Hey, I just registered to this forum. All the posts that I read were great. I was wondering who's going down to LA for this years Junior Nationals. This will be the first time that I will be going down there and I am a little nervous. I've seen lots of these people play and they are awesome. I just wanna gain some experience. If you went before, did you like the experience? -J
I attended Nationals and Junior Nationals a year ago to watch, and they were pretty fun. The events aren't as crowded as the Open, so it's pretty easy to find seating for the good matches. I initially went down to watch a few players who I noticed dominating the competition here in the San Fran Bay Area (Daniel Chen, Eva Lee, Ben Lee, Stanley Wo, Daniel Gouw, Daniel Ko) The OCBC facility is very professionally designed, optimized for badminton, and quite a site for sore eyes compared with the high school gyms I've been used to..The printing company who owns the facility set up a pretty good Thai restaurant in the corner of the facility--the food's pretty good, not too expensive, but perhaps the portions a little small not sure if you had any specific questions, but feel free to ask.
JFob, Your playing in Jr Nationals? I remember the first time i played, 1998. Yes it was pretty exciting, there are a lot of good players, but in my opinion now there arent that many. The reason being is that the tournament has been held in Orange county for like 6 years in a row. I knew a few good players from back east who decided not to come because they couldnt afford to go every year. I guess they should hold it somewhere else so people from the east don't have to travel so far. But it is good experience to play and watch top Jr players all play in one tournament, and if you can make it to the US. nationals, you can see the difference between Jr. and Adult top players. I know how you feel, i was quite nervous when i played first, but you have to remember that every player started like you, and most of all everyone is there to have a good time. Good luck.
