Badminton is super fun and it’s my favorite thing to do, but in my quest to become a gaoshou (expert) there are things I’ve had to sacrifice. Here’s a vlog about the biggest sacrifice of all.
An American Girl Learning Badminton in China
An American Girl Learning Badminton in China
Badminton is super fun and it’s my favorite thing to do, but in my quest to become a gaoshou (expert) there are things I’ve had to sacrifice. Here’s a vlog about the biggest sacrifice of all.
Just enjoy your badminton as you do 🙂 No need to examine too closely, it’s fun and you obviously feel rewarded by playing and have a purpose to improve 🙂 Just enjoy the journey !!
Enjoy seeing those small parts of you and your friends playing, as I coach I love watching others play, on the negative side I can’t help seeing areas where players can improve, couldn’t help but notice how much you were on your heels during rallies.
What level of play would you say you and your friends are ? How do they categorize levels in China ?
Here it’s beginner, intermediate, club/league, County/state then national/international.
Ha, you noticed one of my bad habits. My coach made me walk on my toes everyday for a week (not just in badminton, but outside in my daily life as well). While I didn’t walk around campus like that I DID try to stand on my toes while I was teaching class as much as I could. (There is a podium so they can’t see my feet.) But yeah, hard habit for me to change because my natural gait is more “clomping elephant” than “floating gazelle.”
We don’t have official levels like other countries. Because if you are good enough for the national team you are picked up pretty young, about age 14, and live, train and go to class with other potential top players. If you aren’t good enough to be a top player on the nat’l team you “retire” at around 22 and sometimes go to the provincial teams. So county/state and national/international are decided at a young age and if you are not picked young, there is no way to enter the system later in life. So in the amateur world people just kinda know your level and who the top players in the city are.
My foreign friends just play for fun (beginner and some lower-intermediate level players), but I guess my Chinese club would be club/league level? Most of my club players win 1st-4th in competitions although we have never played as a club and won. They enter competitions as individuals, or with their school teams as most of my club members are in college or recent graduates. I don’t know how other countries classify the level so I am not sure about the comparison. I haven’t really shown much playing with my club in the videos yet though, most have been with other friends or groups.