i took some pictures of the United Badminton Club today. it is in a really nice location. behind a Costco and a Lowes. though there are some trees in between them. the gym was closed with a sign in front saying that the gym isn't open today. but i did see a couple of cars right in front. probably the owners working hard on it, or they are just enjoying badminton... enjoy.
lilkar, I do not know if the floors are what is holding them up...let me clarify I was simply saying that I have seen other clubs cut corners and rush on floors. Hopefully that isnt the case with U.B.C. but i get my "insider " info from the first post on this thread. Hopefully we will all be saying goodbye to bad knee injuries as posted on the list.
That Place Is Huge WOW that place looks !!!!HUGE !!!! i wish they would update the site more often as well......must be busy with all the run-around? well the outside looks great. i will definatley have to play and check it out, But Jim- does that mean u wont be around Bret Harte as much?
KaaKaaKaaa~~ I just look at the website and I cant believe my old classmate and teammate in high school become a coach there Its a nice gym but too bad I dont live in the bay area anymore or else I will sure go and play PS.: Bao - if you read this, this is DOUGLAS from High School
ah.. cool, so they have the coaching staff: HEAD COACH: KEVIN ZENG COACH: BAO NGUYEN PROGRAM DIRECTOR: ABI BAUTISTA
So .... when? So any idea when the gym will be ready? Man, takes forever from the outsider point of view : Han
Grand Opening: April 23rd 2005 9:00am - 11:00pm let's cross our fingers! http://www.unitedbadminton.com/
I am not sure why these guys keep picking dates, when there is another tournament going on in the area. Isnt this the same weekend as the bayarea open ?
You are correct about the upcoming tournament this weekend. I'm guessing that they figured that in order to keep the crowd level down, they would need to set these dates on tournament dates.
United Badminton Grand Opening April 23rd, 2005. this week seems to be quite packed with new gyms action. i dropped by United Badminton Club during lunch time today and got a preview of the gym a day before the grand opening. the club is located between a Costco warehouse and the Fremont auto mall. a location that is right opposite a future shopping mall. frequent traffic will attract a lot of curious visitors into the club. the first thing i noticed when walking into the gym was the color theme designed by the owner of the gym. most badminton gyms are quite bland when it comes to color, usually they have a monotone color theme. UBC is different, you walk in there, you will see a blend of multiple modern colors, green, orange, brown, purple, gray, black, it makes the gym very eye-catching and very professional looking. there are 9 badminton courts in the building, all equipped with green Victor court mats lined with padding underneath. the ceiling is approximately 26-30ft high and is painted matt black. walls are a blend of two different colors (if i remember correctly, it was brown and gray) which when combined with black ceiling makes it very easy to see the birdie. there are large lights at various spots hung from the ceiling and diffusing panels are hung beneath to prevent any direct glare. there is a pro-shop/reception at the entrance. a bathroom, changing room and a workout area sits opposite the pro-shop and a sitting area is situated right next to the bathroom complex. there is projector hung above the sitting area, according to the owners, they will be showing badminton matches or movies onto a 150" screen to keep waiting patrons entertained. the most innovative part about the gym is their queue system. they designed and implemented a computer queuing system. each player is registered into the system upon entry and the computer manages the play queues and playing time for each court. this is the first computerized queuing system i have seen. it looks impressive and it will be very effective in making sure that everyone follows the gym rules. the attention to detail is very fine indeed, like they are putting up curtains between courts to reduce light glare, paddings on columns to prevent injury. a multi-gym & weight area for building those badminton muscles, and a water fountain for players to re-hydrate between games. you can see that a lot of thoughts are put into the design of the gym. i didn't get to play there as it was lunch time and time was limited. i did see that the professional flooring is textured and will no doubt provide a grippy surface. i jumped and pressed on the floor and it has a soft feel to it so it should be good for the knees. i am sure the owners themselves have many hours of real-life testing in there already. construction is still on-going but they are down to the final touches. it will be a busy day for the owner as this weekend (April 23rd) will be the grand opening. they are open to the public during grand opening. i am unsure what the drop-in price is though. i look forward to playing in the gym in the future and i will give a more hands-on review of how it feels to play there.
Very impressive Did have chance to test play Friday night and was impress with this facility. The pizza and coke were good too except sushi, found none The floor is firm but not hard so after playing few games still managed to walk around without difficulty(at my age that's a big plus). It still takes a while to get use to this new gym especially when facing the busy side of the court, not easy to spot the shuttle. No badminton video was playing tonight but I am sure when it starts then my video business will be history :crying: I give grade "A" to this facility for the design and willingness of staffs listening to feedback and suggestion. Han
I just played at UBC for about 4-5 horus straight. It was really nice. The floor is nice and grippy, something im not use to. Wooden floors seem have a lot less friction on them and you tend to slide a bit, so i wasn't use to that at all. Took a little getting use to. And as Han said, when you were looking into the center of the gym, it was much harder to spot the bird. The lights were also blinding at first, but for the last two hours they lights didn't bother me one bit. The staff was really warm to feed back, which is always nice. The only thing that was different was because the floor absorbed a lot of shock. There was no bounce back from it though, or very little. So that was awkward too. But once you get into your games, you don't really think about it all that much. All i know is that my knees are feeling pretty good right now..
Dang...I just checked their site. So expensive! $10 for peak-time drop-in (Regular days)...I don't see how that is a low-drop in fee as promised by the first post in this thread. I haven't been to the gym yet, but now that I've seen the price on this thing, I am kinda discouraged to play there even if the gym is awesome...and probably others too. I mean, at this rate, it's ~$480 for a yearly membership, which is like even more expensive than City Beach. I'll give more feedback after I visit the gym today though.
u guys r so lucky, drop only 10 bucks for peak time. http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=19506&page=2&pp=10&highlight=annual+due any pics of the facility?
$10 is the most expensive drop-in rate that I know of in Fremont so far...Irvington Community Center is $3/drop in for 3 hours. City Beach is $7 drop in for about 4-5 hours. I mean...unless we stay there the WHOLE day (Which is impractical, given that our bodies can't really last the whole day...and also the fact that we are not allowed to bring food from outside, and can only buy food from their place - adding more to the cost.), $10 for a drop-in is really expensive and not completely worthwhile. A half-dozen of Yonex Mavis 500 shuttles are only about $10. For pictures on the facility, visit www.unitedbadminton.com they have some 3D rendered pictures there still.
Very nice I played there today for about 3 hours. UBC did a very good job. It's a very nice gym especially the floor. They will be putting up more blinds for the windows high above the courts. Currently too much light coming through especially when it's sunny. The people there are very nice and friendly. Their computer queuing system worked well. It keeps track of points. You get 1 point for playing and an additional point if you win a game. Those points I think can be use to redeem for merchandise or discount or something to that nature. The winner stay on the court for up to 3 games. Court 1 and 2 are for single. I signed up for a membership today. They have special grand opening discount and if you sign up with a friend both of you save $15.00 for initiation and $4.00 for monthly fee. So the total cost for the first time is $70.00 and then $45.00 thereafter. I have been playing at Bintang for about a year now. I like to play there but it's a long drive for me so personally $45.00 is worth it. That's my 2 cents. Anyone want to play some singles tomorrow morning? Han?
i agree here. i stopped by earlier today and it has a very 'elitist' feel to it. i supposed it's mission is to be a badminton club in the same vein as an upscale sports club, ie. 'club one' or 'l.a. sports club.' for the general public the $10 drop-in fee, combined with not being able to bring in your own food/drink/water & no re-entry is harsh. this will slow the process in promoting the sport amongst the younger crowd, and there is certainly a huge pool of younger players in the area. $5 drop in and not being able to bring in your own food is fair, or, $10 drop in and being able to bring in your own food is also fair i can see it now... since members may re-enter at will, they'll be standing outside or sitting in their cars to eat while waiting for their next court. one question not addressed on the website is... how long do you get the court for before you re-enter the queue? 20 minutes? 30 minutes? 1 game? 2 games? members can reserve courts, so in a busy scenario, $10 drop in players may have to wait a considerable amount of time between court time slots. there are also activities for members: league play mixer play [tue 6:30-9:00pm] ladder play [sat 10am-1pm] social tourney's ubc sounds like a decent club to 'belong' to, but it may not be a good place to 'drop in'. the choice is mine to make...