I was watching the All England 2021 and noticed that the squad from Chian and Indonesia were missing from the competition.  An interesting but unfortunate incident mars the All England 2021. Following a confirmed case of positive Covid-19 in the airplane, shared by the Indonesian squad, badminton England in effect quarantined the Indonesian squad from further competing in the tournament.  Already missing the powerhouse squads from Indonesia, South Korea and China, this year saw weaker competition of players resulting in Japan dominating the games in the semi-finals. Excerpts from the ..read more

 It has been almost a year since I played badminton, courtesy of Covid-19. Naturally I am having cold turkey now, binging on watching past badminton matches on YouTube.  How do you guys fix your badminton cold turkey? Please share ..read more

A crossover problem from running is foot injury.  Badminton like running can be suseptible to foot injuries.  In particular, the arch of your feet can increase your risk of injury.  Human feet can be categorized into 3 types: neutral, high arch and flat foot (or no arch).  The arch on your feet can affect the biomechanics of motion and how much stress is placed on yoour joints particularly the plantar fascia and the joints at the ankle area/calf muscles.  As badminton involves a lot of standing on the balls of your feet and landing on high impact via lunges and ju ..read more

Ever wonder why Indonesia is so good in badminton?  Well, it starts at the grassroots, kids motivated to play competitively. At this clip by KompasTV, kids from various cities from all over Java & other islands taking part for the audition in a city of Kudus...  The selected kids from the audition gets the scholarship to train in badminton sponsored by the cigarette company, Djarum. In part, Indonesia has a great badminton tradition and interest from all layers of Indonesian society in badminton. Having visited Indonesia many times and played with locals, Indonesia is a great ba ..read more

The year 2020 is the great lockdown. Badminton social games, competition and tournaments are put on hold... Many changes are included in competition, particularly greetings like hand shake. More to follow ..read more

Managed to get a ticket for 11th Thursday game, cheapest seat, costing SGD21. After coming back from Malaysia Open 2019, I find the price a bit high. The sponsors of the tournament is Li-Ning. This year, the security are pretty strict with video, selfie and professional photographers. Perhaps, too many fans were taking selfies with the players in the stadium ..read more

This week is the Singapore Open and the venue is the Kallang indoor stadium. I may drop in for the earlier rounds. May have a badminton burnout after watching Malaysia Open the week before. Anyhow, this year's Singapore Open is arranged right after Malaysia Open which is different from the previous years. More updates to come ..read more

I attended the Malaysia Open 2019. It was an awesome experience, with money well spent for short vacation from Singapore. In addition, I met many fans from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Europe, Japan and China. This time, I stayed at Bukit Bintang where I can take the monorail and transfer to one of the LRT direct to Bukit Jalil, which cost about RM5 one way. The player hotel is the Istana hotel which is located near the Pavilion Mall/Changkat Bukit Bintang area. The 3rd round and quarter finals are the best bang for the buck where 4 courts are in action. The spectator area is blacked ..read more

Last year, I experienced my first calf strain injury which resulted in a severe pain and an audible snapping sound of a breaking rope. It happen when I lunged to lift/pickup a drop shot from center court. It's my first time experiencing this injury. I bought a calf sleeve with compression to ease the pain. I guess you see those professional players wearing compression on their legs, it's with a purpose, i.e. to warm the muscles/tendons so that the muscle stay active when contracting. I now see the value of calf compression and do warm ups properly before each games. Another nagging injury I ..read more

Next month is the annual Malaysia Open Super Series competition in Kuala Lumpur. I plan to go there which will be 4th Malaysian Open. Unfortunately, the defending champion Datuk Lee Chong Wei won't be playing as he is not medically fit to play. Stay tune for more report. I will test out my GoPro Hero Black 7 as a vlogging camera ..read more