Badminton Pre-Season Training

LO 1 (strengths and weaknesses), LO2 (new challenges), LO4 (commitment to CAS)

In season 2, I begin my pre-season training for badminton. The main goals that I have for this year are to improve my physical fitness and badminton capabilities, and if possible to generally just play better. Although I think it’s respectable to be able to make the SEASAC team, I think that my ability to develop myself and perform won’t be able to match others around me in that team. Therefore, the goals which I have for this year are to improve myself as much as possible and to be as consistent with my training.

After the first few sessions of training, we mainly focused on practice drills and physical conditioning. Comparing myself to the previous years of training, I feel that I was able to start the year off in a better condition. Not only has my physical conditioning made it easier to keep up with the training session, but I felt that I was able to pick up my badminton again quicker. I think that a strength of mine so far has been that I’ve been consistently committed to maintaining/improve my physical conditioning compared to last year which has allowed for better performance. However, I also feel that my actual badminton technique is still quite poor and has a long way to go. From this, I hope to keep pushing my self to improve these skill sets.

Another new challenge this year has been the introduction of morning training or late evening training. This has made it much harder to commit to the activities as they either start very early (6:30 am) or very later (6:00 pm). Regardless of this, I will continue to try my best and keep going to the training. I hope to be able to demonstrate the commitment to my CAS experiences and develop a stronger resilience towards these challenging sports.

One aspect which I have found to become slightly more challenging is the growing sense of egoism and complacency which has developed with increased play and competitiveness. Although I have managed to come further along in my skills and physical conditioning I definitely cannot take it for granted.

Getting better has come with the extra intensity and effort I have poured in but at the same time has meant I’ve thrown almost all my energy towards this endeavor. Reflecting back to this, I think that instead of having pushed myself to exhaustion every time, it would be more productive of me to maintain a more balanced approach – some sessions really trying to give it my all and at other times focusing on the skills and fine-tuning of play. That being said, there is also a need for consideration towards scheduling and how I balance out the time and dedication towards my sport and the other responsibilities I have.

With season 3, the main season of badminton upcoming, I look forward to the more regular training and with more friends to do so. But at the same time, I have concerns about how I will be able to manage my school work which has become an area of great importance to me as well. Going into the more busy times, I think I will try my best to use key organisational tools such as apples Calander and Reminders software.