Oh yes the tallest guy who looks the strongest! No wonder they chose you to play singles as well as XD! And yes, I now remember that in one of your earlier pics, we saw only your 'pony tail' and its seems you still have it with you. And your hair did give the impression that you must have had a tough game before this pic was taken. They say boys seldom talk too much to their fathers and since your mum is French your command of this language must be more proficient than English? Well done, once again!
seven, I'd like to challenge you....after you have played 5 singles and 5 doubles i.e. in a state of complete exhaustion. It should be quite a fair game then
Loh, my mother is french and I have never lived in England so french is clearly my first language. Cheung, you shouldn't be so modest, I'm sure that you play better than you say!! Anyway, now I'm motivated to train really hard for next season, after having taken a break of course!!
More photos Thanks! Here are a few more photos of the trip that I've recuperated today... 1. Just before leaving 2. Six hours of motorway... 3. Playing the matches (this is our last match, we're exhausted) 4. Another team photo at the end of the day 5. Meal in the evening with the other qualified team (from the other pool) 6. Stopping to eat on the way back...
You know for some reason I always thought you were old Seven. PS it may just be me, but just seeing that girl in a perfect serving posture instantly would give her loads of points in my book
Hi Seven Thanks for giving us an idea of your badminton trip in pics. Yes, it looks like you all have had a long day. And I agree that your lady partner looks great in her service 'pose', so confident and relaxed. No wonder your team won!
Do I sound "old" when I write?? In fact I start feeling that I'm getting old as a player too, and that I've missed a good part of my best years when I stopped intensive training at 19... I feel that if I don't train hard again NOW, it will be too late to peak again and I'll regret never having seen how well I could play, that's one point that gives me high motivation for next season also! (no chance of turning pro in any case though, I'm too old and too far from the bests for that! ) About my partner, well it's funny that you (both) say that because she doesn't have a so good service in fact, often lacking of consistency. I think her position isn't the best in terms of balance (with one foot in front of the other one). Her biggest quality is that she plays very aggressively and at high pace, killing all the shuttles that she can. This compensates her relative lack of consistency and weaker technique, but it means we need to keep the attack all the time in order to be efficient. ... and by the way, the photo was in the very last match of the day... which we lost 15-11 in the third set in fact! (it's difficult to keep the attack and play fast pace when you have no energy left...) but this had no incidence as we won that overall match 8-1 anyway!
Yeah you do, then again I probably do too ;p I made no mention of whether she could serve or not, just that she looks like she can play As for the one foot in front of the other, that's a fairly standard posture I'd say more top level players use that as opposed to the two feet together pose, though I can't be sure of course.
She sure can play, she's a first team member and it's not a crap team! (all players of the team are part of the top regional players in at least one disciplin) Well, about services everyone finds his own preferred way of serving, I just think having your feet completely perpendicular to the net is not very good for balance (bad balance => bad consistency), nor for reacting quickly on the return. Most top players are at least 45° if not even parallel to the net unless I'm getting mistaken(?). Anyway, here's how I serve in MD (first one at training, second one in an official match) :
Interesting point there. I do agree she seems slightly square on to the net compared with most people. But surely the key point is after the shuttle leaves the raquet, the server immediately does a quick split step?
Seven Now that you have 'revealed' your partner's less than perfect service, I hope you can help her change so that she can keep her shuttle lower and you will be able to smash more hopefully. As for myself, I normally do a backhand serve (I'm right-handed), with my left leg behind my right (like your partner), but I will face my opponent who stands diagonally opposite, which means that I will stand at about 45 degrees. I see that you have more or less a square stance and lifting your feet as you serve. I'm not use to this stance as I need more balance with both feet wider apart. But I will try to hit the shuttle at a higher plane by holding it higher than that held by your partner to achieve a flatter serve.
well, if the return is really fast, you don't always have time to move much so I think it's better if you can react directly from your service position... (including moving to both sides) Loh, you're right, we'll need to work on serving technique now that the season is over (or just about). We can only do it now because you can't change someone's service in the middle of the season, otherwise there is too much risk of losing consistency and confidence imo... About having feet wider apart, I wasn't aware my feet were so close until I saw these photos in fact (though it's maybe the angle that makes them look close), and I agree about your point about balance. (perfect balance being the key of a consistent service imo)
Some news Just to give you some news... We played our two first matches (out of eleven) of the season on sunday... and won both : 5/4 and 7/2. We are third in the division and this is completely unexpected! On my side, I have started playing singles again on a regular basis and my level is going up. I played in three local tournaments before the first interclub match... and won two of them! I even broke my record of my longest match in the final of my last tournament, winning 14-17 17-16 17-16 in 1 hour and 55 minutes!!! (this was just after winning 14-17 15-13 17-15 in the semi just before ) I hope we will maintain our good winning serie! (though it will be very difficult ) Next interclub matches in one month time...
Phew -- 115 minutes of competitive singles play is pretty tough! I bet the other guy wasn't too happy! Keep it up, and keep us posted Seven!
Well, the other guy was leading 12-6 in the second game after having won the first one, and he finally lost both last games 17-16 so sure this is frustrating! We did have great time on court though cause we were both very effective and accurate on defence so we played many long and hard rallies! (I admit it was very difficult physically but after a while you just can't feel the pain nor think about anything else than fight your life for that shuttle... ) Anyway, we are good friends so we promised each other a revenge next time we meet! This was a good preparation for the interclubs as I won both my matches in straight sets on sunday!
Woww Congrats Ian ! 2 victories to begin in Nat3 , sure it's a record. Actually, i wasn't so surprised that Ayguevives moved up to this level because of the great potential of young players but couldn't guess you were about to play the title )) When i was playing in your region, your brother Colin used to playing with protection glasses, due to a badminton accident. Has he stopped doing it ? Imagine he was only 13, i could not have recognised him... I think most people are quite happy for such clubs improving with local players and Ayguevives is a good example and a model for that. Good chance for the next matches and keep us informed like that Yann
You get to play so much singles. I'm really jealous. . Time for me to book a trip to South France Must have been more than 3 hours
Yes this was a quite unexpected good start but we are realistic, our main objective is still avoid relegation, I don't think we can fight for the title this year... (yet? ) Unfortunately, we lost quite a few very good youngsters to bigger clubs over the past years, otherwise our team would be even stronger!... But at least, there is a very strong team spirit between the remaining players! About my brother, he doesn't use protection glasses anymore, but he has injured his knee a while ago now and can't play anymore until he heals it. He is our coach and captain however, and he studies very seriously all the statistics available on our opponents before every match!
You're welcome, come when you like! My semi + my final must have taken near 3 hours 1/2... after having played four singles matches on the previous day already (three of them in three games ) I think I spent a lot of time on court in that tournament! (and I was rather exhausted the next days)
