Badminton - how is it done in your part of the wor

[kwun]

while we are talking about popularizing badminton. i wonder, in your part of the world, how are the availability of court/tournament like?

i know in Hong Kong, while space is limited, there are a lot of recreational multi-use gyms with badminton courts in them. these gym can either be run by local city-councils, or sometimes private clubs. each gym can be rented out on a per-court and per-hour basis. and they are usually open from 8/9am till 10/11pm. university gyms are also open throughout the day, and normally would be available for badminton play.

sometimes, a local club will rent the whole gym for a few hours and let members freely play in them.

tournament - there are organized tournaments by the city-councils. and i believe there are tournament between companies/organizations.

the city-council in Hong Kong is doing a pretty good job on promoting badminton there.

on the contrast, here in the US, at least here in the bay area. it is much harder to get gym time for badminton. most gyms we use here are gyms owned by high school. usually a few individuals, sometimes sactioned by the city, will get together and rent the gym from the school for a stretch of 2-4 hours. and then they will do a "open gym". where people pay a small amount of US$2-$6 and they can use the gym facilities. waitlist will be set up if there are too many people.

these open gyms are rather limited, only a handful of gyms have them, and each place only open for a few hours in the week. needless to say, the hours are fixed and we have to adjust our weekly schedule according to the gym schedule.

tournament - tournaments comes in two styles, most of them are run by schools. a local college or HS have a badminton club and they will hold annual tournaments, sometimes a few individual or a local retailer will hold one as well.

the open gyms are nice. nice in the way that you are forced to share the gym with others, and it is much easier to make friends with other badminton players that way. however, the limited time and inflexibility is the problem.

[Winex West Can]

In British Columbia, Canada; we have some facilities which are dedicated badminton clubs (i.e. membership fees are very high); community centres which will have regular badminton sessions in their multi-purpose gyms as well private "badminton clubs" which rent out elementary school gyms for use.

Tournaments are divided into local, provincial & national. BC Badminton runs several tournaments throughout the season which will qualify for points towards National rankings. Other tournaments could be set up by other local badminton associations (e.g. Lower Mainland Badminton Association), clubs, etc. These tournaments are mostly for fun (however).

I know that there are never enough badminton courts as most sessions in community centres; school gyms, etc. are full and sometimes drop-ins are not allowed due to the sheer number of "regulars" in attendance.

[Marky, Rmd. BC]

Dear Peter Kho:

"Never enough badminton cours", this is a painful truth. VRC is fully filled with enthusiastic badminton fans even on Saturday late late night.

[chandra W]

Badminton is extremely popular in Brunei, probably second only to Soccer.

I had been Tennis-trained since I was a kid, and only tried badminton last year because i was injured and had to rest from palying tennis. I couldnt believe how stupid I've been to ignore badminton alll this time!

Since then i have trained with some of the best badminton players in Brunei, and have joined tournaments, and am doing very well. No more tennis for me now! I attirbute my success in training to the brilliant facilities they have in Brunei. At the University of Brunei, they have a 9 court hall which is free for use. In the city centre, there are many more courts you could use with minimal charges. With all these wonderful facilities, interest in and popularity of badminton, it's a wonder how none of the international professional badminton players hail from this tiny country. One thing they mentioned was the fact that Sports in general is not seen as a proper job in Brunei. Too bad! The players I trained with were indeed great players, and would have made it to the world top ranks had they been encouraged enough.

[Valentino]

here in the netherlands its quite good for badminton players. you have a badminton club almost in every city, or somewhere close by, where u can train and play at least 3 times a week, every hall has like 12 courts, for a normal one. the big ones can have like 20 or more.

if youre good they'll let u play competition against other clubs, with the teamclub. alot of tournaments are being held throughout all the year. i like the interational tournaments the best. u can see and play against different countries. and usually denmark wins most prices, ofcourse. our country is a small one, but that means u dont have to drive far!

if u dont have to train or play u can rent a court at a local gym.its not expensive and for a small city like i live in, we still have 4 halls to choose from!

NBB =Dutch Badminton Ossaciation

[Mag]

Conditions here in Sweden seem similar to those in the Netherlands. Basically every city has a badminton club. Probably the most typical setup in smaller cities/villages is a gymnasium that houses several sports (badminton, volleyball, basketball, handball, indoors hockey, etc etc). In other words no designated badminton courts.

In larger cities (say 50,000+ ppl) however, you'd find at least one badminton-only hall, with typically 10-24 courts which can be rented by the hour. Cost varies between 5-10 USD per hour.

My club rents 6-10 courts per practice session (twice a week), which usually lasts 2-3 hours. Usually between 10-30 people show up. Apart from that I play in a local league, sometimes enter competitions, and with friends of course.

[Winex West Can]

Chandra,
I grew up in Brunei and yes, you were right. Sports was not considered to be a career and I didn't pick up badminton until I was 15. I used to play mostly basketball which I picked up when I was 11. The focus was on education.

I understand that the Brunei government is encouraging sports to all their citizens as it promotes good health and also I believed that there are programs in place to encourage the elite players to train and improve.

I remembered that I used to play basketball almost every day (except for Sat) from 4pm to 8pm and also badminton from 2pm to 4pm (I was young then and was full of energy).

[Bbn]

In Malaysia there are never enough public badminton courts.

However the ricn can always join golf clubs with gyms and halls.

There is a tendency recently for quite a number of rich

individuals who are also fanatics themselves to develop and

build private badminton halls with about 12-24 courts and to

rent them out to the eager public.Msia believes in the

privatisation regime,with entrpreneurship actively encouraged,

there has been a recent surge in building of such private halls.

[chandra W]

Dear Peter:

woww what a small world!!??

Didnt think anyone here would have the slightest idea about Brunei! Good to know we're of the same roots. I live in England now, although i do go back ever so often. And believe me when I do, I'd be smashing my way up the badminton courts there. I dont get to play as much here in the UK. Badminton is very theory-based here, if you know hat I mean. People stick to the book's dos and donts, while in Asia, badminton is almost an art in itself, and is very personalised... the movements, the steps and the timing... beautiful matches all the time! almost like chinese martial arts...

Where do you live now Peter?

[Winex West Can]

Chandra,
I live in Vancouver, CANADA now and it has been years since I went back to Brunei (one of these days).

I used to lived in London, England and I remembered that I couldn't find any good places to play at all so I took up another popular pastime (snooker) instead.

You are right. Badminton in Asia (probably not in China as much) is considered more of an art than science. For example, people like Lim Siew King, the Sidek brothers, etc. are all artists who came up with very creative shots. In the same vein, there are also European players who are very creative and it shows in their placing (Forst for example).

[cooler]

i'm glad u have found the meaning of life