2nd Day of Nationals

Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals were played yesterday... I can't describe how disappointed I feel from losing my doubles in the quarters, and then losing my mixed in the semis... But with this disappointment comes inspiration and motivation.. I swear, next year's results will change dramatically. I'm sick of losing and I'm craving to win.

Besides my games, the other matches were great to watch. Martin Guiffre upsetted Joseph Rogers in the quarter-finals. Martin came onto the court 2 minutes before he was defaulted... luckily I found him in the Junior boy's locker room!

Michelle Li had a late arrival only to step into the club when her match was called. It was like she has slept in or something... Her badminton was definitely affected and was down 3rd set 17-13. She ended pulling through with many clutch, down the line smashes winning 21-19.

Another huge upset in the quarter-finals was Francois Bourret and Florence Lavoie defeating #1 seed Toby Ng and Grace Gao. I did not see this match because I was playing my quarter-final at the same time.

Semi-Final commenced and I became the first upset of the semis... I lost 3 games to Jon Vandervet and Milaine Cloutier, 22-20, 18-21, 21-17. I played like crap. PERIOD. I was not moving like how I normally move and just couldnt find the timing to hit the bird.

Alex Pang vs David Snider. This match was absolutely amazing. Super fast pace and intense rallies throughout the game. Alex Pang upsetted the #1 seed David Snider 21-19, 21-17! Alex was moving much quicker than David, and with the bigger range of shot variety, Alex was sure to succeed. Congratulations Alex!

Martin Guiffre vs Stephan Wojcikiewicz. With a steady play like Martin, he came back twice to win 2 games against the second seed Wojcikiewics. Well done by the first year U23 player.

After that, all other seeds advanced.

Finals:

Jon Vandervet/Milaine Cloutier vs Alvin Lau/Fiona McKee

My prediction: Jon/Milaine in 3

Alex Pang vs Martin Guiffre

My prediction: Pang in 2. Martin's attack is no match for Pang's defense and Pang's attack is too much for Martin's defense.

Anna Rice vs Michelle Li

My prediction: Anna Rice in 3. Michelle seems to be having a bad tournament. She isn't playing that well this week.

Women's Doubles: Lydia Jiao/Melody Liang vs Alex Bruce/Michelle Li

My prediction: Lydia Jiao/Melody in 2. Have you seen Lydia play?? Holy crap.. DOMINATION

Men's Doubles: Adrian Liu/Toby Ng vs Jon Vandervet/Alvin Lau

My prediction: Adrian Liu/Toby Ng in 2. If they play as well as they did yesterday.. no competition. Alvin and Jon are too unstable when put into a stressful situation.

Good luck to all competing.

First day of 2010 Nationals

I started nice and early playing my first round singles against Hugo Le Dorze (MB). Being the first match of the tournament and of the day, I felt rather sluggish and slow to succumb to the slippery floors. Having to train on a matted court all the time, it's quite a challenge when I suddenly start playing on a wood court with a nice layer of dust. But the end result of my first round was in my favor, 21-12, 21-11. My next round was against another Manitoban! I defeated Andrew Harrison 21-12, 21-15, advancing myself to the round of 16s. Here I stood up against Philipe Gaumond (QC)! He has always been a good singles player and has had a pretty decent track record. Playing 3 events this tournament in a span of 3 days, I did not feel motivated enough to fight hard and win. But who am I kidding... Being a doubles player with okay fitness, even if I won... it's just going to hinder my performance the next day.. especially if I had to play David Snider (MB), #1 seed, the next day. So in the end, I lost 12-21, 21-16, 9-21. I'm happy I played and I'm happy I'm not dead from playing singles.

3 singles matches already, 1 being 3 sets.. so that would equal 7 sets of badminton. But wait, it's only 2pm.. and IM NOT DONE YET! I still have 2 more doubles and a mixed left to go. This is going to be by far the longest tournament day of my life..

First round doubles was against Hugo Le Dorze (again) and Dominic Guzman (MB). I believe they are both U16. It was definitely a good match to have being my partner has been lounging around the venue and hasn't touched the bird yet. Final score: 21-5, 21-8.

Second round doubles... It's definitely me vs Manitoba this tournament.... I played Thoby Cameron and Nich Rush. The first game went by relatively well but the end of the 2nd game, they were really picking up the pace and really caught both Kyle and I off guard. It end pretty tight in the 2nd game. 21-11, 21-17.

5 games down, 1 more to go! Mixed doubles.. Before I start with my game, let me clear up some changes that occurred in the draw right above me. At first I was suppose to play Sam Parrish and Kristin Szuminsky at 630pm. Now apparently Badminton Canada has forgotten to add another mixed pair, Ardy Wiranata and Christina Guiffre (AB), into the draw and Badminton Canada just so happened to put them in last minute above me to play Sam and Kristin (MB) and then Melody and I will play the winner. SO.. Sam Parrish, unfortunately his ankle was hurting.. he was last second substituted by Nich Rush, so Nich Rush and Kristin played Ardy and Christina. They played their match at 630pm and I was pushed back to the last match of the day to play at 730pm... GREEAAATTTT...........

Ardy Wiranata, for those who do not know him... he is former #1 world singles champion and even former world jr champ for mixed doubles! He's indonesian and is super tricky. He beat me last year, first round doubles with Darren Hong (AB) at the 2009 National Champs. I already beat Darren after at the U23 Nationals but I still havent gotten my revenge on Ardy!! This time, I'm ready!!

We started our match and Melody and I came out playing strong. Christina was the weakest on the court so most of the shuttles did zoom by her way. First game Melody and I played a lot to Christina and won hands down. Second game, I played a bit more to Ardy and eventually came through winning the match in 2 games! I admire Ardy's efforts in diving for the bird multiple times and bouncing back up with a smile! The day has ended, 21-11, 21-11.

Now for the tournament. Steve Smith (AB), the fan favourite, pulled out some serious singles defeating Tommy McKee 16-21, 21-10, 21-18! He then impressed us all some more by taking down Richard Liang 23-21, 22-20. Unfortunately his reign of terror was stopped cold by up and coming Martin Guiffre, 21-8, 21-14.

Tim Ma (BC) was taken down by Mark Docksteader (AB), 18-21, 22-20, 21-12 but Mark didn't seem to have enough gas after losing to Joseph Rogers (ON), the 3/4 seed.

Tommy McKee and Kevin Lee (ON), the 3/4 seed, was upsetted first round by Phillipe Charron and Pieric Langlais Gagne (QC). Final score was 26-24, 21-14.

For the mixed doubles, competition was very fierce today! Martin Guiffre and Kathleen Lougheed of Alberta lost to Francois Bourret and Florence Lavoie (QC) in three, 21-13, 20-22, 21-13.

Alvin Lau and Fiona McKee (BC/AB), the 3/4 seed, had an exciting game against Nyl Yakura and Christin Tsai (ON/BC). Alvin and Fiona were down late in the 2nd game but ended up victorious. Watch out for Alvin's flick serve!! Final score, 21-7, 21-18.

On the court next to theirs was Adrian Liu and Michelle Li (BC/ON) against Darren Hong and Stephanie Ko (AB/BC). Adrian and Michelle were the pair favored to win but came out short 21-18, 21-19! It was a true nail biter! Darren had an amazing lucky shot from the back which hit the tape and bounced over to put them at match point, 20-18!

Good quarter-final games to watch tomorrow:

Men's Singles - Martin Guiffre (AB) vs Joseph Rogers (ON)

Women's Singles - Christin Tsai (BC) vs Joycelyn Ko (ON)

Men's Doubles - Alvin Lau (BC)/Jon Vandervet (AB) vs Darren Hong (AB)/ Richard Liang (BC) ---THIS WILL BE THE GRUDGE MATCH!! ALVIN VS RICHARD!!!

Men's Doubles - Kyle Holoboff (BC)/Derrick Ng (BC.. me..) vs Maxime Belanger/Francois Bourret (QC)(The Canadian Thomas Cup doubles pair)

Mixed Doubles - Alvin Lau (BC)/Fiona McKee (AB) vs Darren Hong (AB)/ Steph Ko (BC)

Mixed Doubles - Tim Ma/Lydia Jiang (BC) vs Derrick Ng/Melody Liang (BC)

Well it's time for me to sleep and rest up! Thanks for reading and good luck to those who survived today's competition!

There's a new President in the house!

Badminton Canada Player's AGM was today. Like I said before, the main importance of this meeting is to elect a new President and Vice President to represent the player's association.

So here it is:

President: Derrick Ng (ME! MUHAHAHAHAHA... ok just kidding on the evil laugh..)

VP: Fiona McKee

Committee Members: Stephan W., Alvin L, Pieric L-G, Phillipe C.

Okay, so I'll be leaving for Winnipeg tonight to compete in the National Championships!

For those going, here's the weather conditions for the next few days and the walking directions since some of you may be walking from the tournament hotel to the winter club.

Click to enlarge.

You can simply print this image if you need to.

I also believe the WWC is not all white! They do have a cafeteria for food and drinks so you wont have to worry about walking around in the cold!

Team Canada: There is a press conference being held at the Winnipeg Winter Club from 12:00pm-1:30pm, Wednesday, Jan 27. I'm sure most of you has gotten the email from Kyle Hunter. For those wondering what you will be doing if attending, it will mostly be some quick interviews, pictures, etc. from the local media.

All Players: Very important, the 2010 Players AGM will be held at 4:00pm at the Winnipeg Winter Club. Please meet in the WWC lobby at 3:55pm. The agenda for this event will be:

• Roll call at 4 pm (5 min)
• Presidents Message (10 min)
• Review of HPC activities for 2009 and agenda for 2010 (20 min)
• Review of 2009 AAP criteria and National Team Criteria (20 min)
• Elections/confirmations of BCPA Council positions (10 min)
• Open Discussion (25 min)
• AGM adjourned at 530pm
• A short meeting of BCPA Council will follow, or as time permits during Nationals

Most important for this year's meeting is the election. There are more than 1 position available. If interested, please contact William Milroy before the meeting.

I think that's about it. For all the competitors going, have a safe arrival and good luck!

Draws are out!

Men's Singles: Here

Women's Singles: Here

Men's Doubles: Here

Women's Doubles: Here

Mixed Doubles: Here

2010 Yonex Canadian Badminton National Championships

Nationals are just around the corner. Starting next week Thursday, Jan 28-30! Time seem to have flown by. Feeling more and more ready each day! I will be playing all 3 events, doubles with Kyle and mixed with Melody. There are a number of good teams this year and am feeling a bit nervous.. Well, a bit nervous is always good I guess. Nothing really to do about it but to go out and give it my best!

This year the tournament is held in Winnipeg, MB, at the WWC. Draws are still not out yet which is rather disappointing...

I've been training like a dog the past week... 6 hard days of intense speed work and drills! Let's hope the pain was worth it!

Badminton Canada's Greatest Mystery: The Pink Panther

He is known as the pink panther. He mysteriously shows up to various badminton tournaments and training sessions across Canada... He has even appeared overseas watching International Tournaments!! He's been in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, and more!

He is a self-proclaim #1 in badminton with his dragon arm and his fast footwork!

Who is this Pink Panther? Is his name really John? Did he really inherit a fortune and just travels around to tournament to tournament, city to city?

Please, leave me your story of the pink panther! Maybe together we can figure out who he really is!

For now, here is a video of the one and only teaching us all some dance moves!! This was filmed tonight!

Burgoo

Fitness test today... I felt pretty mediocre doing it. I definitely dont think I did as well as I did before during the summer. Videos and test results will be posted as soon as they get emailed to me from CSC Pacific.

In the meantime, I went to Burgoo tonight with my girlfriend. For those who have not heard of this restaurant, it is a small, cozy restaurant with a warm, casual atmosphere. They do not take reservations so I did have to wait around 15-20 minutes before I got a table.

Here's what we ordered:

Winter Feature: Smoked Cheddar with Spinach Fondue ($13). This came with some sliced apples, grapes, and grape tomatoes. The cheese fondue was tasty but was more creamy than cheesy.

Main: Ratatouille Provençale ($13): The tomatoes, which was the main ingredient, was a bit too sour for me. Maybe they didnt >add enough sugar but when eaten with the sprinkle of goat cheese they added, it was delicious. I wish they had more cheese!

Main: Chicken Caesar Clubhouse w/soup ($14): This sandwich was quite big once stacked together! It also came with some bacon which was fantastic. Who doesn't like bacon?!!

Soup: Sunset Corn and Chicken: The soup was by far the best tasting part of the meal. It was very hearty and Burgoo did not cheap out on the chicken. Lime + Cream + Cilantro can usually never go wrong. Adding some cumin spice was the extra kick that made the soup all that much better! Very tasty, but the soup does get a bit salty and spicy in your mouth fast. Water was helpful!

Service: Service was found when needed. Food came fast. Unfortunate that they do not reserve tables cuz sometimes I hate waiting for good food. Really sucks when you're hungry, standing, and watching people eat this food which smells so delicious.

Burgoo

4434 W. 10th Ave

Vancouver

Derrick's rank: 4/5

Team Canada fitness test tomorrow. Beep test, agility test, sprint test, vertical jump test, etc... FML

Back to training

After 2 days of being sick, it was time to go back to training. I started yesterday (sunday the 10th) and was surprised with a gift of being able to train on the new "VIP" court at ClearOne Browngate (ClearTwo). This VIP court is the only court at ClearOne Browngate (C1B) with a wood floor underneath so it was quite comfortable on the knees! We did some mixed doubles drills, some doubles defense, 2vs1 box game, 3vs2 doubles.. and before i knew it, 3 hours was up and training was over.. I cant remember a session of training going by so fast! Feeling for some more, I ended my day with some squats on the bosu ball (half yoga ball). If you havent tried it, it's quite difficult at first, but gets a LOT easier as your muscles adapt.

Here's my bosu squat routine if you want to compare with me!
3 sets of 8 reps w/ olympic bar (45lbs) plus 25lbs on each side. bosu ball is UPSIDE DOWN meaning the curve part is on the ground and the flat part is facing up. Do as fast as you can with the most control. You DO NOT want to be doing this sloppily because it IS hard on the joints!

This morning, Monday, Jan 11, morning training with the ClearOne Badminton Academy (COBA) continues. I worked a lot on my mid court backhand. I have a bad habit of bringing my racket back and was taking too big of a swing so I had to really focus on reaching out early and taking a quick/shorter stroke. In the end =\ it still needs work...

After we played 2vs1 singles up to 11 points. RULES: If the 1 beats the 2, the 2 bends down at the net and the 1 gets 6 birds to WAIL at their asses!! I played first against Terrence and Steve. I won and got to peg Terrence pretty hard! hahaha!! Since I won, I played the 2 again but this time they had 2 point handicap to 11... I won.. AGAIN... WAILING TIME! Too bad this time i was pretty tired... missed most of my 6 shots.... ARG! Played one more time.. but now they had 4 points handicap!! I tried.. but loss.. and it was time to go. Till the next training session.. which so happens to be in 4 hours..

LUNCH: Okay for those who do not know, I LOVE FOOD! I love eating and I love cooking! But with being an athlete, I have to be preettttyyy careful about the foods I eat. I cant go and eat my favourite food everyday, the poutine... cuz I'd die of a heart-attack at age 25. SO, I've gotten to make myself like healthy foods! One of the easiest dish to make is, of course, the salad. You CANT mess up a salad (unless you're whitespot)!! But here's a quick recipe I put together!

Derrick's lunch salad

- 6 full leaves Romaine Lettuce

- 1 whole tomato chopped

- 1/4 english cucumber sliced

- 1 good derrick size handful of red kidney beans

- 2 hard boiled eggs

- 1 piece skinless, boneless chicken breast

- 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar or marble cheese

- honey mustard

1- Start boiling the eggs first cuz for perfect hard-boil eggs, it takes 17 minutes exact according to Julia Child!

2- During this time, I defrost my frozen chicken boob in the microwave. takes around 6 minutes..

3- Now while those 2 things are doing their thing, start washing your vegetables!

4- Hand rip the Lettuce to a bite size of your liking

5- Chop tomatoes, Slice Cucumbers

6- Add lettuce onto a big plate, followed by cucumbers and tomatoes and the hand full of beans!

7- Start a hot pan going with some sort of vegetable oil. While that is heating up, I cut up the chicken into smaller pieces. I then toss the chicken into the pan and I add a bit of water. As the chicken starts to cook, I throw around a teaspoon of soy sauce and around a tablespoon of sesame seeds. Do not cover! Let water evaporate!

8- While the chicken is being cooked, I cut up 1/2 cup of cheese and grate it over the salad.

9- Eggs should be ready now! Get em out of the boiling water and into some cold water! (nobody likes a salad with hot eggs)

10- Crack and put into a bowl of cold water

11- Finish cooking the chicken.. usually when there's no more water in the pan. Place the chicken on top of the salad and squirt on some honey mustard!

Here's wut my salad looked like:

Well, this picture from my phone doesnt do it much justice but hell, this salad was bloody delicious!!

Well after chowing down on that and an orange.. it was time to go back to training. Played some box game against Nathan. Each box set was for 5 birds of wailing to the ass! Hell, you DONT want to lose if that's the punishment!! Lucky Nathan is skinny... hard to hit! lol!! After a little fun, Nathan and I did 20 sets, 12 birds, mid to back court attack. He would go, then I would go, non stop... it was pretty hard being you had to go BALLS out everytime it was your turn. After played some horrible doubles cuz i was pretty done. Thank god for my protein shake because we had to do weights afterwards. I did more of my bosu ball squats and some bench.

I quickly strung up my heavy training racket afterwards and headed out to Vancouver Racquets Club (VRC) so I could hit with Kyle and Duncan.. Played 2 fullcourt vs1 halfcourt box again. I played 2vs1 but I had full court.. If i won, i'd get to hit 12 birds with them bent over against the wall! I won 25-23! Started whipping some birds and I broke a string!! UGGH!! Oh well.. Did some more fullcourt 1vs1 to 7points box to end my day..

4 sessions today.. Feeling preeetttyyy dead... and YES.. it's DINNER TIME!

Sick Day :(

What unfortunate timing.. I woke up this morning with a pretty bad sore throat. I could barely talk and was coughing/sneezing up phlegm. Just the thought of trying to train was unbearable so I quickly texted my coaches and was told not to return till I'm 100%.

More to come later. Breakfast time!

Okay, back from breakfast! Since I'm not feeling the greatest, I had a clear vegetable soup, an orange and a grapefruit with plain yogurt with sunflower seeds on top. I also took 4 chinese herbal pills, 'Natural XiaoYanLing', which claim it can "clear away heat and toxic material". Let's see if it helps!

But back to a little badminton history about myself. For those who know me, I am definitely not the fittest player out there. From what I can gather, I am described as a talented player who can bring variety and speed to the game. I have only started training the amount of hours posted below for a couple of weeks so of course my fitness still lacks quite a bit. When I was 18 (the year I won my first nationals) I was only training on average twice a week, 3 hours each session. And yes, I have been pretty much doing those twice a week training for the past 3-4 years.

Now you may ask, why only twice a week? How does one improve by only training 6 hours in one week?!!?
WHY: After graduating high school, I was enrolled to attend Langara College in September. My dad told me he wanted me to take this entrance exam to get into the Electrical Apprenticeship Program just to see how I would do. My exam was near the end of July. I passed with a 92% and was called in to get an interview. Apparently, since I've never used a tool in my life before, I was given a "NO" and was not allowed to go into their Pre-Apprenticeship course. Having my father working at Western Pacific Enterprises (one of the biggest electrical contractors in BC) for around 25-26 years, the company hired me and put me to work as green and newb as one can be. I had no idea what kind of work I was going to do but thank you sweet Jesus I was a quick learner and was good with working with my hands. Ever since the beginning of August 2005, I have been working full-time, 40 hours a week as much as I could till now. This is the first time I have been actually laid off.
So, why did I only train twice a week?? As an apprentice electrician, I work on construction sites. I've worked on, to name a few, Surrey City Central, ICORD, Canada Line, Skytrain, and BC Place. Contruction hours start from 7:00am-3:20pm with some job sites starting at 6:30am-2:50pm. A lot of physical labour is involved and I have to say, even training those 2 sessions a week.. it was very difficult to find that drive to just go out and give whatever left I had to train.

HOW: Training 6 hours a week, how did I get better? I'm not 100% sure but I'll tell you what I did do. I truely believe the mental part of badminton is extremely important. Your mind controls what your body does so it is very important to train mentally as well as training physically. When I was not playing badminton, I often imagine myself playing. But not playing as myself. I would imagine if I was Tony Gunawan. But why stop there? I imagined I was playing as Kim Dong Moon, Chandra Wijaya, and so on and so on.. I imagined myself doing what I liked about them. That I was playing the front court as well as Tony, playing the control/technical game like Kim, and forcefully charging in with a super hard drive like Chandra. If you can understand that these people are just human.. that they were not born with supernatural badminton powers... and that if you visualize yourself doing these things and to push yourself to their level, you will be amazed how fast your game will improve.
Just ask yourself next time, if I swing exactly as Koo Kien Keat does to do a cross court drive, and I time it exactly as he does, shouldnt I be able to do a cross court drive? Maybe I'm not as strong as he is right now, but power can be achieved easier and faster than skill IMO.
So go on youtube and watch local tournaments! Start visualizing your potential!

The First Post!

Hey everybody! My name is Derrick and I am a Canadian Badminton Player. I am currently on the National Team and am training for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The purpose of this blog is to raise awareness of the day to day life of a Canadian Badminton Player struggling to reach his dream. This blog will contain a lot of my training activities, my nutritional plan, random thoughts and even how my body is feeling with the amount and quality of training.

So...... Here's a brief summary about myself. I'm 22 years young and have been playing badminton since I was a child. I never really got any good until I was 18. Ever since, I have been one of the top doubles/mixed players in Canada for my age. I have won 4 Jr. National titles in the past 2 years and am still hunting that Open Nationals title. As of right now I am training at least a minimum of 28 hours a week and could even be training a solid 40+ hours depending on extra training with my national's doubles partner, Kyle, and extra weight sessions.

Well, since I'm a little bored of typing, here's a bunch of quick facts:

• Name: Derrick Ng
• Hometown: Vancouver, BC
• Occupation: Apprentice Electrician
• How could he be training that much plus be an apprentice electrician??: I got laid off because I wanted to start training more and had to take too much time off to travel.
• Relationship Status: Taken by Sena
• Sibling(s): Older brother, Toby. He plays badminton as well
• Weight/Height: 160lbs
• Training Facilities: ClearOne Badminton Centre, Gold's Gym @ Riverport
• Coaches: Darryl Yung, Bobby Milroy, Ronne Runtalalo, Sandiarto
• Sponsor: Yonex Canada
• Academy: COBA (ClearOne Olympic Badminton Academy)
• Racquet: Yonex ArcSaber10
• Strings: Training (Yonex BG65) Competition (Yonex BG80)
• String Tension: Main: 28lbs, Cross: 30lbs
• Event: Men's Doubles, Mixed Doubles

Hours of Training:
This is how many hours I am training each day as of right now. Of course, when I get back to work, my training hours will change.
Each day has at least 2 sessions and these hours do not include my extra training with Kyle and does not include my weight lifting sessions:

• Sunday: 2 hours + 3 hours
• Monday: 2 hours + 2 hours
• Tuesday: 2 hours + 3 hours
• Wednesday: 2 hours + 2 hours + 2 hours
• Thurday: 2 hours + 2 hours
• Friday: 2 hours + 2 hours
• Saturday: Day of rest! Hallelujah!!

Well, I guess this is enough for now. I will fill you guys in as I blog along so things will make more sense.. hopefully. Good night and thanks for reading!