Will Singapore Be IBF Training Centre

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by Loh, Jul 12, 2005.

  1. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Will Singapore Be IBF Training Centre?

    Reported in yesterday's issue of TODAY:

    Quote

    "While in town, several IOC members, including Britain's Craig Reedie and New Zealand's Wilson Tay, with IBF president Kang Young Joong and vice-president (now Dep Pres) Punch Gunalan, caught the five-star Aviva Open Singapore 2005 badminton championship (June 27-July3) at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

    According to Singapore Badminton Association chief executive officer Ang Hin Kee, they were impressed by the turnout.

    "They'd never seen such a crowd, especially on finals day when there were about 8,000 people in attendance.

    Even the six-star Korean Open attracted only 4,000. They were pleasantly shocked. It left a positive impression on them that Singapore is serious about badminton," said Ang, who revealed talks are ongoing for Singapore to become the fourth IBF global training centre, after Saarbrucken, Gungzhou and Houston.

    Unquote

    This is great news for Singapore and I hope the SBA will succeed in convincing the IBF to locate one of the TCs here. Naturally the profile of badminton will inch a notch higher with our sports fans.

    But I thought KL has already been chosen. Maybe because KL will soon become the IBF HQ, they may decide to spread the commitments and tasks more evenly to other centres.
     
    #1 Loh, Jul 12, 2005
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2005
  2. ruth1

    ruth1 Regular Member

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    KL will most likely NOT be the location of one of the centers. On a boat ride last month with Punch Gunalan, Guenther, and Rudy Hartono, they indicated to a couple of us that they are thinking of a new location for the center because it may be too much conflict of interest having one in KL since most IBF business goes on there.

    At the moment I'm having trouble remember if it was Singapore that they mentioned as an alternative. But it sounds right...I can't be sure. The only thing I remember for sure from that evening was that Kuala Lumpur was most probably out.
     
    #2 ruth1, Jul 12, 2005
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2005
  3. ants

    ants Regular Member

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    I will ask with Dato Punch on this regarding an IBF trainning center in Spore. It will definately help Spore in terms of badminton standards and events on world map.
     
  4. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Interesting! But how come you're on that boat ride as well? Care to reveal more?

    Is it the same Gunther, the German coach now in charge of Saarbrucken TC? :)
     
  5. ruth1

    ruth1 Regular Member

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    Yeah that's the same coach. I was on the boat ride because it was the opening day of the Guangzhou center where I am training for 2 months (well only 1 month more, now). They took us on the boat ride as a special treat to see some of China and to get to talk to ex-World Class players.
     
  6. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    You never told us that you are an elite squad player! ;)

    Congratulations for being selected. Are you an ethnic Chinese? If you are, what impression does China and especially its people mean to you?

    Do tell us more about your training programme, your fellow trainees (Btw, how many of them, how many guys and gals?), who are the coaches, the facilities at the TC, the food and other aspects of your programme, including perhaps the social aspects like your boat ride and maybe some cultural events.

    I think our BFers will be very interested in your story. What do you intend to do after your training course? You may wish to skip over to nearby Hong Kong and meet up with some other BFers and have a game with them. I recommend you contact Cheung, who, together with Taneepak, I'm sure will be delighted to meet up with you! :)
     
  7. ruth1

    ruth1 Regular Member

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    Thanks Loh ;) When I found out I was selected I was extremely excited. Luckily, even despite the tough training, that excitement hasn't faded. I still see each training session as an awesome opportunity to improve my game.

    No I am not of Chinese descent. I am an American, with a Mexican heritage and background. This is my first visit ever to China and I can't even begin to briefly describe how much different it is from the states. I think the think I took mostly for granted was Western toilets. Boy are they different! The traffic is extremely different here in Guangzhou. There is really no organization on street lights or street lanes. People don't really adhere to them. Pedestrians walk anywhere they want, and each time I cross the street it's a challenge because the cars will not slow down for you. I am also amazed how the Chinese people here look at us like we're from another planet. If the same group of us were walking around in the mall in the US, no one would really pay us any attention. Here, they seemed amazed that non-Chinese people are in this city.

    The food took some getting used to. It's a bit oily over here, but it's good most of the time. I've eaten things I would never consider eating before, including, octopus and snake. Sometimes I don't ask what I'm putting in my mouth because I'd rather not know. Although, the snake was kind of tasty. The food at the training center is always healthy. So far I've lost about 4 pounds, and that's even with my big appetite.

    I also can't get over with how cheap things are here compared to the US. For me, 1 US dollar is 8.21 yuan. When I go home, I'm going to be a very difficult shopper for awhile.

    But back to the camp. There are 21 of us here. 12 guys and 9 girls. The countries include: Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Russia, Estonia, and more. It's funny hearing all of us talk in one room. Sometimes we can't understand each other, sometimes we can. The main problem is the use of different words for the same thing. For example, we had a discussion on the term for a warm, long sleeve shirt. In the US, we call them sweaters. Australia and Estonia call them "jumpers" and Sri Lanka calls them "jerseys." Both have completely different meanings for me. Also this guy from Bulgaria shakes his head to mean "yes" and nods to mean "no." I think that's the thing that threw everyone off the most. But other than that, we have a great time. It's really easy to train when everyone is such good friends. At times, we can get sick of each other an occassionally blow up, but it always turns out ok. Last night we found much entertainment in luring different people into one of the rooms and having this Jamaican guy pop out of the closet and scare them. I think we did it to 9 different players and 1 team manager. We laughed just as hard every time.

    But by far, the best part of the camp, is our ability to just play badminton. We eat, train, shower, eat, nap, train again, eat, and sleep. (oh yeah, and we have the occassional Chinese and English lesson). No responsibilities other than give 100% to our game. It makes concentrating on the sport so much easier.

    The camp ends on August 11th and on August 12th I am flying back to the US and then taking one more flight to Anaheim, California for EVERYONE knows what. This time to watch, next year to play :)

    As far as the training schedule and more stories go, I will make a new post. I think I've taken enough away from the Singapore TC.
     
    #7 ruth1, Jul 13, 2005
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2005
  8. daringkidz

    daringkidz Regular Member

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    Hope you dun mind me asking but whos the Singaporean player?
     
  9. Quasimodo

    Quasimodo Regular Member

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  10. kyiyu

    kyiyu Regular Member

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    Wish you to be near-future world class player and leading the americans into badminton arena.
     
  11. DaN_fAn

    DaN_fAn Regular Member

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    Hi ruth1
    First of all congrats for getting selected for the training centre program and i wish u all the best in the future.
    BTW I am sure u are enjoying yourself but more importantly improving your game very fast. i think from India a guy called Jishnu Sanyal was selected.How is it going with him.Did u beat him real bad or is he a better player?
     
  12. ruth1

    ruth1 Regular Member

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    Chen Guori (I think I spelled that right). Do you know him? Everyone at the camp calls him "Bubbles." And the guys call him "Bubbles Susilo."
     
  13. ruth1

    ruth1 Regular Member

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    Thanks for the kind words everybody. I will certainly do my best to improve my game and take what I've learned back to the US. And again, I can't wait to share with you all our training program. But it will have to wait for another thread and it will have to wait till this afternoon. This morning we're going on our weekly mountain run. I must say that this is the part I look forward to the least. Hopefully I'll get a good ranking though. Last time I came in 9th overall and 1st in the girls. This time though, we're using the harder route with more stairs. Last time we counted the stairs on the way down and there were 1,050. But the good thing about the 4 km stairs, is that it makes the rest of the 2 km mountain seem a lot easier.

    and DanFan, as far as Sanyal goes, he can probably beat me with his left hand :) I'm a girl, BTW. He and I have a joke going on the pay difference between men and women badminton players after watching the Singapore Open. And when the guys do more tennis racket swings in training than we do, he smugly says, "That's why guys get paid more." But seriously though, he's really good. He only comes second best to the Malaysian guy.
     
  14. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Hi Ruth

    Thanks for such an interesting episode! I'm sure the experience opens up your horizons and I hope it makes for better understanding of your fellowmen, whoever and wherever they are.

    There is a writeup in Worldbadminton.net (IBF) by Chris Yang, Guangzhou Training Centre Manager and I wonder whether you are in anyone of those pics. The images are not quite clear though.

    Enjoy yourself for you'll soon find that programme ends just too early and you'll be back to more familiar places and routines! But don't forget to tell us more when you have more time to jot down your thoughts! ;)
     
  15. ruth1

    ruth1 Regular Member

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    Loh,
    Yes I am in the first picture in the article. I'm the one in yellow (furthest from the camera, not the first yellow). In this picture we are doing squats. We do three sets of them. First we squat for 2 minutes. Then we rest for 1. Then we squat again for 3 minutes. And rest for 1.5. Then we do one last squat for 4 minutes. When doing the squats it is important to keep your back straight and to stay as low as you can. And when your legs start shaking, you know you're doing it right (seriously).

    Already I feel like the program is ending too early, which is why I'm making the most of my experience. But I have a training journal and I plan to continue this regimen at home. But the US atmosphere will never feel more comforting.

    So I just finished the mountain run. It took me 20-21 minutes to reach the top. I came in 10 out of 21 and 1st in the girls. At the end this little Chinese boy raced me to the top. His energy couldn't have come at a better time. I think a couple of butterflies were flying faster than I was running. :)

    Ok, so let me organize my journal and pick the programs that I will tell you about. We have the rest of the afternoon off so after I finish laundry I will make a new post.
     
  16. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    ruth1, i look forward to reading more on your experience there... thanks for sharing with us.
     
  17. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Ruth

    Can't really figure you out in the pic and there is no way I could increase its size. Could you therefore add one or more better/clearer pics in your main post?

    Btw, how come you could spend 2 months away from home? Have you just finished college, or its vacation time in the US, or are you already working?

    Incidentally, the Singapore boy's name Chen Gouri or Bubbles is not familiar to me. How old is he? 16?

    And what is Mr Gunther Huber doing there? Is he coaching or just supervising. Or has he already left for his own TC in Germany? A few of us have a chance to interact with him when he conducted a Level 3 coaching course in Singapore more than a year ago. Please send my regards to him if he is still around. :)
     
  18. ruth1

    ruth1 Regular Member

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    Ha! It's vacation time in the US. I just finished my bachelor's degree. This fall I go to get my masters. At first I thought I was going to come for the fall session though and I was trying to think of some way to sweet talk my way into studying the same stuff online. But luckily I didn't have to do that.

    And Bubbles is about 15 years old. He's the youngest person in the camp.

    Gunther left our camp during the second week. He was acting as both a coach and a motivator, mainly a motivator. But during the oncourt drills he would come and correct our grips or footwork or stroke. I will see him at Worlds though so I will tell him you said hello.
     
  19. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    Actually I'm surprised to learn that Guanzhou hasn't changed much from your description. Yes, when we visited about 25 years ago, even ethnic Chinese like us suffered a cultural shock! The public toilets were most unbearable and don't ever dream of a toilet with a seat at that time. One should be content with the normal 'squat' type toilet, usually without privacy, and if you are a heavy person or weak at the knees, you'll have great difficulty getting up! And just like you all, we were also stared at with much curiosity from the locals. I thought all these have changed or this is more prevalent only in the countryside.

    Anyway, I think I'll have a chance to revisit China in Beijing come September. The hotels will certainly be modern with Western type facilities. But I'm not sure about the pollution in the air.
     
  20. daringkidz

    daringkidz Regular Member

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    Haha..Bubbles is a cute name...
     

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