All England 2021 Controversy regarding the Indonesian squad

I was watching the All England 2021 and noticed that the squad from Chian and Indonesia were missing from the competition. 

An interesting but unfortunate incident mars the All England 2021.

Following a confirmed case of positive Covid-19 in the airplane, shared by the Indonesian squad, badminton England in effect quarantined the Indonesian squad from further competing in the tournament. 

Already missing the powerhouse squads from Indonesia, South Korea and China, this year saw weaker competition of players resulting in Japan dominating the games in the semi-finals.

Excerpts from the BBC:

[However, they discovered the UK Government's legislation regarding self-isolation periods was "non-negotiable".

Men's top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo defeated England's Matthew Clare and Ethan van Leeuwen in the opening round, but the result will remain unchanged.

As with all instances of an Indonesian player or pair winning a match prior to the withdrawal, their next scheduled opponent will now receive a walkover and advance to the next round.

Zainudin Amali, Indonesia's sports minister, has asked the BWF to investigate the matter and suggested the decision to exclude the team is "unfair".

"It wasn't their fault, but they're bearing the brunt," he said.

"I urge the (Indonesia badminton) association to take measures to question BWF and its Asia federation so that people know that we won't stand for it. We feel the injustice in our players."]

Badminton cold turkey

 It has been almost a year since I played badminton, courtesy of Covid-19.

Naturally I am having cold turkey now, binging on watching past badminton matches on YouTube. 

How do you guys fix your badminton cold turkey?

Please share?

Importance of understanding arch of your feet

A common problem in running is foot injury. 

Badminton like running can leave one susceptible to foot injuries. 

In particular, the arch of your feet is an area prone to injury. 

Human feet can be categorized into 3 types: neutral, high arch and flat foot (or no arch). 

The arch on your feet can affect the biomechanics of motion and how much stress is placed on your joints particularly the plantar fascia and the various ligaments/muscles/tendons at the ankle area. 

As badminton involves a lot of standing on the balls of your feet and landing on high impact via lunges and jumps, the joints are in constant dynamic motion. 

To mitigate risk of acute injury or chronic (overused) injury, proper footwear is important. 

A high arch can cause underpronation but can be mitigated by shoes with a lot of cushioning to avoid strong impact. See below:

A flat feet type can cause overpronation but can be mitigated by shoes with structured or cushioning shoes. Reference: Here 

Another thing that can mitigate the risk of injury is the lacing pattern as can be seen here: Lacing guide

As always, happy playing badminton and keeping your feet happy.

Badminton grassroots in Indonesia

Ever wonder why Indonesia is so good in badminton? 

Well, it starts at the grassroots, kids motivated to play competitively.

At this clip by KompasTV, kids from various cities from all over Java & other islands of Indonesia taking part for the audition in the city of Kudus... 

The selected kids from the audition gets the scholarship to train in badminton sponsored by the cigarette company, Djarum.

The large pool of young players and interest to better their lives ensures Indonesia remains a badminton powerhouse.

In part, Indonesia has a great badminton tradition and interest from all layers of Indonesian society in badminton.

Having visited Indonesia many times and played with the locals, Indonesia is a great badminton country to watch competitive badminton and play badminton.

There are many private clubs in Indonesia and the support and participation is very high. 

Post Covid-19 badminton

The year 2020 is the great lockdown.

Badminton social games, competition and tournaments are put on hold...

Many changes are included in competition, particularly greetings like hand shake.

More to follow...

Singapore Open 2019 Press Conference and earlier rounds

Managed to get a ticket for 11th Thursday game, cheapest seat, costing SGD21.

After coming back from Malaysia Open 2019, I find the price a bit high.

The sponsors of the tournament is Li-Ning.

This year, the security are pretty strict with video, selfie and professional photographers.

Perhaps, too many fans were taking selfies with the players in the stadium...

There's also a meet and greet session or press conference at the Wisma Atria, featuring the following players.

The world number 1, Kento Momota is one of the biggest name that made it to Singapore Open. The host asked him a few questions.

The media people were are videoing and shooting photos.

PV Sindhu mentioned she likes Singapore, because there are many Indians here in Singapore.

The training venue for the players is the OCBC Arena, where players can walk to the Kallang stadium right after training. Hence the OCBC Arena is closed to amateur players like me.

Here the Chinese National team heading back to the hotel after training at the OCBC arena.

Singapore Open 2019

This week is the Singapore Open and the venue is the Kallang indoor stadium.

I may drop in for the earlier rounds.

May have a badminton burnout after watching Malaysia Open the week before.

Anyhow, this year's Singapore Open is arranged right after Malaysia Open which is different from the previous years.

The ticket prices are pretty high, but this year many to players are participating.

More updates to come.

Malaysia Open 2019 Holiday.

I attended the Malaysia Open 2019.

It was an awesome experience, with money well spent for short vacation from Singapore.

In addition, I met many fans from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Europe, Japan and China.

This time, I stayed at Bukit Bintang where I can take the monorail and transfer to one of the LRT direct to Bukit Jalil, which cost about RM5 one way.

The player hotel is the Istana hotel which is located near the Pavilion Mall/Changkat Bukit Bintang area.

The 3rd round and quarter finals are the best bang for the buck where 4 courts are in action.

The spectator area is blacked out and it can be dangerous walking around in the dark to find a seat.

Some of the national team jerseys are sold in the stadium. 

I must say Victor have very nicely design shirts. Of course, I bought a few.

I bought the cheaper exclusive Malaysia Open shirt. 

Pretty nice souvenir, nice looking shirt.

The racquets sold at the stadium. It is a bit pricey that I didn't buy any.

The best part was I get to get my items autographed by the players.

Ticket prices are reasonable before the semi-finals. I paid cash at the ticket booth at the stadium.

Fan engagement at the stadium.

Funny thing is at the player hotels, at the lobby there were many fans camping outside to take selfie with the players and getting their autographs. 

I managed to take a lot of pictures, but the low light makes it challenging to get a nice money shot.

All and all, an enjoyable experience for my 4th Malaysia Open. A memorable badminton holiday.

badminton injuries - part 1

Last year, I experienced my first calf strain injury which resulted in a severe pain and an audible snapping sound of a breaking rope.

It happen when I lunged to lift/pickup a drop shot from center court. It's my first time experiencing this injury. I bought a calf sleeve with compression to ease the pain. I guess you see those professional players wearing compression on their legs, it's with a purpose, i.e. to warm the muscles/tendons so that the muscle stay active when contracting.

I now see the value of calf compression and do warm ups properly before each games.

Another nagging injury I experienced recently is heel pad pain.

After playing about 3-4 times of tennis/badminton per week, I started to develop pain on my left heel pad. The pain occurs wherever I wear sandals but goes away when I wear sneakers.

A gel pad can mitigate the pain after trying out a gel insert underneath the heel pad.

Keep playing badminton and stay injury free!

Malaysia Open 2019

Next month is the annual Malaysia Open Super Series competition in Kuala Lumpur.

I plan to go there which will be 4th Malaysian Open. Unfortunately, the defending champion Datuk Lee Chong Wei won't be playing as he is not medically fit to play.

Stay tune for more report. I will test out my GoPro Hero Black 7 as a vlogging camera.

Head gear in badminton

I recently noticed many professional badminton players are wearing sweatbands.

As an indoor sports, badminton tournament are air-conditioned and players rarely sweat into their eyes.

However owing to the intensity of the games and genetic predisposition to sweat profusely on the forehead, many people wears sweatbands in badminton.

Figure 1. Most commonly are sweatbands as sported by Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan.




Figure 2. Anders Antonsen.

And Anders Antonsen of Denmark.

As a person who wears headbands, I can appreciate its uses to prevent sweat from getting into the eyes.

There are 4 types of head gear to prevent sweat from getting into your eyes.

1. Headband
2. Head tie
3. Hair tie
4. Bandana

1. Headband
A cotton version of the wristband that wicks sweats away from your forehead.
Pros: ample absorption
Cons: a bit uncomfortable owing to the tightness of the elastic band's pressure on your skull.

Figure 3. The Adidas Head tie vs the Nike Hair tie.

2. Head tie
Basically a long rectangular piece of cotton or polyester cloth with a triangle tip.
Pros: The cool factor. Think tennis pros like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Cons: Less absorbent than the headband.

3. Hair tie
It's essentially a longer version of the head tie
Pros: The cool factor, especially for ladies. Think Serena Williams.
Cons: Less absorbent than the headband.

4. Bandana

Figure 4. Picture of a tube bandana, a versatile piece of headgear.

Figure 5. Picture of the traditional Square cloth tennis style Bandana from Nike (100% cotton).

(There are two types, one is the 'Buff' type head tubular gear and two is the traditional long piece of square cloth that are folded into place.)

Pros: The cool factor and super-absorbent. The perfect sports head gear. Tennis pros are using it for a practical reason, so should you, the badminton player.
Cons: None, except for haters.

Gosen Inferno Ex Review

My first impression of this racquet is it is unique.

The frame shape is in a form of sinusoidal shape like a wave.

Racquet is brilliant red.

The racquet is aesthetically pleasing.

The shaft is made from pyrofil.

The racquet is made in Taiwan.

The specs can be seen here.

Had it strung with Yonex BG66 at 26lbs.

The recommended string by Gosen is the G-Tone 5 strings.

                                         Figure 1. The T-joint

                                         Figure 2. The unique frame shape

Figure 3. The shaft

The meat and potatoes of the racquet...

THE factors: Balance & Flex

1.  Head heavy balance
2. Stiff flex.
3. Aerodynamic shape frame.
4. Weight of racquet: 86g

Conclusion: I have been playing with this racquet for 2 months now.

I would rate it as an excellent racquet for power and handling. In terms of control, it is surprisingly good even though the frame is kinda funny, the 86 g weight of the racquet makes it stable. Suitable for singles and doubles. Favours the attacking player.

Numerical ratings:

Power: 9.5/10

Control: 9/10

Defense: 9/10

Maneuverability: 9/10

Feel: 8.5/10

Hello 2018

I am back to blogging.

A lot of things have happened in 2017.

This year 2018, a major badminton tournament just finished, the 2018 Thomas and Uber Cup in Bangkok.

I missed the opportunity to the IMPACT centre at Bangkok, instead I completed my climb up the summit of Mount Kinabalu.

Indonesia and Malaysia Open is next...

What else happened in 2017? The emergence of Indonesian pair of Kevin Sanjaya and Marcus Gideon as world beaters.

Yonex introduced the Astrox series...

Some controversy with the service fault calls, owing to the new rules...

Badminton Shopping in Hong Kong

I went to Hong Kong SAR last month immediately after the conclusion of Malaysia Open.

I experience a culture shock after checking in into the notorious Chung King Mansion at Tsim Sha Sui area.

However, as my first visit to Hong Kong, I did the tourist thing and visited the usual area like the Peak, Lantau Island, Stanley and a day trip to Macau SAR.

However, Hong Kong is well known for shopping, being tax free.

Badminton shops are located all over the place like Mongkok, Jordan and Central. However, I visited the famous sneaker street or Poh Hai Gai in Cantonese.

The famous Rose Sports, well known from Badminton central. However, I found to my disappointment that Rose Sports is not a dedicated badminton shop but sells hiking shoes/bags and other sporting stuff. Badminton racquets are few.

Racquets at Rose Sports

Mizuno/Yonex Shoes at Rose Sports.

One of the shop with a much bigger selection than Rose Sports, ESL Racquets and Sports Megashop.

Malaysia Open April 4th 2017 in Kuching, Sarawak-Badminton Holiday

This is my second visit to Kuching Sarawak.  However this time with the added bonus of watching Malaysia Open.

The stadium where the event is held is called Stadium Perpaduan. Located in a sports complex area called Petra Jaya which is similar to Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur.

There is even a large aquatics centre for swimming competition.

The stadium is located pretty far from Kuching town, I did take an uber to get there costing around RM 16...and return I took a Grab car back to the hotel.

Funny thing, the players are staying in Kuching Town, and I was shocked to see Chen Long in a 7-11 shop buying ice packs as was the 7-11 cashier. Many Sarawakians are die hard badminton fans and badminton stars are easily recognized.

I managed to take selfie photos with some players while walking around the street of Kuching.

I saw Lee Chong Wei coming back from training to the Grand Margherita hotel whilst I was about to board a minivan to the Sarawak Cultural Center.

Many players were seen doing their laundry at a 24 hours laundromat, owing the pricey hotel laundry service...

Anyway back to the action.

The stadium is pretty big with many seats.

The interior of the stadium.

The center ceiling of the stadium.

Four courts during the 1st day.

Local team playing...

Freezing the jumpsmash using high shutter speed. However, I did not have a high aperture lens to let in more light. My telephoto lens is a constant F4.

Pro cameraman in action.

Another cameraman with Bazooka Telephoto lens. Lens can get pretty big and expensive once you shoot sports photography professionally.

The sponsor of Malaysia Open is Victor, hence a booth selling Victor stuff.

Bags...

Racquets...

The Victor booth. I did not buy anything there. Prices are pretty competitive with most badminton shops.

There is even an autograph signing session by Victor stars, like Kim Ha Na etc.

This Malaysia Open witness a dream final between Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei, with Lin Dan finally beating Lee Chong Wei in the final.

Malaysia Open 2017 Blog/vlog

The Malaysia Open this year will be held not in Kuala Lumpur but in the Kuching, the island of Borneo.

This time, I will try to vlog about it.

Videography seems like a challenging trade, but very exciting as well.

Combining being a director, actor, producer, cameraman and editor...

But definitely I continue to blog using photography.

Travelling light, I will probably bring a gimbal to stabilise my videos.

Previously in Bangkok,  I was using handheld shot which results in severe camera shake. Will try to stabilise the shots using a monopod as well.

A cameraman videotaping the event using a pro camcorder, in Bangkok.

Badminton Holiday Bangkok, Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters 07-12 February 2017

I have just returned from Bangkok, watching the Thailand Masters at the Nimibutur Stadium.

The stadium is located in the sports/stadium cluster. There is the BTS stadium called National Stadium.

Below are the views, shot from the Holiday Inn Hotel's top floor.

                                          Picture 1. The indoor stadium, where the game was held

                                          Picture 2. The track and field stadium

                                         Picture 3.The main stadium

Centrally located at the Pathumwan area, the Stadium is next to the famous Mah Boon Krong or MBK.

Tickets cost 200 Baht for quarter-finals and 400 Baht for semi-finals.

The stadium is dimly lit with the main lights focus on the courts.

There is also tight security where policemen and policewomen will check your bags after you pass through the metal detector.

Picture 4. Policeman manning the entrance to the seating area

There is a Yonex booth, media booth and history booth.

                                          Picture 5. Yonex booth

Local Heroine, Ratchanok Intanon was spotted signing autographs and taking photos with fans during the semi-finals.

The Yonex booth displayed latest gears like racquets, bag and clothes.

The latest, Duora Z-Strike was available at the booth as well.

However, the price is retail price and I did not buy anything. Besides the Thai sports shopping street is just behind the stadium and prices are much lower.

The stadium is a bit old, but it is well maintained though.

                                         Picture 6. Layout of the stadium

The atmosphere was quite lively as other Thai athletes came in a group, singing and chanting,'Thailand! Thailand!" accompanied by drums and dancing.

                                         Picture 7. One of the colourful Thai supporters

Surprisingly, the stadium is so near the hotels that the players were seen walking to the stadium on foot. Besides after the game, many players can be seen going to MBK and Siam Paragon.

Although less lively than the Indonesian Open at Istora Senayan, badminton watching in Thailand is an interesting experience. The Thais are very polite, well organised and respectful of opponents.

                                          Picture 8. Thai player doing the 'Wai' to the supporters and spectators.

All in all, my first experience watching badminton in Thailand. Of course, a great holiday, which I thoroughly enjoyed; combining eating, shopping and watching badminton.

Here is the mini movie I made about the trip. I realised that I still need a lot of experience/skill to edit a proper vlog. My editing and story telling, will need improvement, though.

Race to Dubai 14-18 December 2016

The last month of the year, December is on us.

Hence all good things must have a closure.

The points accumulated through 2016's Super Series, Grand Prix and others...will pit the top 10 ranked players in the world for a Super Series Finale.

The competition will last 5 days from 14th-18th December at Hamdan Sports Complex in Dubai, UAE.

This is the third time in a row for Dubai to hold the Super Series Masters Final.

Geographically, I need to fly there to watch the game.
Ruefully, I was able to watch the 2009 and 2013 Super Series Masters held in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur respectively in Malaysia.

If I remember correctly, with all the top 10 players in the world, I had ample opportunity to take photos and obtained autographs from the players in the stadium.

Checking the price of the hotel and flight, may not be worth it for me, perhaps All England or Japan Open will be on my radar as I attended the Super Series Masters before in Malaysia.

However, I applaud that Badminton Super Series Masters is getting good exposure as it is held in the Middle East, ideal geographically for European players and Asian players.

Lin Dan two time...r...(champion)...

A shocking news reported and uncovered by Chinese netizens.

Lin Dan admitted to having an affair with a model while his wife Xie Xingfang was pregnant.

I thought as a two time Olympic champion he didn't have two time his wife...

I also did not realized Lin Dan is two years younger than his wife.

Well, I guess if you are as famous as Lin Dan in China, getting laid is easy even if you are married.

Ref: 1.http://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2016/11/17/lin-dan-affair-badminton/

What do retired professional badminton players do after hanging up their racquets?

 I was staying in a hotel at Kota Damansara KL and spotted two familiar faces smiling back at me.

Wait, it's ex national player Lee Wan Wah and Chan Chong Min.

Haven't seen them in the badminton stadiums for ages.

Spotted the large poster, where they are marketing the Fleet brand racquets - Wan Wah wrapping his left hand around Chan Chong Min in a bromance embrace.

Apparently, I did not follow their post professional badminton careers.

Upon further research, they open some badminton courts with other ex-national players and doing coaching for a living.

References here: 1. 

I visited their Sunsuria pioneer badminton hall.

It is next a indoor soccer court. Courts are rubberized mat with good lighting.

 I did not bring my racquets and didn't get the chance to play with the locals.