I really enjoy coaching, wether it is in China or North America it is always a great way to share the knowledge others have shared with me, while helping kids grow in their own way. When a kid gets something right and lights up it is one of the best feelings in the world as a coach. Being able to have some part to play in that excitement and passion is a real privilege. Coaching isn’t just work, or opportunity, it is a privilege. I get to share my own passion for the sport and for learning with kids who are also eager to move ahead and learn things.

Part of coaching is keeping my own desire and passion to learn and improve alive. For me keeping that fire alive is easiest when I surround myself with people who have the same intent and who are better than me. Sometimes that happens in training, sometimes at competitions.

As I head to these competitions this week (Jamaica, Brazil, Cuba) my intent is to want it (victory) more than anyone else. And to spend the time I have learning and improving. For myself, and for the kids I coach.

Cheers to leaving blood, sweat, and tears on the court, or wherever we are in life.

2017 Yonex National Championships. 

This year was probably one of the weakest years in terms of draw depth in Mens Singles since I first went to Sr Nationals. It was kind of depressing then for me to lose in quarter finals to an athlete younger than myself. It is humbling too. There was a day when i was that young gun winning things (never a national title) and getting attention. Those days are over. I am now an old guy who works too much, tries to go to school, and as much as he can, trains. The kids say I am old, and the veterans still view me as kid, not yet ready to win. Which is fair, I haven’t won yet. Sometimes it feels like I don’t win anything. Sometimes I wonder why I put every spare minute and every last penny into training and competing. This past year has not been the ideal training time. I worked a lot, and hardly got on court. I did my footwork in the grass, and my intervals on hills in the back country. It’s not exactly professional training. 

I don’t know what is coming next. I don’t know if I will be able to make it to the top. I am getting older by the day, and these kids are better than I am. 

But somehow, I don’t want to quit. In fact I think I am addicted to trying to improve. I think if I had all the opportunities of some of my competition I wouldn’t enjoy it so much. I enjoy fighting for ways to train, and doing things a way no one else has. As far as I know there aren’t any coaches who plan on footwork in the snow in boots and a parka. But if it hasn’t been proven to fail, perhaps it still has a chance to succeed. 

So in the end the question is, do I train to become the best? Or train harder yet because I am training against myself, to become the best me? 

And maybe that is how I will become the best. Or maybe that is how I find out I cannot become the best. But if I end up with the best me, the best badminton player, the best athlete I can become, has my training failed? Have I failed? 

As much as I can, I will walk in the footsteps of those who have gone before me. But as much as they had to carve their own way due to circumstances, so I have to forge my own path ahead using what wisdom is passed down to me. 

Sometimes what we mean to do for other people, ends up helping us most. Maybe it does not help us in the ways we want, or even in the ways we think we need most. That doesn’t mean it is not an opportunity to do what are called to do.  

I have played some tournaments in the past that didn’t seem to fit into my training regimen or to be as valuable in my atheletic pursuits as simply training. But often times these small tournaments are connecting points with the people who put time, effort, and money into me, as well as an opportunity for me to do what I believe is important such as helping amd encouraging the next generation of athletes. 

I recently played the Eastman Open, a very small tournament, and had a blast. I got to meet and talk to a lot of fantastic people, as well as play doubles with a good friend, and talk to a bunch of kids I had coached at various camps. I can’t say there was much competition , or that it was amazing preparation for National Championships, but it was a great opportunity. 

I am now at the 2017 National Championships. I just finished my practice for today and I am trying to prepare for my game tomorrow. Another step in the journey, and I guess we will find out just how far I have come. Or what needs to come next. 

Process is long way to reaching a goal you can’t reach the short way. Or at least that’s how I view. It’s doing all the things you can, and should to make sure you make it to the end of the race. 

I have had a few sports psychologists work with me in the past and all of them say the same thing – visualize. This always cracked me up, because what else would I be doing in my spare time besides replaying past rallies, visualizing perfect strokes, working through tactical errors I made? How else would I fall asleep besides walking moment by moment, stroke by stroke, through every rally, every situation, every tournament I had played, and wanted to play in the future? 

The fact is that I don’t have amazing coaching every day, I don’t have that constant reminder of what is perfect. I have to do that myself. After someone tells me what is perfect, shows me what is perfect I have to remind myself day and night. And that is a process. It’s not as fast as having someone yell at you every day at practice. I don’t always see everything right. For a long time I had a very defensive view of the game, so I watched as my defence improved, but a great coach reminded me that it’s hard to win games purely on defence. So I began to focus more on offence, but it was still wrong. I am still not all the way right, but every piece of right I get from someone I review over and over till it’s perfect in my mind. Till my arms start moving in my sleep and I lose focus at school because I can’t get the stroke out of my mind. 

But process is more than just visualization. In fact visualizing might just be a small part in the every day process of improving. 

Often the biggest hinderence to me training as much as I should is injury. I remember the first day I realized I could help myself prevent injuries and increase performance by working on mobility. I was 14 at the time, and the realization made me ecstatic. I could now visualize and work on something when I was resting. 

As I got older and busier I spent less time working on injury prevention and more time training. Got to get those gains! That backfired when I had to spend six weeks not playing because of a knee injury. Maybe the slow every day process of stretching and rolling and doing mobility exercises was worth while after all. It’s a slow process, but the process taught me to stop what I was doing to look into the future and work on making sure I could keep training. That is a lot harder than just pushing through some pain for a day, but the reward is avoiding those injuries that could keep me out of training. 

Process. It’s doing the little things every day that add up. Whether that is visualizing or stretching and warming up properly. The value is in the process, so when you get back to training, don’t forget to do the little things that will ensure you improve in the long run.