In France, all clubs are closed and tournaments canceled until the 15th of April! That means no badminton for one month. Gotta work on those shadows in the garden... How is it like where you are from? (Only badminton related)
In Germany, tournaments, team games, and training sessions are being cancelled left and right. Right now, I'd say about half of events are still happening, sometimes without an audience (which would not change much – in lower leagues everybody present is a coach, parent, or player). This may change rapidly though. Update: Right now, I'm seeing more and more cancellations. I expect that with the case number rising (and hence the risk of infection at a given event rising as well), everything will be cancelled until April 18th (end of Easter vacation). Since I'm sick with an unrelated infection at the moment, I'm not missing much right now (although it's kind of scary that I de facto can not go to my doctor). Once I'm healthy again, I'm aiming to become a beast in fitness and stabilization as long as the halls are closed, and get into the rhythm of doing (@speCulatius's) exercises every day!
That's a very positive mindset to adapt. Let's workout and improve our stamina and general physical condition. I aim for that too. No choices but to try to keep our minds and bodies busy to stay sane... Get better soon!
Update for Germany: My state federation (NRW, the largest one by far) is cancelling all team matches. Some other state and regional federations have already cancelled all matches, and I expect the others to follow. I guess one needs to be careful though not to overexert oneself in case one is infected.
In Hong Kong end of Jan, everything was shut. No school and all indoor sports in public halls were shut. Leagues matches cancelled, training programs and competitions cancelled. Just this week, sportshalls have limited opening. For an eight badminton court hall, only four courts are used to make sure people are spread out. I think this arrangement will go on for quite a while as Hong Kong keeps getting imported cases of coronavirus.
The German national federation has cancelled all tournaments until May 31st. Basically this completely cancels the prime tournament season. I expect that the state-level and regional tournaments feeding into the national tournaments will be cancelled as well.
Malaysia government today announced that all mass gatherings, including sporting events are to be cancelled/postponed until after 30 April. Effectively means no Malaysia Open but BWF already made a statement on that
Nothing much has changed in my area of little England. Except we are advised not to shake hands. Over the next 7 days I expect the seriousness to ramp up to match the hysteria of the panic shoppers.
Since the BWF has suspended the pro/semi-pro circuit until the 12th of April, I guess many federation from different countries will follow at the regional level. I wonder how bad will the impact be for local/national badminton shops. No shuttles to sell for more than a month, people will surely not restring their racket yet and I don't think many people will go panic buy 5 pair of badminton shoes like it's toilet paper. The whole situation is going to be economically tough for these small badminton shops...
Since in France the season is always called OFF for 2 months in July and August, I'm hoping clubs would consider opening during the summer to compensate this upcoming and unexpected month OFF. Same for all those regional tournaments that are being canceled. I do hope they could fit in a summer schedule.
Perhaps quite the contrary to many countries, the clubs here in Thailand are promoting badminton as a way to strengthen our antibody and fight the virus. As far as I know, exercise is more encouraged here than ever. I actually see more people on court during this time than usual. Local tournaments are still hosted; for example, at least two at my local club by the end of this month. I assume this may apply to other sports activities too: I went jogging in a park today and saw the same amount of people, if not more, than usual.
Also there were rumeurs around here for some time about the shortage of shuttles since they have to be imported from China, but frankly I do not see any truth in it.
A regional tournament was cancelled here, this weekend. So somebody put on a private mini-tournament. Apparently, the first prize was a Corona beer and a roll of toilet paper.
The annual Bay Area Corporate Badminton Challenge, basically an inter company team tournament similar to Sudirman Cup that I have/had a hand in organizing has been postponed. It is usually held in mid-May. Usually we have over 50 teams participating with most of the major silicon valley companies having some team entering. (you name it, Apple, Google, Facebook, Intel, NVIDIA, Cisco, etc, etc.) And then now the county has announced that no place should have more than 35 ppl gathering, so the badminton gyms are only allowing that many ppl inside their premise. It is good that the government is taking the threat seriously now. But perhaps a little bit late.
I think it's too soon for a shortage and it depends of countries and shops' stocks but it could happen in some countries with low stock supplies. I've read some French site already mentioning their stocks were low.
shipping coming out of China has crawled to a halt after Chinese New Year and then COVID19. A few stuff I ordered from aliexpress took nearly 2 months to arrive. However, things are starting to move and China slowly get back to normal now. In fact, ironically, it is now safer to be in China than in Europe.
I personally can't play (I live in same state as @phihag and @speCulatius). Luckily I live in an area where I can avoid people, so I will switch to cycling to stay in shape and will additional do the same like @phihag do (train stabilization and get on the total gym to become Chuck Norris)
Our local club plays at a school, and the school decided not to rent the place out at the moment, so currently there is no venue. There is another club I can go to, though.
Looks like many of us have the same plan in mind when it comes to using the forced badminton break best possible. Luckily, the weather is supposed to get full-on spring these days, so there will be a lot of possibilities to go outside (on your own!) and get going. I aim towards doing something fitness-related every day - that way I hope to stay sane with both kids being practically locked in at home for the next 5 weeks. And for the record, I have stocked up my beer and wine supplies already. Who needs toilet paper when you can hoard beer instead?! And while we are at it, I've just read through a great article by the Washington Post with some great simulations regarding the impact of different measures currently taken to reduce spread speed of the infection: https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...Uih3YZqT73RrTdHkhdAmTmi0gFE44hDLDDQ_D3m89hGiY So even if it's a pain in the bum for everyone of us, it is a necessary evil to contain the desease and save especially our older generation and/or persons with pre-conditions.
I have enough stuff (wood and screws) to built a wall in the garden for walldrills and I also have the opportinity to get some gum mats to built something for footwork drills.
