fella shuttlers, especially the ones who have a busy full time job, i have a question for you. how do you schedule your life? i always wonder how this can be done. a lot of us lives and breathe badminton, we play badminton a few times a week, we have full time job, and many of us have a family as well. how do you do it? i for example, have a very busy full time job, often 10+hrs a day, sometimes even more, on top of that, i sneak out of work early to play badminton on tuesday and thursday evenings, and then on sunday, after a sleeping in late, i go to the gym and whack the birdie for another full afternoon. this leaves me with (perhaps) a couple of week nights, and saturday to do other things. not to say the evenings that i spend watching those badminton tapes over and over again. most of the free time i have, i am either too tired from work, or too tired from playing so much badminton. so? how do you do it? i am too late (and sucks too much) to turn professional, so that's out of the question.
When i used to travel 1998-2001, I used to carry my baddy racket along! But then i seldom had teh oppurtunity to play! I could go to the Club Courts but then will en dup doing drills as nobody will be there to play! I am talking abt trips where i am out of town for atleast 2 months! When i am in town i used to play baddy from 5-6.15 in Teh morning! I will have to catch a Bus to go to a factory at abt 6.42! Mostly! when i was posted within the city i was able to sneak out at 7.30 and i will play until 10 in the night!if not i will catch up with baddy at 5 in the Morning! I guess that was indeed a tough period! but then i am at home for a long time studying! So now it is easy but then i have stopped playing to study! Irony!
So little time, so much to do! I play with my club two evenings a week, I have league matches one evening about every other week, plus I play in the mornings before work at least twice a week with my girlfriend... And well, sunday afternoons we usually gather a group of friends to play... I guess I'm lucky to have both a girlfriend and a circle of friends that also want court time! But seriously, I think playing in the mornings before work is the key. But I guess it helps if you live only a 5 minute walk from the badminton stadium...
most of the people here in my home town who works, plays at night because if you work, you're expected to be at the site from morning till evening about 7. after that, they will go to play badminton, some would go on from 8 till 11. and to them, no matter how hard the day has been at work, there is always lots energy left to play badminton. unless ofcourse they work at construction sites carrying heavy loads of stuff. u know, sometimes when I play a good game, I feel rejunivated no matter how weak I felt earlier on that day maybe u'd like to give that a try too.
It was actually quite the other way around: I took up badminton after moving here... Actually, for a sports fanatic (which I'm really not, apart from baddy) the location is great: it's bordering to a huge park/leasure-area in the core of Stockholm, and within a 5 min walk there are two large tennis halls, one large badminton hall, two soccer grounds, one hockey rink, one skating short track, long-distance skiing tracks (in winter obviously), running grounds, one swimming hall, a kayaking club, a golf driving range (indoors!), plus three excellent stables with riding facilities... I guess I should vary my athletic activities more! But seriously, if I were to move, proximity to a badminton hall would have to be considered!
I am a hi-tech casualty. So I am collecting my bi-weekly EI checks, while looking for a job. In the meantime I have been playing sometimes twice a day. Here's my typical week. Monday morning - rest from the weekend. Monday evening - mixed doubles with my wife, daughter and a friend. Fairly strenous - typically 6 games played. Tuesday morning - community center play - random games, low speed. More for social interaction. Tuesday evening - rec center play - random games, quite competitive. Wednesday morning - community center play - random games, low speed. Wednesday evening - coaching for high school kids at daughter's high school. Thursday morning - community center play, low speed. Thursday evening - rec center play - competitive -depending on who attends. Friday - hmmm - I don't play Fridays....Oh yeah - job searching... Saturday noon - training with wife and daughter Saturday evening - community center play, competitive depending on who shows up. Sunday noon - training with wife and daughter. Sunday evening - have recently found a new center to play in the early evening!! Okay so that is not the norm. While I was working, and most likely when I find work again, the morning sessions are all dropped, and typically only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings are retained. BTW, it also helps that my wife is a competitive player as well, and she plays as often as I do when she is not working her shifts.
in australia there is a suburb in sydney called Burwood. within that housing area, there is a Badminton Road. not sure if there's a court near-by though.
I guess the dream job would be a manager/owner of a badminton facility. You get paid doing what you love (badminton)! Hey BadRad, things are picking up in BC for the High Tech sector. CreoSciTex just put in a whole bunch of postings on www.bctechnology.com I'm in the same boat as you and don't know when I will be able to find work as a Proj. Mgr. but unfortunately I don't get to play badminton during the days as I have to drop my kid off at school and pick her up again (Kindergarten)
i used to do that when i was younger and energetic. i am not "old" now, but still, it gets harder. sigh.
i know exactly what you mean, i work till 6-7 on tuesdays and thursdays, and then head to the gym for two hours of badminton action! i hardly ever feel lack of energy whenever i am in the gym. the hardest part is of course, to have to sit at work and wait 9+ hours, always wondering why the clock is ticking slower that day...
yes. i so much agree with you. i think i will work hard, pile up a bunch of savings, retire early, and play badminton for the rest of my life. Peter, i thought you work as the distributor of Winex as well? how much time commitment do you put in per week?
I'll take a look into Creo. Thx. ;-) I'm a bit lucky that my kids are older so I only have to drive first thing in the morning, then pick up in the afternoon. That leaves me with noon time free to play over at Cambie center and get back in time for pick up. BTW, Peter, I noticed on the Cambie Community center flier that there is a coach named Peter. Would that happen to be you?
Kwun, Yeah, I'm the Winex distributor for Western Canada (have a partner who is helping with that) - this is a side gig (my main career is in the high tech area - over 15 years and still loving it but with the slow down, it's been pretty depressing). Right now, since I'm in between jobs, I'm focusing on the Winex stuff. BadRad, I should come up to Cambie once of these days. The Wed coaching session is run by Peter Lau (a good friend). He plays at the club that I play in (Richmond Badminton Club at Anderson school - he's the prez of the club). Peter is a certified Level II Badminton coach. Also, there is a networking group going around via www.hiretoptalent.com
I have a full-time job computer security manager job, plus other management duties in Purchasing, Budget, and Cost Allocation of tech resources. Just had my applications programming supervisory duties reassigned to some other lucky guy Also I live 40 miles away from work, way out in the country (3/4 miles off of the nearest paved road). My badminton schedule: Friday 5pm-7pm or 6pm-9pm de[ending on hours Uni rec center is open. Mostly play with people in their 20's (students). Saturday 10am-2 or 3pm; or 12pm-4pm depending on rec center. First 2 hrs play with mostly middle aged people(like me), some in 30's, few students. Rest of time, mostly students. Sunday 1pm-3 or 4pm; same groups as Saturdays. Early Sat-Sun mornings are for jobs around house (change oil in car, truck,etc). We go to church Sun 11:30-12:30 or 1:00; wear gym clothes to save time changing. When training for a tournament, wife & I get up at 4:30am on workdays, eat, drive to town (Baton Rouge,LA) for rec center opening at 6:00, do drills until 7:30, I get to work half-hour late at 8:00 (boss lets me take half-hour vacation time). Wife's court time abt like mine, except she adds Tuesday& Thursday 8:00am-12:00 1 hr drills, 3 hrs play; 1:00-3:00 run on track or use treadmill, stationary bike, work out on weight machines. (Has recently cut back to Tuesdays only since she's recovering from knee operation.) I'd like to add Tues-Wed-Thurs after work to my schedule for running & weight machines, but can't seem to fit it in right now. Hope to retire soon, have more time to plant fruit trees, play badminton, train better, do more drills. Basically, we work and play badminton, everything else get fitted in to whatever time remains. Family story: my mother & i came home one afternoon many years ago, to find the house empty, my grandfather & gradnmother were not there, a broom & dustpan lay in the middle of the living room floor. Mother called all their friends, no one had seen grandparents. She went into their bedroom, saw their fishing rods & tackle boxes were missing, came out and said "Marshall, don't worry they'll be back later on." turns out grandfather was working in his garden and dug up a huge pile of earthworms. He took them inside and showed grandmother, who was sweeping the floor. She dropped the broom, grabbed her fishing gear, he put their boat in the back of his pickup truck, and they left, not to come home until after dark, with a lot of fresh fish. IMHO, this is the correct attitude to have regarding important things like fishing or badminton.
Time management. Setting goals and ensuring you build into your hectic itinerary the time needed for each of your pursuits. Prioritisation of what is important, how much of your time you want it to take, what you want to get from it. I too have the same difficulties and have just worked out my "plan" for the year - this allows dedicated times for each pursuit I have - work, badminton, socialising, loved ones... Unfortunately I didn't sort it out in time - and something had to give.... Dasly this was badminton and "loved ones".... Sor out your plan - write it down - before you too find that something has to give and cannot be gotten back.....