The Badminton Herald

"Our opponents only needed to return our shots flat. We made unforced errors that gave away our chances of winning a semis slot.".

This is what me and my doubles partner rated our game post mortem. Playing on the men's doubles  category, we were booted out early of the recent 4th FTC Kadayawan Badminton Tournament held in Davao City. Sadly, the same error that gave us a win in the elimination, also brought our downfall in the succeeding game.

Excuses aside, we learned a lot from this tournament agreeing unanimously to work on those errors during our practice sessions. Among these "controllable factors", familiarity with the tournament court and with our opponent's game seems to be ta crucial factor. Being newbies to tournaments, this came as a wake up call. Endurance is another factor. Most of the elimination games happened during daytime, where the temperature is at its hottest and taking a toll on our fitness level and hydration status.

Our game aggressiveness is ineffective also. We couldn't even hit most of our simple shots.. Our attack play and smashes, if it succeeded in landing in the opponents court, is easily deflected. Our follow up play is even poorer to totally non existent. My service shots were high enough for our opponents to make an ambush return to our weak side. We weren't able to anticipate their return of service "ambush" , giving away easy points for our opponents.

We were unable to capitalize on our opponents mistakes, such as indecisive midcourt returns or half hearted netshots.We can handle their smashes but never had used it to upset their game play. Shot variation and accuracy seem to be low on our side. We couldn't return the shuttle cock to their weak side.

This tournament gave us a good glimpse of the skill levels in competitions and tournaments in centers like Davao City. That it is important to not only improve your game but also to seek out as many as competitive opponents as can be to develop a plethora of defensive skills and attack plays. Never be too complacent of just winning games with your usual weekend opponents. It may be too late to know, the game level out there is far more advanced than what you already mastered!

Yes, that how Bao defeated Boonsak in the finals of Singapore Open Men Singles, 21-19, 16-21, 21-15 (see the final score here)

Not without a great fight though, with Boonsak Ponsana (BP) showing tremendous badminton talent that brought him the title last year in the same arena. Bao Chunlai (BC) was as fiery as he is before, showing his experience and fitness stamina that erased BP's mindset. Not a few referee (net touch)  and line calls were contested by BC. Near the end of the third set, BC regained his composure and capitalized in his great fitness form to dominate the now obviously tired BP.


The Men's singles finals showed some amazing shots and retrieval in the whole tournament. Cross court  jump smashes and dives by BP. Bao Chunlai also asserted his dominance over the net shot, but BP was equally capitalizing on this to prepare for an attack shot. In the end, both players showed heart and passion for badminton- a great match up of the young and upcoming, the experienced and composed.

Maybe if BP wasn't gasping for air near the second half of third set, he might have retained his title. But then, that is just maybe, because for sure BC would pitch all his badminton skills and tactics to gain this championship.


(All photo credits taken here at Badminton Central)

The local badminton clubs here in South Central Mindanao is organizing a Badminton Club Amity Team Championship to be held sometime in July. This is according to the main proponent Mr. Atayan  of Smashing Champs Koronadal City. Patterned after the famous Sudirman Cup Word Team Championships, the aim of such "friendship" badminton game is to foster fellowship among badminton clubs here in Mindanao. Initially targeting (but not limited to) four clubs, the First Amity Cup will be hosted by Smashing Champs then rotated amongst the competing clubs. Rules has yet to be laid out but the organizing club is assuring of a strict adherence to players age and leveling policies. No individual prizes will given but a huge badminton cup, just like that of Sudirman's Cup is up for the teams grab. A fellowship night with bands and party after the awarding ceremonies is expected to be a main attraction of the said event.

This on paper is definitely a a very nice and welcome development to grassroots badminton and to clubs who play badminton for fun. For us aging players and weekend warriors, its a way to strengthen sportsmanship and friendliness while we sweat out excess fat. Indeed, the vast majority of badminton players are not the Class A/Open badminton enthusiast that beat our heavy assess to no end. Its high time we have tournaments like this to cater to such huge group of badminton player has been. Has been very supportive of badminton I mean.

 With the latest sweep of the Sudirman Cup (World Badminton Team Championships) by China, I wonder where else could this team be ever defeated. They played so dominantly, it has been awhile before they'd be beaten in this cup. They held on to this cup for eight years and was only beaten in the finals once by Korea in 1994.

I wasn't able to watch all of the matches (which you can download in videos in badminton central) but I did see Men's Singles Finals and Mens Doubles finals on Solar Sports TV. The Chinese players (Lin Dan especially) were all in their best form and skills. No wonder they beat almost everyone in the tournament.


Rumor has it that with the Sudirman Cup, all the other teams are vying for is the second best. Now, we know why.

So where to next now? World Championships?

It's final, I'm playing in an upcoming tournament in a nearby city. A friend asked me to be his doubles partner. All I promised was the best of what I can play. I played with this friend before on several occasions and save for a few unpolished moves, we both complemented our badminton skills. Preparation wise, that's all we got- previous game pairing during tune up games. Nothing close to any tournament preparation that I knew. Actual "inventory" of my armamentarium revealed no sizable munitions to speak of. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed even with the loud taunts (by snickering mirons) of a championship trophy and honors.

I'm not laying out our game strategy for now as this may find its way to our opponents. Some of them happen to read this blog.

I'll post some more about this later. And by the way we whipped a higher level/class doubles team last night. That was some feat!

A highly competitive open Badminton tournament done quarterly in our city, I'm going to skip this tournament for a very important work related commitment. It has been like this since I came home here and played badminton. Indeed I look forward to every Mayor's Cup thats going to happen here but it seems it's not yet time for me to test my playing skills.

Maybe next time. I hope I wouldn't have any more important commitments by then.

I always thought that winning in badminton is just an attitude, second only to skills training and fitness. But there is nothing more glorious than receiving a recognition for a skill improvement and a badminton trophy- as champions. I joined the Annual Philippine Orthopedic Association 4th Badminton tournament for the first time and we (me and my partner) won the Doubles championship trophy this year. I'm talking here of joining and competing it out with sport surgeons (who's passion for badminton is only surpassed by their love for their family and practice) and showing them too, you're worth their opponent. I was glad I made them lose probably a liter of perspiration and gave them a competitive game. And winning the games, the tournament, unbeaten all the way to championship match, is all too glorious!

Congrats too to my very good partner Dr. Siatan (POC) who despite fighting off his cramps, gave the winning smash!

So I won my first local area championship game in one year of playing.But it was never my first championship match.

The first one, our team "chickened" after sweeping the eliminations. We went to the finals with an unbeaten record only to be beaten mercilessly in the championship match by the same opponents we beat twice in the elimination. The second championship I figured in was a sweet tasting friendship tournament. We went to the finals with the second best record but still got mangled by our veteran enemies in the decision match. What went wrong? Many things went wrong, and especially for badminton newbies like me, a lot is terribly wrong.

But this years championships is very different. Friendship games or not, collegues or not, I am out to beat my previous self, with my opponents as the unhappy receiver of my shuttlecocks. After a year of playing and practices, planning out strategies and training, I'm out to test my will, my skills and again push my athletic activity. The highlight of course was the jump smash, a lethal weapon I so happily added to my attacking armamentarium to gain upper hand in any play, without compromising my defense capabilities.

So what went on? Swept the finals, beat our opponents twice and fast, and earned the admiration of our referee. No trophy, medals or any cash prize. Just plain jump smashing practice on court. And I did it. In style.