Month: July 2016

Yonex US Open

There are a lot of people who helped support me on my way to the Yonex US Open Grand Prix Gold. I want to thank all of them, and give a quick update for those interested. 

The Yonex US Open ended with losses in the first round of singles, and round of 16 in doubles. The major difference between the US Open and the Canada Open? After my losses I had some very valuable input from people I respect, most notably Toby Ng. Such input in invaluable as someone with experience from the outside looking in can see things that might seem obvious but are often missed by the people stuck in the situation. 

For those of you who didn’t keep up to date- in doubles Kyle Golding and I played against a pair from Napel in the first round and won, then got beaten very badly by the number 3 seeded pair from Poland. In singles I lost to India. 

I have learned a lot, and even came home with (a very little) prize money.


With that update I say farewell. I have some hill sprints to attend to before the day gets old. Thanks to everyone who is cheering me on and helping me on my way! 

Cheers

Kevin Barkman

Canada Open

Canada Open

The Yonex Canada Open, MS loss in first round against Howard shu, MD loss in the Quarter Final against Toby Ng and Adrian Liu. 

Tournaments are a learning experience. They say fire refines, and it exposes weaknesses. I love competing. I love the tension in the air, and the crowd cheering. I love the challenge and putting my will against someone else’s. But when it’s all said and done and you walk away, winner or loser you have to take something away from the experience. The pressure hopefully revealed something. All the training and time and effort gets tested during tournaments, and while somethings prove their worth there are always weaknesses that get exposed. Places where technically you made a mistake, or tactically were not prepared. Maybe conditioning was an issue. 

In singles a lot of things became quite clear, through practice and competition. I haven’t had much sparing lately. My preparation consisted of lots of time in the gym and two and three against one practice on court along with the drills. I had very little to no game practice, or sparing. This showed through hesitant tactical decions and sometimes poor positioning. 

Weaknesses, mistakes, losses – they are all part of the road forward and reaching the next step always means growing through adversity and even mistakes. What comes next? How do I go about fixing or adapting to the things I have learned? How will I find more sparing and games? Get more competition? I don’t know yet, but those questions will be answered, one step at a time. 

I appreciate the help and support of those people helping me on this journey. I hope I can keep learning and growing, improving, getting stronger. Thanks all.