University of Oregon Badminton Club Open!

//EDIT ON PRIZES! READ AGAIN BELOW!!//:

For those of you who are looking to plan a roadtrip in April, the University of Oregon Badminton Club is having an open tournament with CASH PRIZE from $550-700!

According to their tournament entry form, A winners get cash prizes up to $200/ EVENT!

B winners and consol winners also get other material prizes, from Tai-Lung rackets, birds and Nike Gear!

Prizes will be given to A winners, B winners and consolation winners.

BE SURE TO ENTER, because these prizes will grow with the # of entries!

For those of you who want to get some games in with a greater variety of players, this is the tournament for you! Players from the Oregon community are friendly, and you're definitely in for some competition!

The tournament is the weekend of April 9th-10th, 2011, so make sure you plan early and mark your calendars!

Tournament information:

2011 University of Oregon Badminton Tournament

When?: April 9th-10th, 2011

Where?: Gerlinger Annex B-54, University of Oregon, 1600 University St. Eugene, OR, 97405

How much?: $35 for first two events, $10 for each additional event...($5 dollar discounts for UO Badminton club members, plus additional discounts...details on the entry form)

ENTRY DEADLINE: 11:59pm April 3rd, 2011.

For more information: http://pages.uoregon.edu/badmin/

Anything else?: Personally, I haven't played in Oregon tournaments before. I've been the Portland Open 2009, and that didn't go so well....but thankfully, the University of Oregon Badminton Club wasn't a part of that. Make sure you take note that the cash prizes are in items, though, not cash.

On the website, you'll find the tournament entry form--be sure to check back on the UO Badminton blog for updates on their club! If you're in Oregon, make sure you join the club and continue to expand the badminton community! We all look forward to seeing you there!

Spread the word, and Good luck!

Washington State Closed

Hey, Badminton players!

The Washington State Closed is RIGHT around the corner!

For those of you who are curious, here's the player roster:

http://tournamentsoftware.com/sport/players.aspx?id=7D7EE7CF-44FB-445B-8C12-CA59F6C475C9

Don't forget to do your homework on tournamentsoftware and research your opponents! (Stalking isn't limited to facebook...!)

The player list is looking incredibly diverse...people have learned how to change the flag into their respective countries on when entering their information on tournamentsoftware! India, Taipei, Vietnam, Lao, Thailand, Japan, Canada, and of course America...and many more!

Seems to be a huge turn out of new players this time around, too! Many members of the Husky Badminton Club at The University of Washington are stepping up to the plate and showing Washington what they got!

There are definitely a few who chose the Washington State Closed as their opportunity for their first competitive tournament. Wish you all the best of luck! Play your hardest! Hope you enjoy your first of many more tournaments to come!

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For those of you in Northwest Washington who are currently looking for a stringer, Michael S. is back in town!

At $10 dollars per stringing job + competitive prices for strings ($5 for Yonex BG-65), it's definitely one of the best deals you'll get around here. Before he left for his trip to Japan, he strung rackets for a majority of the competitive players in the Washington area. From plenty of testimony, he's done a great job, and his customers are definitely satisfied with his work.

He uses an electric Babolat stringing machine and strings tennis rackets as well, for those of you who play multiple sports!

If you want your racket strung, you can occasionally find him in SBC, or leave your e-mail in the comments for more information.

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Oh...and I almost forgot...!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Be sure to work off that expensive meal and those boxes of chocolates with plenty of training for your upcoming tournaments!

See ya around~

Badminton season! (+ Badminton robot?)

(that's a fireman helplessly trying to tame Racketzilla with shots of birds...)

I'm not sure where I come up with these things....

Looks like badminton season in Washington State is underway!

February 25-27th, 2011 will be the first Washington State Closed tournament to be held at Seattle Badminton Club! They've been doing a great job hosting tournaments in their vast playing area. Be sure to check tournament software to see the list of players, and watch out for the draw! Can't wait to watch the games!

According to NorthwestBadminton.org, the next tournament after that would be the Daffodil Open in Tacoma, WA (April 9th). Hopefully some of you are getting ready!

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For those of you who have a hard time looking for badminton videos, Badmintonfreak.com is a great resource. It's an incredibly popular site for badminton addicts (or freaks, if you will) to watch games of their favorite players, all in one convenient spot.

Navigation around the blog is incredibly easy--all the player's names are listed in alphabetical order on the right.

Make sure you check it out here: http://www.badmintonfreak.com

Be sure to check out the comments and join in on discussion!

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BADMINTON ROBOT?

Randomly searching on youtube/google, I came across a video...ever hear of the Badminton Robot?

For those of you who can't find anyone to practice with (._.), this is the machine for you!

Frankly, I'm a little skeptical-- I'm unsure as to how well it plays. I can guess...not very well, but everything needs tweaking once in a while before it's perfected. I just wonder what the motive to making one of these was...so that someone can finally build something to beat the unstoppable Lin Dan? But hey...if the world can build something to play badminton, next thing you know, robots will be taking over the world...

I think the computer software they use to analyze the court itself would be plenty useful to coaches who can't quite illustrate a good enough picture to their students. Looks pretty cool....

Give it a few more years...

NEED A FRIEND? BADMINTON ROBOT! IN A STORE NEAR YOU!

Li Na started....here.

with badminton.

Hard to believe?

Believe it!

Picture taken from www.theaustralian.com.au

For those of you who have been following tennis (or facebook...), you'll notice that many people have been rooting for the beloved Li Na-- China's grand slam towards a big tennis championship.

But what most of you might not know...is that she started with badminton.

Apparently when she was young she took badminton lessons. At the age of 8, her coach noticed that she played more like a tennis player, and suggested that she switch. Funny enough, her mom didn't even know what tennis was...

Needless to say, she would have been a fantastic badminton player! Well, congratulations to her and her climb to the Grand Slam finals!

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DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE WASHINGTON CLOSED!

Forms are due by February 6th, or else you don't get a T-shirt! SIGN UP NOW!

Here's the entry form.

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR BADMINTOLOGY

It should be even easier, now that they have tournamentsoftware online entry forms!

Their deadline is February 5th, so hurry up and sign up now and get that limited edition SHOE BAG!

tournament software link

+ Big thanks to Badmintology for linking BadmintonSquare! You guys do a fantastic job at running these great tournaments-- the participants are growing at a rapid rate! And you guys never disappoint! Best of luck at the Roller Coaster Open 2011!

Good luck, everyone!

Shoe bags.

//EDIT: Last post, the WA State Closed entry fee is $30, not $35//

I knew that title would get your attention...

The Badmintology Vancouver Roller Coaster Open 2011 forms are OUT!

I can predict plenty of schedule shifting and roadtrip planning soon...due to some changes this tourney, I can tell that this is going to be a great one!

Just for a quick review, Badmintology Vancouver is headed by 4 fantastic badminton enthusiasts and plenty of lovely volunteers. What's great about these tourneys is they separate players into groups categorized by skill, and make it affordable for everyone to attend! It's a great experience for those of you who are free the weekend of February 18-20. Do keep in mind that it's a weekend before the Washington Closed 2011-- perhaps you can use this for practice!

They've made two significant changes this tourney, both of which are equally exciting!

First, for those of you who don't live in the Richmond (or Canada..!) area, they now have online registration by tournament software! For those of you who've never used tournament software, it's an extremely convenient way for people to apply for a tournament at home and look at the list of opponents that they should expect to see. Most of the big badminton tournaments use it-- including the Washington State Badminton Association!!

The fee for registering online is an extra $2, but it's still much cheaper than gas!

What's even more fantastic is instead of their incredible adorable collectible T-shirts, they're now giving out SHOE BAGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Personally, although I love T-shirts, I have waaaaay too many. It's nice for a tournament to give something else for a change, and it's definitely something we could all use! They're limited edition, so sign up now and get them soon!


For those of you who HAVE played Badmintology, make sure you don't forget your team name on the entry form. You don't want to lose out on those ranking points at the team tourney, which takes place at the end of the season.


So here's the basic information:
What?: Badmintology Roller Coaster Open 2011
Where?: Frasier Heights Secondary School
When?: February 18-20, 2011
DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 5, 2011
How much?: $20 for the first event, +$10 every other. (If online entry, $22 for the first event, +$10 for the rest)
For more information, check out the Badmintology Website

Make sure to check out their Gallery to take a look at their past tournaments.

WASHINGTON CLOSED

//EDIT: WA state closed is $30 for the first entry, NOT $35//

SIGN UP. NOW!!!!

The 64th annual Washington Closed tournament is available for sign up now!!!!! This is a great opportunity for your Washingtonians to brush up your skills and compete against other WA players!

This tourney should be pretty interesting--now with two clubs (BBC and SBC), there's more unpredictability in opponents! I've seen many new players who, to my knowledge, haven't attended the past few Washington tourneys! Let's hope they sign up and bring some competition!

Make sure you sign up as early as possible-- Preferably before February 6th, 2011. Late entries WILL NOT RECEIVE A T-SHIRT, and they WILL be enforcing it!

You can get the entry form at Seattle Badminton Club or online at NorthwestBadminton.Org


The entry fee is $30 ($25 for students with valid ID) for the first event, then +$5 for every other event.

What's great is this tourney is now featuring FUNKY DOUBLES!

That's right--everyone's favorite event! You can sign up either competitive or non-competitive funky doubles. Pairs must be either siblings, spouses, or family members (parent-child?)! This has always been a light hearted, fun event for everyone....(Xu Huaiwen and her husband have played in it before!).

Washington Closed 2011
Where?: Seattle Badminton Club
When?: February 25-27, 2011
How much?: $35 ($25 for students with valid student ID) + $5 for every other event ($20 for funky doubles)
Deadline: FEBRUARY 6th, 2011
Additional information: This IS a YONEX SPONSORED event...meaning Yonex birds AND Yonex shirts!

Nino and Raquel will be organizing this event, along with our usual volunteers. E-mail them for anything at mib.baddicts@yahoo.com

Sign up as soon as possible, and get practicing!

Xu HuaiWen

During these past few years, I've had the honor of meeting some of the most amazing badminton players from all over the world, mostly from out-of-the-blue encounters that became great stories to tell friends.

Being in a now-growing badminton community, living in Bellevue has brought me the great opportunity of getting to know Xu HuaiWen, who has retired from badminton to become head coach at Bellevue Badminton Club.

Once you get to know these people in person, newspaper interviews and online biographies never do justice to the motivated, disciplined and down-to-earth people that many of these athletes are. Xu HuaiWen never fails to amaze me in her dedication, and everything she's said to me has inspired me. She's quite an amazing person, so for those of you who ever see her, I'd advise you to get a quick chat with her to see what a great person she is.

Anyways, I thought I'd do a quick bio of her, for those of you who might not know just who she is.

Photo taken from BellevueBadminton

I remember having a conversation with her, walking around the BBC lobby where a party had just occurred. We were busying shuffling thing around, acting like we were cleaning up, chatting about things here and there. Somehow our conversation seeped into childhood. "I remember I left home when I was around 10." I was a little startled, but she was quite calm about the whole story-- no sense of remorse or self-sympathy.

She was born in China, and began playing badminton when she was eight, specializing in singles. Despite winning many awards at a fairly young age, the Chinese National Team deemed that her height of 5 feet 3 inches was too short to let her join. Because of this, she left to Germany, and her story shows us all that with enough motivation, dedication and perseverance, no one can tell you what you can and can't do.

She went on to have an incredibly successful career playing for Germany, attending both 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. She placed 5th in the latter, losing in a close match to Xie Xing Fang (who was #1 at the time). Aside from the Olympics, she's placed 3rd in 2005 and 2006 BWF World Championships, 1st in 2006 and 2008 European Championships, and plenty of other medals from assorted Masters tournaments all over Europe. Most amazingly, she's played first in all of the German National Championships from 2004-2008.

She's achieved all of that and more before she was 27, and retired in 2009, on an incredibly high note.

The rest of the story is history.

I never knew just how many people loved her until I walked around the Washington Open last year. I had numerous people pull me to the side and say "Is that Xu Huaiwen? She's here?! No way!"

But aside from her many achievements, she never tells people that badminton is the most important thing. In countless interviews and even in person, she always reminds us that no matter what we do, always dream big and put your ambitions first.

She's a fantastically humble, down-to-earth person (and very humorous, too!). If you've got the time, I'd advise you to get online and read her incredible story, and digest some of the great life lessons that she tries to instill in all of her fans.

Anyways--! That's it for now! Till next time...!