2023 Forza Norwegian International

Norway was an exciting tournament. I had had some good time to train, was feeling fitter and faster than I have. I arrived in Norway the afternoon before I played and took a train to the city of the event where I went directly to the hall. Unfortunately they booked 8 people per court in half hour blocks. This meant I got very little time on the main courts. 

Tournament day arrived and I got ready to play. Didn’t feel top notch but felt focused and relaxed. I got on court against the 9/16 seed from Denmark, Mads Juel Møller, feeling confident I could play well. The first set went by with a poor scoreline. I wasn’t aggressive enough – the rallies were ok, but I never put enough pressure into the match. Karl Kurt, a player from Estonia came on court at the change of ends and challenged me to be more aggressive and move up in the court a lot more due to the very fast and oddly tumbling Forza shuttles. The second set was much better. I was able to control the match a lot more, and the game was tied up at 17-17. I missed a crucial net kill and lost a lot of confidence mentally and lost the next point as well. The match ended 21-18. Overall felt I played a good match, especially the second set. Mads is a strong player and able to control the court well. I was happy to play aggressively and move well. However I felt I needed a bit more edge at the end of the match – I didn’t stick to the game plan and ended up defending too much in the last 4 points. 

A lot of small things to work on, but also a lot of improvements. This is the slow, sometimes bitter journey of improvement. 

You can watch the match below. If you like my videos don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube!

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Croatia Future Series

Croatia was the start of a run of tournaments where I have tried to change my travel and preparedness to cut down on costs and maximize training time and work abilities. I traveled the day before my match and left the day after, taking only a small carryon and chasing to do a lot of walking to and from the venue. 

I didn’t get a chance to try the main hall, though I walked to the venue three times trying to find a time to get on the courts. I learned I am not as quick adapting to venues as I perhaps should be. I played a terrible first set, feeling very uncomfortable with the lighting and shuttle speed. I played very passive and careful. In the second set I was able to take more control, and played more of the game I should have, however I had the momentum against me and wasn’t able to close out the set. A lot learned, and a valuable experience had. 

Thank you all for your support.

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Bronze in Mexico

Bronze in Mexico

Mexico Future Series in Guadalajara in august didn’t go exactly as planned. I played quite terrible all week, struggling with exhaustion, stress, and some personal things. However in the doubles Victor and I were able to make our way into the semi finals. We didn’t’t play our best matches, but we managed to pull together some wins to get the bronze. 

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Thanks for all your support!

Bronze In Guatemala

Bronze In Guatemala

I started coaching Victor years ago in a little school gym in St Pierre. He could barely play, and a lot of the time I was in a boot cast healing from fractured ankle and then other leg issues. He is now graduated from high school and in University, and competing regularly at a national level. He was part of Team Manitoba that went to the recent Canada Games.


A few weeks ago after I played the Denmark Masters I met Victor in Peru for his first ever international tournament where we played doubles and reached the quarter finals and lost in a very close match. I got food poisoning in Peru which despite my best efforts still affected my performance.

From Peru we travelled to Guatemala. I made it to the quarter finals where I lost to the eventual finalist. In doubles we had some good wins to reach the semi finals where we lost a very close 3 game match to claim a bronze medal.

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Thanks everyone for all your support and help!

Austria and Germany Internationals

Photo by Norbert Karrer
Photo by Norbert Karrer

Austria Open in Graz was a wonderful experience. The city itself is beautiful, and the hall is great. I went straight from the airport to the hall and got 2 separate 1 hour practices in the day before my match. The shuttles we got at the venue were not the babolot shuttles we ended up playing with. They were a mix of Victor and Yonex.  The morning of my match I woke up feeling super sluggish, drank my coffee and did my routine, and knowing I was feeling sluggish I went the venue early and did a much longer than normal warm up. However first hit on the court I could tell the shuttles were insanely fast Babolot shuttles that flipped weird. I didn’t control the shuttle well and soon found myself trailing by quite a lot. I quickly let my frustration get the better of me and the match slipped away.  I spent a few hours afterwards very upset, frustrated, and disappointed in myself.  Right after the match another athlete came and talked to me, and said that he felt I needed to focus on being positive and looking at the things I did well instead of the things that were not going well. I had some good reminders from my coach as well not to waste energy on the negative and to instead focus on solutions, which thankfully I found, at least in part, in the next match in Bonn Germany. 

In Bonn the venue was quite small, and we used Yonex shuttles, something I am much more used to. Though my first  opponent had had some very good recent results, I was focused on playing well, and staying focused, and keeping the negative self talk at bay. I won my first match quite well, though I squandered a huge lead in the second set, and ended up winning quite close in two sets, I felt I played the way I needed to. Second match I played decently well, and had a close back and forth match where I made a few unfortunate errors that cost me the match in the end. 

Sports is hard, and development is hard. Not every day is a good day, and sometimes, even when we have good days we cannot quite manage the win. But we keep striving forward! I have Danmark Masters this week, and hope to bring my best game- but one day at time. First some coaching and training today! 

Thanks everyone 

Kevin 

If you want to support me financially you can donate through my GoFundMe or my BuyMeaCoffee

Luxembourg International

Luxembourg International

The Luxembourg International has to be one of the most challenging events I have faced recently due to a large number of factors. I flew in from Jamaica, boarded three different flights that I then had to get off of due to mechanical or crew issues, was delayed by more than a day, and missed my scheduled practice. I got less than half an hour on the main courts before my match. Despite my best efforts to plan for a day and a half to practice and recover from travel, and trying to set myself up to play well things didn’t go as planned. I did my best to shake the travel out of my legs, and compete, but I have never gotten on court feeling so sluggish and exhausted. I had 50 hours of travel, and no sleep weighing my legs down and it showed. I had a very winnable match against Spain in singles, but couldn’t pull it off. Lots to learn, and nothing to it but pushing forward for the next one!

If you would like to support me you can send me an email or donate through my GoFundMe

2022 Guatemala International

Guatemala – Quarter Finals!

There has been a lot going on, and I have been working hard to improve different aspects of my game, especially the mental side of the game. Playing in Europe for the past couple months really opened my eyes to different to parts of my game. I was really happy to go to Guatemala and win my first two matches  taking me into the quarter finals. A lot of small pieces started falling into place. I made different errors in my quarter final, which just means more work to be done. 

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Thank you to everyone for the support! 

2022 BWF Mexico International Challenge

After a long run in Europe I was barely home a week before heading to Aguascalientes for the Mexico Challenge. I won my first singles against Mexico and then lost a tough game against Japan.  In doubles we won a tough game but lost in three sets to Guatemala in a match that was very disappointing to lose. We had a good chance but couldn’t manage it in the end. 

Thankful to be competing again. My time in Denmark training and competing turned out to be very profitable as I slowly match by match fix things that were identified while I was there. 

Photo credit Swann Lennik

Video: https://youtu.be/vdZWvPkdiNY

I can’t do this alone. Thanks to my sponsors Yonex Canada, Sweaty Training and Conditioning, Dynamic Athletic Therapy and Chiropractic, Supplement King Steinbach, and many individuals. If you want to help me out send me a message or check out my gofundme

2021 Yonex Dutch Open

The airport in Amsterdam was exactly what I expected, – classic colors, odd white toilets, and lots of lights. The customs officers didn’t even glance my way as I walked through, and immigration officer simply smiled at me and stamped my passport with a  “enjoy your stay in Netherlands,” Her smile matched her accent – long and carefully pronounced. 

The lady who helped with my train ticket walked me through the changes and how the train worked. And while the different sized euro bills make a mash of your wallet most things worked smoothly. 

The things I didn’t expect were the lush jungle like farmland filled with little sheep, the way people wear winter parkas on summer like days through the sunshine, or how no one is ever remotely on time. The last one surprised me the most. 

The little tiny roads, and electric super slim semi trucks fit right in with the little electric cars and tiny fences and quaint little houses. The tall talkative people that can swap between more languages than I can count in brought up self made memories of every spy book I have read. 

I didn’t spend much time in Amsterdam as the tournament was in Almere. Almere, an Uber driver told me, is only 40 years old. The whole city, from the land it was built on is new. “Here in Holland we even build our own land,” he told me. 

The Venue for the BWF Yonex Dutch Open was beautiful. 4 courts in a wonderful stadium. The shuttles were a little slow, but nothing aggressive. White seating meant it was hard to see when there weren’t many fans. 

In the same building but across the hallway was another gym with 16 practice courts. An amazing set-up which allowed us to practice twice a day on the lead up to the tournament as well as every morning before matches began. 

I played against a player from India with the trickiest hands I have faced. A few things became really clear watching the video of myself losing – I need more speed, and more attack. While I rallied well with, and the game had its ups and downs, and there were definitely some tactical errors on my part, the biggest thing that stuck out to me was that when I built myself the chance in the rally I wasn’t speeding up enough to take advantage of it. There were other technical and tactical things of course, which will be added to my training. But thats a whole other story! 

In doubles we won our first match against a Netherland and Irish pair, and then lost out to a faster paced Malaysian pair. 

The Dutch Open moved my ranking up to 267 in the world. 

I am currently in Czech Republic for the BWF Li-Ning Czech International Series. I play my first doubles at 9am  local time on Thursday, and then my singles at 1:40pm. 

Thank you everyone for your support! 

If you would like to help me on my journey financially you can contact me about sponsorship opportunities or donate through this LINK.