminton since 7-11, and am forcing myself to relax and take a much-needed physical and mental break. I played pretty bad on the 10th and felt like yeah, it's been about a month here... really should take some dedicated time off. Still weighing in around 84kg, am going to do some fasting over this 3 day period to help my body recover as well and reduce inflammation. We played a lot of matches this week, not really sure why. I suspect that with Bangkok closing again and the school becoming a closed system yet again, that we may up the intensity yet again as the coach/student ratio lowers and the more dedicated students remain. Here is the footage of the last day that I played: Also reviewed my matches online with a coach/friend I made from /r/badminton and went over these matches and the real main takeaway was that my shots lacked intent, which was true as my drops really were quite poor. Also there were many times where I could've attacked and didn't, and he helped me see that. Pointed out that I should be using nets more, as I was not moving him around as much as I should've been. I think in this month here, I have grown a lot. I look back at old footage of me in May, like this tournament we had at our school, which I considered to peak me at that time: My footwork is def a lot smoother, split step more consistent, stroke quality is better... still got a long ways to go. Still feel my control shots is weakest part of my game, and I still get rekt by footwork, unantipcated clears and slices are really the worse for me. But yeah that's the update
Keep your glycogen up before you start training again, pls read this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6019055/ Alone from the slow pace and the posture and shot quality of your opponent , you can see that you are no match for him. So, it is really hard for you to rate your own performance. The issue is, that a much better opponent can up the pace of the match or can choose to play so many shots, that your game either crumbles immediatly or he can let you get into the match, but he controls the match, not you. Comparing singles,doubles or mix games performance is not really easy, these are different games with really different requirements. Best to pick someone of your level to rate your performance improvement. You can tell if someone is at your level of play if he needs to fight to win a match. If he is not able to win or seems quite relaxed, he is not at your level. I'm sure that your game have hundreds of issues, like mine and like an international player too. You are at the start and you should focus on the fundamentals first, that is, footwork, essential strokes, game awareness, combos (smash->forward), basic anticipation. Your opponent in the first video has more advanced skills (multiple half smashes hitting the lines, sliced drop shots etc.) you should not focus on these skills yet, it is too early. One of the most important aspects is game awareness and pace. Game awareness will enable you to switch over from a pure reactive matche to a tactical match, where you are able to plan ahead. But this will need lot of time, not days or weeks, but years. The pace of your game is one of the best performance measurements. A beginner will often unconsciously up the pace to their own disadvantage, e.g. smash to the opponent who is in a stable position, so that the opponent hit it hard back and suddenly the beginner is not able to keep up and lost the point. When the pace goes up you need to be quicker, react faster, hit shots under more pressure, have less time to plan ahead. When you have the feeling that you play good and next time you play bad, the reason is often, that the pace went up. In my club are a few young people playing in much higher leagues than me, and one of them had the chance to play vs an ex-international player. He told me afterwards, that he felt like playing like an absolute beginner, so game performance is more or less relative. So, practise,practise,practise and have patience, you will get better, much better, over time. Being in a camp for 3 month is such a great opportunity to get a much better player, I'm still jealously.
Here's a video of two danish players from an a camera view similar to yours and a nice way to see what a higher pace really means. Both are ranked around 200. Take a closer look at the breaks between shots and compare it to your breaks. You (and me too ) are more relaxed, put your racket down, stance is up-right, have a lot of time. They have a much wider stance, their racket is at mid level, their arms are spread wider apart, the time between shot is a lot shorter, they have even time to check if the shuttle hit the lines. I would never be able to survive a single rally at this pace. So people will tell you to raise your racket, to take in a wider stance, to lower your center of gravity, but I think that this is only a physical effect of being prepared to receive the next shot quite early (mental cause). So learning to lower your gravity, to widen your stance, to raise your racket will not help you to recieve the shuttle earlier if your game sense is still lacking.I think that once your game sense is better, you will start to play faster and you will do all this stuff automatically (implicit learning).
I think you have been doing great. Have a good recovery. Do some relaxed shadow movements in an open area such as keeping your centre of balance low, not jumping high on split step, grooving the correct footwork patterns/ foot placements , having a correct ready position for the overhead (racquet shaft vertically upwards) and shadow a high contact point. You will come back faster.
Yup, am eating a LOT in the 4 hours I allow myself to Def agree. Why I stuck to straight shots and sometimes cross nets for most part. I think so too - ty! Thank you Cheung as always Will def do this, and really need to work on bending knees/ taking wider steps
Training Update 7/19/21 Physical Update My physical trainer has informed me that this and next week are going to be heavy weeks/upcycle in intensity... and we had not only a really tough sprints day on Thursday (harder than normal) we also had to do a 10km run on Sunday. Needless to say, I was pretty rekt this week and it was especially hard to get to the badminton pm session after that 10km run on Sunday. Also I've been told I should be eating on baseline 3000 calories a day which explains why I felt low on glycogen 2 times this week, and felt like I was running out of steam 2 hours into our 3 hour badminton sessions consistently. For this reason, I've stopped caring about the scale, and am just trying to eat clean mostly for the training week, and allowing myself to basically eat whatever I want after Sunday training and on our Monday rest days. The scale will likely now push 84/85 but whatever at this point - I can work on diet and optimize for that when I stop training so intensively lol I feel. I am conflicted though as I would like to assist myself in losing weight (and not just body recomping and losing weight through so much energy expenditure everyday) but I can't seem to find the balance of a slight caloric deficit so I'd rather not pass out in the meantime. Training Thoughts This week, especially in the beginning of the week, it felt like a tough week but it was fun. I was being low key (like implicitly) pushed to move wider/lower/faster with the court coverage drills that really made me lunge, look at this video below: The matches at the end of the week were quite fun, and really felt that the matches on 7-18 were a lot of fun, and began to taste the true pace and speed of what high level doubles can be: Other Thoughts - Where To Train After My Visa Expires? As I am having to go to the embassy next week to renew my visa, where I go after I have to leave Thailand is now on my mind. A pretty high-level badminton friend of mine says he's only concern with the training here, and Asia in general, is that it's volume - which he's right. No one here has told me tactics, how to read opponent's racket, that kind of thing. Perhaps at my level, that's not necessary. He also claims that they give everyone the same training, and the ones that shine are the ones that the coaches actually train if that makes sense - and that's definitely the case from what I've seen here. Banthongyord does offer private lessons which I will try to work on technique only as I don't think I could take more volume/drills physically and maybe that will change my perspective. Because of this, I am not thinking of a few places: - If Corona would let up, I'd go to Tactical Badminton in Malaysia. For now that's not an option. - China is not an option either, after a talk I have had with Badminton Becky - I could go back to the states, find a good coach but the living costs man.... - Singapore, specifically BG badminton academy could be cool. - If Peter Gade would let me, their academy is on my radar. - Either train under Lee Yong Dae's childhood coach (his Youtube is Full Swing Badminton) or train with a recommended coach vouched for a different coach who I'm close with/taught me for a little while in Korea. (this is a strong option as it aligns with lifestyle and other aspects of my life outside of badminton) I do know that I want to go back home and play with my friends - one of the many coaches I talk to thinks that would be good motivation and a good way to see firsthand how I have improved. And after 37-ish days of that, I could imagine myself after 90+ days of this intense training to want a little downtime (not stop training/playing, just lower intensity) while I reapply for visas, recharge, etc. Oh - I'm working on a 100zz review so there's that too Please let me know if you guys have any comments as usual - about anything! It's always helpful/fun to hear from you guys. IF there's anything you guys want to know more about, do let me know! If you want daily updates - follow my Instagram at @NigelDollentas. I make daily video highlights and notes on my posts
there’s a two tier system? How do they choose who they give more attention to? It’s great to see you write this. If you really want to make the breakthrough and change the small details in your technique, private lessons is the way to go. Group lessons give you a taster but I think you have realised the same limitations that many of us feel. Basically, with the group classes, they give you a bit of insight but effecting long term change is very difficult. ( It’s like language lessons). If your aim to to make the change to long lasting improvements in technique, then group classes are definitely not going to work because a person benefits from greater frequency of repetition and feedback which happens in a private lesson. All you are achieving at the moment is improving your stamina (good, but you lose it if you don’t train) and playing incorrect technique with better consistency. Here’s one thing though. You have to convince the coach you want to effect REAL change through these private lessons. I think a lot of coaches don’t take adults learners too seriously because perceived limited potential (difficult to change) and they think the adults are not targeted to competitions. It happened to me as well. When I got my private coach, I told him very clearly my objectives: make my basic technique and footwork because it limits my potential for improvement. I also wanted to play singles competitions. I worked hard at it, took notes, practiced footwork patterns at home, studied videos, asked a few questions here and there. I expressed some frustrations at myself on court when some things were difficult to change (I can get a bit intense about improving) and that surprised him to see that. I would sometimes throw my racquet down at my bag in anger if I thought I didn’t perform the training routine well enough. LOL. Not many people here in HK would do that. He saw me pretty serious about changing and I think he treated me differently the better he understood my desire to change and how much to change. I follow your YouTube and so far, I see small group training which is quite ok but I don’t see them correcting the small details that you need as a supplement to look really good. (For example, your overhead swing is a lot better but still can be improved). There are other inefficient techniques that you need to need polish and have a deeper understanding of the racquet preparation and finger techniques. The good thing is that you are really fit now and can reach the shuttle a lot better. So I think you have an excellent basis to use private lessons to move on to really tightening up the foundations and then from there going on to advanced techniques. It would also be a pity for you to make all that effort in going to Thailand, living and training at the school but not changing much as you could in terms of skills especially with the limited time there.
It's not a written system, kind of more like how favoritism works. Just the students who win more or are internationally ranked get special attention. OOF And yeah am going to be talking with my coach for private lessons starting in August
True. My kid didn’t get special attention from her club. Then she made a big jump in improvement beating the boys which grabbed some attention. Her club is one of those where some of the players are really focussed on development. Before her recent improvement, her game was developing pretty slowly .
When I was young the trainer picked players who were significant better at certain stuff and advices them in more advanced topics. I remember one player who has such a nice touch at the net where the rest of the training group struggles with the basic netshot. The trainer gave him some special training exercises for tumbling netshots, which was just beyond the rest of us at this time. I think it is just fair to encourage players which shows higher potential to develop further, I believe most international players get to international level by being promoted by their trainer to develop further then the standard level of the club. In badminton you have three majors blocks: technique, fitness, anticipation Technique is by far the most easiest to learn. But many people are either too impatient or have reinforced a wrong technique which needs to be 'un-learned' first. TTY is an excellent example who many would praise for her incredible technique. I would praise her more for her bravery to use these techniques. E.g. all high-ranked female players will be able to do the reverse-sliced-straight-backhand drop, but only TTY is brave enough to risk this shot so often. Many of her shots went into the net or go out, but she still takes the risk and try again with her next shot. This is her real power in my opinion. Other players just don't take the risk in an international match. Fitness and anticipation are the high-level blocks, the problem is, fitness can be trained quite effectively whereas anticipation is almost not trainable at all. So, when you are young and have some decent technique, you can skyrock by just getting really fit in badminton. Anticipation comes with experience and it is like a counter to fitness. 'Older' international players (>30yo) need to hang on their anticipation to counter a younger fitter player. If anticipation would be trainable like fitness, you wouldn't see any player beyond 22yo in an international match.
That definitely makes sense. Yeah we are working a lot on fitness here, and a little bit on technique. I guess the private lessons would help spend some more time on that technique block. And the weekly sparring (I'd say maybe 2-3 times a week) we do with people our coach matches us against in terms of skill will help with the anticipation. So maybe everything isn't as bad as it seems haha!
Mini Update 7-21-21 The reason for this update is because in the last update I had mentioned that a close coach of mine in Korea was helping me to find a suitable coach that would be able to train me privately at the rate and seriousness that I am looking for. After a long conversation yesterday with him, he's saying the best option is likely for me to actually "hire" a coach on as a freelancer (say 2 hours every day for a month at $xx) and allow the coach to propose that said contract amongst his friends and coaching network. In reality, it's just paperwork so it makes no difference for me, but he has promised me this will make a difference and he'll be able to find a coach who would be able to give me private lessons (5-7x a week, 2 hours per session) at around a rate of 60,000 KRW or $55/hour. I believe in my coaches judgment when it comes to the exact coaching ability of said coach but if this does pan out I honestly think this may be a pretty good choice for me as my end goal is to be going to Korea anyways.
Sounds good if the coach is good and if you’re on the same wavelength. I suppose it will mainly be one coach and maybe some others here and there. How long are you planning to stay in Thailand for? An extra two or three months? You are alongside world class athletes; it’s pretty motivating. That is something you might not get in Korea.
Realistically, I should be able to stay until end of September. Worse case scenario end of August. Best case scenario is Thai embassy extends the corona visa program again (like they have been doing last minute since March 2020) and I can stay for another 2 months (so November) unless they last minute extend it again. I'll stay here as long as my visa allows me to though so it really depends on a bunch of external figures I can't control. As for Korea, it'll be one coach full stop. So I'm very excited as I'm looking for an involved coach and my coach (I'll call him Jin) now knows how serious I am about badminton, so hopefully Jin will communicate my desires/expectations for what I want out of a coach.
Interesting update. I thought you were going for the personal training, so the 1200 usd per month is a group training ? How many people were in the group ? Can you share how was the schedule look like ?
