the Shuttler Volume 3 Issue 3

the Shuttler Magazine 1

2 the Shuttler Magazine


With Val Loker. Question for the coach? Send an email to [email protected]

Why Coaching Card and NCCP requirements will only make us stronger

You shouldn’t be afraid to lift weights. In fact, you should be afraid if you’re not.

Photos from events, OJRS leaders and triple crowns.

Olympian Michelle Li lands on the podium at the Macau Grand Prix.

Ontario athletes shine at the 2014 Toronto Open

coach’s cornernew coaching policiesstrength training 101tournament infomichelle li on the risethe toronto open

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Badminton Ontario gratefully acknowledges the funding support of the Ontario Min-istry of Tourism, Culture and

Sport

Right: Andy Lam (cover) of Lee’s Badminton Train-

ing Centre celebrates after a hard earned

point in a tight three set battle against Philippe

Gaumond of Quebec. More coverage of the To-

ronto Open on page 24.

Badminton Ontario209-3 Concorde Gate

Toronto, Ontario M3C 3N7tel: 416 426 7195fax: 416 426 7346

[email protected]

Administrative Assistant:Jean Wong

[email protected]

Marketing Director: Jolande Amoraal

[email protected]

Board of DirectorsCo-President:Jeff Goldsworthy

[email protected]

Co-President: Dave [email protected]

Director of Finance: Alexander [email protected]

Director of Coaching:Kevin Willington

[email protected]

District Presidents

TDBA: Linda [email protected]

WOBA: Jeff [email protected]

ODBA: Fei [email protected]

COBA: Russ Le [email protected]

NOBA: Kerri [email protected]

GBDBA: Suzanne [email protected]

jamsJA Marketing Solutions

This magazine is published by


with Val Loker

Before learning how to achieve success, you must first define what success means to “YOU”. Many athletes have misinterpreted suc-cess as just winning a tournament or receiving a medal. While this may be part of the journey, there is far more to it.

Success can be defined as an accomplishment of an aim or purpose. In other words, it is an achievement of a meaningful goal or goals set and controlled by YOU.

Success does not always mean receiving a medal, trophy or tan-gible reward. For many athletes, it takes a long time of dedicated ef-fort and many defeats before see-ing any tangible rewards.

Often overlooked are the smaller

victories and intangible rewards that you can’t hold in your hands such as improved skills, self-es-teem, health and fitness, social and emotional well-being, and leadership.

To be a great athlete takes pas-sion, courage, dedication, and perseverance. The path to ath-letic excellence is a long journey with many ups and downs. Suc-cessful athletes are those who are able to stay motivated and driven despite whatever challenges or road blocks they face.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned as an athlete was having both short term ‘process’ goals as stepping stones to long term ‘per-formance’ goals.

An example of a short term pro-

cess goal could be something as simple as “Getting my doubles serves consistently low, over the net, with 100% accuracy to the T”.

The focus is on a skill that is valu-able for creating greater success in a match, without focusing only on “winning.” The achievement of these goals are of tremendous value, giving you the skills, confi-dence and motivation you need to tackle bigger and more challeng-ing feats.

Success is achievable for every-one willing to strive for it. Setting short term process goals is ex-tremely helpful for keeping you on track to longer term success, of-fering many benefits and rewards both on and off the court!

Valerie Loker

The Road to Success

Valeria Loker was a 2008 Canadian Olympic Team Mem-ber and is currently the Head Coach of the Loker Badmin-ton Academy and the Techni-cal Director for the Federa-

tion of Badminton Clubs

COACH’S

CORNER







Badminton players are not generally found hanging out in the weight room, pounding out reps, grunting under mounds of steel, or lifting weights till the veins pop out of their foreheads. Indeed this is rare. Most badmin-ton players, and badminton parents, tend to believe that the sport does not require the movement of weights. The racquet and shuttle are very light, and with matches last-ing upwards of an hour, cardio seems to be the key.

Why lift weights then? Won’t you get too big? Won’t that muscle slow you down?

I have been a badminton player for approxi-mately 30 years. I have also been weight training for a good part of that time. Within the last 5 or so years I have been introduced to strength and conditioning as a power-ful tool, learning the high performance and programming side of various sports. I have been the young inexperienced guy who wants to get strong, and have applied these principles on my way to becoming a high performance elite athlete. I now design pro-grams for those who want to get strong and

perform at their best.

For those who know me, yes, I am rather large for your typical badminton player. However, even with my size and age I can still hold my own while playing against younger, smaller players and often get comments on my speed. My size isn’t solely from being in the gym; genet-ics plays a big part in that. Besides the extra power and strength weight training has added to my game, I have noticed one thing that I think is very impor-tant especially for the young-er players. I’ve had very few of those typical overuse in-juries. Patellar tendonitis, jumper’s knee, quadriceps tendonitis, shin splints, ro-tator cuff and elbow injuries. All of those are too common in young badminton players.

Why is that? Consistent weight training in the gym over the years has kept me strong enough to train. Traditionally the thought is that players need court time and lots of it. Though that maybe true, what



are athletes and coaches doing to prepare their developing bodies for the countless hours on court?

To prepare athletes properly we need to “train to train” first then “train to compete” second. This means having a good solid base of strength before heading to the courts.

To get started, a focus on sport specific movements that aims to strengthen and improve the efficiency of the mus-cles used most in badminton needs to be emphasized. This is especially important in the developmental years in order to prepare the badminton athlete for the high training vol-umes experienced on the court.

Badminton players aren’t body builders and don’t need to strength train like them. Variances in weight volume and intensity will allow for the right muscular development bad-minton athletes desire. Start with just the bar and develop your routine form there. Following proper foam rolling and stretching practices will aid in recovery as well as help with injury prevention.

Concerns regarding injury risk, becoming muscle bound and slowing down are urban legends that have been dispelled by proper coaching and implementation of evidence-based strength and conditioning practices. Every high speed, high power output athlete uses strength training in their develop-ment, and you should too.

Without going into too much physiological detail, I have summarized some basic examples in the table provided of exercises and movements badminton athletes should be doing to prepare for the season and more importantly, for injury prevention. As your body changes and grows, its im-portant to help it keep up with the demand you place on it while participating in high performance sports by strength-ening it accordingly.


are athletes and coaches doing to prepare their developing bodies for the countless hours on court?

To prepare athletes properly we need to “train to train” first then “train to compete” second. This means having a good solid base of strength before heading to the courts.

To get started, a focus on sport specific movements that aims to strengthen and improve the efficiency of the mus-cles used most in badminton needs to be emphasized. This is especially important in the developmental years in order to prepare the badminton athlete for the high training vol-umes experienced on the court.

Badminton players aren’t body builders and don’t need to strength train like them. Variances in weight volume and intensity will allow for the right muscular development bad-minton athletes desire. Start with just the bar and develop your routine form there. Following proper foam rolling and stretching practices will aid in recovery as well as help with injury prevention.

Concerns regarding injury risk, becoming muscle bound and slowing down are urban legends that have been dispelled by proper coaching and implementation of evidence-based strength and conditioning practices. Every high speed, high power output athlete uses strength training in their develop-ment, and you should too.

Without going into too much physiological detail, I have summarized some basic examples in the table provided of exercises and movements badminton athletes should be doing to prepare for the season and more importantly, for injury prevention. As your body changes and grows, its im-portant to help it keep up with the demand you place on it while participating in high performance sports by strength-ening it accordingly.

Flip to page 14 for a sample workout routine ...














The Toronto Open caps off the Badminton Canada Elite Series, being the final event until the National Championships. With the high-est attendance in four years, 150 players from across Canada gathered to compete at one of the most exciting Toronto Open’s to date.

Highlights; Ontario dominated the standings this year, winning gold in all events.Hometown favourite; Michelle Li won a triple crown!Familiar faces; Kyle Hunter made a come back on the Series with Olympian Toby Ng.


The Toronto Open caps off the Badminton Canada Elite Series, being the final event until the National Championships. With the high-est attendance in four years, 150 players from across Canada gathered to compete at one of the most exciting Toronto Open’s to date.

Highlights; Ontario dominated the standings this year, winning gold in all events.Hometown favourite; Michelle Li won a triple crown!Familiar faces; Kyle Hunter made a come back on the Series with Olympian Toby Ng.




Andrew D’Souza Kyle Hunter and Toby NgMichelle Li and Rachel Honderich

Kevin Li and Nyl Yakura Yoga Kasah and Nandang Saputro

Photos submitted by Jean Wong & Dave Kumar


Andrew D’Souza Kyle Hunter and Toby NgMichelle Li and Rachel Honderich

Kevin Li and Nyl Yakura Yoga Kasah and Nandang Saputro

Photos submitted by Jean Wong & Dave Kumar


The FBC League On Sunday Dec 1st 2013, 18 Teams took to the courts to start play in the official second year of the FBC League. Al-though the League has been in existence for a number of years, it wasn’t until last year when we opened it to all of the clubs under the FBC banner that the league re-ally took off.

This year we have over 200 players play-ing on 18 teams in 2 divisions in the League which started on Dec.18th and will culminate in the League Finals tentatively scheduled for April 27th ,2014.

The FBC League is truly a League for all


levels of players ranging from players that have just started playing to the seasoned veteran and every skill level in between. To make the competition fair and fun, we have split the teams into 2 Divisions, in the first round of the League, all teams will play against teams in their own division.

After the first round, we separate the teams further for another round of games to ensure that by playoff time (all teams make the playoffs) teams will be playing only against teams of similar caliber lead-ing up to some very exciting playoff match ups.

What has blown me away this year has been the elevation in the skill level in many of the teams this year. We are see-ing more and more better players joining the league and many of the teams have elevated their game.

While all of this seems very competitive, during the first few weeks of the season, I have seen some really great matches but I have also seen many instances of great sportsmanship and a lot of smiles from the people just enjoying competitive and friendly play. I have had many people


come up to me already and tell me what a great experience it has been to play in the League.

People have loved playing as part of a team and they get to play against people they would not normally have an opportunity to play against. Another pleasant surprise has been the number of spectators that have been coming out to watch the games, on some nights we have had more spectators than players which in a relatively small gym makes things rather chaotic but everyone is enjoying themselves If you are interested in checking out the League for yourself, feel free to come out to watch, we play almost every Sunday at St. Brother Andre Catholic High School from 6 PM – 10 PM David Chiu - Director of League Play for FBC



Remembering

DISTRICT NEWS

HERB KIRKCONNELL

The Whitby Junior Badminton Club rebrand-ed its fall junior tournament in honour of local badminton player/administrator Herb Kirk-connell. The tournament will now be known as The Herb Kirkconnell Invitational Badmin-ton Tournament. Herb, a member of both the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association and Durham College Athlet-ics halls of fame, was a world-class badminton player and administra-tive pioneer at Durham College.

As a badminton player, he was a seven-time na-tional champion and was a member of Canada’s

Thomas Cup team in 1962. He would later manage the Canadian badminton team at four Commonwealth Games, and previous-ly served as president of COBA as well as the OBA. Herb began his career as an ad-ministrator at Durham College in 1967, was one of the original staff members, and was

instrumental in introduc-ing intercollegiate ath-letics combined with the creation of the athletic complex at the Oshawa campus.

He retired in Whitby and passed away in Febru-ary 2012.

Submitted by the Central Ontario Badmitnon Ass-octiation

Above: Herb accepting his in-duction into the OCAA Hall of Fame as a builder in 2003 with

the Shield Award.



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the Shuttler Volume 3 Issue 3