My experience in LIBA Workshops

It was Fantastic!!

It was very good 4 days of coaching. I originally booked for three days but I extended it another day. It was hard training, good fun, great motivation and most important of all I had a great time.

Lee covered basic grips, posture, footwork, singles tactics, doubles tactics, deceptions, drops, clears, smash, net play, attack, defence etc. He covered so many aspects of the game and he also let us practise everything he thought.

The guy (lee) is really great and so nice to get along. He nicely mixed severe physical training and fun so you really don’t get bored. It’s like mixing a bitter medicine with honey. You will taste the bitter but at the same time you will also taste the sweetness of the honey. I had the chance to taste both but I only remember tasting honey now. It was that good

The special coach for the workshop was Miss Lee Young Suk. She is brilliant. She keeps a smiling face and encourages us to work hard. After theory session everyone has practise session with her and during the practise sessions she watches you like a hawk and immediately stops you and points out the mistake you make. Lee concentrates on getting things right and she concentrates on pushing us to our limits or even further and at the same time checks whether we get things right. After every practise session she compliments us “Well done†with a great smile and cheerful clap. You just feel like you want to practise more. It is so encouraging.

Physical fitness is something I really lack and having Asthma doesn't help either. Everybody in the camp saw me puffing and breathing heavily and I was the last person in jogging and running sessions. It was very embarrassing for me but I still kept going because I know where my weakness is and I was there to learn and improve.

We had mini tournaments on Monday and Tuesday. I and my partner (Richard) won the doubles tournament won a T-Shirt on Monday and Jonno and Richard won the tournament on Tuesday and won a T-Shirt.

Jonno is also badmintonforum.com member and he is very good. His footwork was very smooth and very good defence. His high serves were perfect. The shuttle does a perfect vertical fall on his high serve. It was a pleasure to meet members of badmintonforum.com

I also met Tomsk and Batgirl. Unfortunately Tomsk had a cramp and had to sit out but his footwork and lounge to the net was amazing. I wish I had that much forecourt lounge.

Batgirl along with Young Suk beat me and my partner (Richard) in a mini doubles tournament on Sunday. During one of the rallies I thought I hit a powerful smash but batgirl cleanly blocked the shuttle over the net and I just stood there and watched the shuttle and couldn’t do anything. It was good game and great fun.

I’m really glad I met skates here in badmintonforum.com. What a great guy. When we were injured he checked on us to see whether we were ok and provided us with some muscle pain relief oils. Thanks for your effort, help and encouragement Steve (Skates).

I would strongly recommend LIBA workshops. I'm so lazy and use to give up so easily but on the day with the encouragement from lee, steve (skates) and young suk I managed to hold on and completed four days. I arrived home last night at 2 A.M and when I woke up this morning I had pain in my legs, calf muscle, thigh, shoulders, biceps and pain, pain, pain everywhere and when I stood up I yelled in pain “oh Jesus†but after few minutes I was thinking "what physically exercise shall I do today?" I totally forgot about the pain and I'm so used to it. I think after four days of such intensive training you simply get use to it.

All in all it was fantastic. I rediscovered myself and feel really good.

 

I don't remember exact numbers but I can tell appx numbers. On Saturday a total of 12 (4 BF'ers - Myself, Skates, Tomsk, Batgirl and Two Non-Members who occassionally visit BF). On Sunday a total of 15 (3 BF'ers Myself, Skates and Batgirl). On Monday a total of 9 (3 BF'ers Myself, Skates and Jonno) and on Tuesday a total of 6 (3 BF'ers Myself, Skates and Jonno).

Few other BF'ers couldn't make it. I was expecting Matt Ross on Sunday but he didn't make it. don't know why!

I enjoyed it most on monday and tuesday because of low turnout and we had plenty of time with lee learning new techniques and correcting our stroke play.

 

I learned lots of new things which I wasn't aware before I attended the training. Most important one was: Deception. He teached different deception techniques like deception on the net, over head deception, routine deception. Routine deception is a technique where you play a rally with you opponent and you play clear shot to his deep forehand then dropshop to forehand and continue this for 4 or 5 rallies and then suddenly change and play a clear to his backhand. Durning those rallies your opponent will be so used to moving to the forehand net and rear and sudden change of direction would caught him offguard. That is routine deception. He also thought us posture and getting into position for overhead backhand clear, footwork and even grip. I thought my grip was perfect because I was so comfortable with my shots but when he said my grip was wrong I didn't believe it. I thought that can't be right but when he changed my grip and asked me to try my clear and smashes I felt the difference immediately. I was trying to adopt my new grip but couldn't and I think I need to practise more on my grip.

 

Yes it was a very long journey skates. I got my last train on time but It was delayed in the middle for well over 40 mins otherwise I would have been home by 1.00 Am.

Fitness is something I really need to work more. Last night I was watching lee's video and in the video Simon Archer's comments were "When you get onto the court with lee you should know it is going to be very hard physical training".

I will surely attend the High Wycombe weekend as the following monday is a bank holiday. I'm not sure whether I will attend cambridge one or scotland one. Still thinking about it.

Could you also post some photos on badmintonforum.com? Could you also post pictures of young sook lee?

Guys Young sook lee is one of the best players this sport has produced. During the late 80's and early 90's she was one of the top WS player. I’ve asked her to visit Badmintonforum.com and give us advice on techniques, tips and tricks. Hope she gets time to hang around here.

 

Plus there was a review about the workshop in the local newspaper. Please see the attached image below. Maybe next time I will take my digi cam and capture all actions as small .wmv file and post it in badmintonforum.com website.