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Anna Rice Blog

November 4, 2008

Well, it’s been exactly 3 months to the day since I boarded a flight for Beijing to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games. What an amazing experience! The month of August 2008 will definitely be among the most memorable of my life for many reasons. 

In the past few months, many people have asked me: “So, were the Olympics fun?” My answer is always: yes, it was incredibly fun, but it was also so many other emotions: stressful, draining, eye-opening, satisfying, disappointing, frustrating, enlightening and awesome all at once.

To give you a taste of what I experienced, here’s a list of my top 10 Olympic moments: 

Number 10:  Cheering on my friend and fellow Handsworth high school alumni Blythe Hartley in the 3 metre diving event, joined by her family and…Bill and Melinda Gates sitting just beside! ?

Number 9:  Watching hours of unbelievably awesome badminton, live at the stadium and on TV back in the village

Number 8:  Eating dinner in the cafeteria on August 10th and noticing the shocking silence amidst thousands of utterly and completely focused athletes.??

Number 7:  People watching in the village and playing ‘guess that sport’, in which you must guess the sport of a passerby based on body type, muscle distribution, clothing style and tan-lines. ??

Number 6:  Watching the two-day video highlights outside the Team Canada building every second night. ??

Number 5:  Celebrating my Birthday and having badminton shuttles painted onto my fingernails (only in China). ?

Number 4:  Watching the top two male tennis players in the world in back to back matches, sitting row six, centre court. ??

Number 3:  Receiving a Right To Play fellowship award from Koss the Boss himself (Mr. Johann Koss, founder and CEO of Right To Play) in front of a room of over 30 Olympic medal winners and fellow Right To Play athlete ambassadors. ??

Number 2:  Speaking with volunteers and local Chinese people on the positive and negative impact of these Olympics on their lives. ??

And my number 1 2008 Olympic moment is… Walking out on court on day three and playing my heart out at the sport I love, in front of my family, my fellow Canadians and the passionately cheering Chinese audience.

I would like to thank Badminton BC, Badminton Canada, Sport Canada, and all the coaches and players who supported and helped me achieve my Olympic dream last summer. 

Next stop? The World Championships in Hyderabad, India next August.  I’m hungry for revenge on Lu Lan ; ) 

June 25, 2008

 Well it’s been a very tiring but exciting year and I am happy to report that I will be heading to Beijing as part of the Canadian Olympic Badminton Team.  The qualification period ended at the beginning of May ‘08, so all of the official Olympic invites are now out. 

April 2, 2008

It has been a very sad week for badminton in Canada as we have lost two great ambassadors of our sport, Mr. Bruce Rollick and Mr. Phil Allard. I wanted to take this opportunity to write a message about both of these great men, both of whom meant a lot to our badminton community.  (See this link on the Badminton Canada website if you are unaware of these recent tragedies: (http://www.badminton.ca/news_item.aspx?id=11146).

Although I didn’t know Mr. Bruce Rollick very well as a younger player, I had certainly heard stories from Abdul of his incredible fitness and the iron strength of his will to win every time he stepped on the court.  I experienced this intensity first hand several years back when I played a ‘friendly’ doubles match against him.  My partner and I realized pretty quickly that we were going to have to pull out all the stops to beat these guys who were more than twice our age!!

The intensity of purpose with which Bruce lived his life was clear to see for anyone who knew him.  I was reminded of this back in January when I met Bruce for lunch, I was in town to play the Nationals.  Bruce was the type of guy that you knew truly believed in what he said and as a result, you listened.  During that lunch Bruce talked to me about the importance of leading a balanced life, which for full time athletes can often be a difficult challenge.  He said that in some ways he was happy that badminton wasn’t the money-crazy game that pro tennis has become, because it forces elite badminton players to think about other aspects of themselves and to keep those facets going even while furthering any badminton goals.  “Being an all-rounded person will also help you succeed on the badminton court”, he told me.  And with this I totally agree.

Another lesson Bruce shared with me that day over lunch was the value and importance of giving back to the community or communities that have helped you become who you are.  For me and for probably everyone who will ever be interested in reading this blog, that unequivocally includes the sport of badminton and its communities.  Bruce was passionate about helping create future champions in our sport and it is to this elite level community that he was extremely committed.  But there are many different badminton communities in our province/country/world, be it the social badminton community, the school badminton community, junior badminton, seniors and masters, Paralympic badminton, etc. etc.  Bruce reinforced to me the need to get involved in any way that you could, because not only do we all have experiences and knowledge to share, we also have an obligation to pass those experiences onward and give others the opportunity to learn from us, as we learned from those before.  Thanks for this advice Bruce, I will do my best to follow it.

**

Another great loss to our badminton community was the recent and unexpected passing of Mr. Phil Allard.  Phil was a top Canadian player for several years, and I had the chance to play mixed doubles with him for a season when he was living in B.C.  Phil taught me a lot about how to control my emotions on the court, which is something I’ve often struggled with.  Not only was Phil an incredibly talented and athletic badminton player, he was one of the most sportspersonly competitors that I’ve ever come across in the past ten years of my international badminton career.  I’ve been to over fifty countries and have played against hundreds of people and I honestly cannot think of one person who surpasses Phil in this regard.  Phil had great taste in women too! ; ) He fell in love and married Andrea Woo, one of Badminton BC’s junior stars from a ‘few’ years back.

Outside the court, Phil was also a great asset to our sport.  Just as Bruce advised, Phil had already begun giving back to the badminton community in many ways, one of which was his work on the Board of Directors of Badminton Alberta.  Just a few weeks ago while at a tournament, Will Milroy, Andrew Dabeka and I had a meeting for the Canadian Badminton Players Federation (CBPF) and Phil’s name came up as someone we all really wanted to try and get involved with our organization.   It went without saying that Phil would be an incredible asset to us in whatever capacity he would be willing to help. 

**

The dedication and generosity of both of these men to our sporting community will live on even after they’re gone.  It speaks to the love and dedication to sport that these two men had, that both Bruce and Phil’s families have requested that in lieu of flowers friends and family donate to organizations dedicated to helping Canadian athletes (see below for details).  The contribution that both of these great people would have continued to make to our sport is a loss for every Canadian badminton player.  However, the examples they have set as role models for the rest of us will be the legacy that I hope we will all ensure lives on.

I send my sincerest condolences to both the Rollick and Allard families. 

Anna.

*In lieu of flowers, Bruce Rollick’s family has requested donations go to the Perpetual Excellence Foundation (see http://www.badminton.ca/page.aspx?id=2070 for details).

*In lieu of flowers, Phil Allard’s family has requested donations go to the Phil Allard Memorial Fund.  Cheques should be made payable to "Andrea Woo in trust for the Phil Allard Memorial Fund". Please send to Andrea Woo at P.O. Box 22544, Southbrook, Edmonton, AB T6W 0C3.  This Fund will be established to support athlete development for badminton and squash players.

March 25, 2008

 
Hello again,

There’s just over one month to go until the end of the Olympic qualification year.  It’s been a tiring journey, but also a lot of fun.  I still have two tournaments to go, the first in Finland next weekend and the second in Montreal at the end of April.  I’m really looking forward to playing in Montreal, although I think the tournament is going to be really strong because it’s the last one before the end of the qualification period, so many players who are in need of some extra points will be there trying for a final attempt to improve their ranking.

My badminton tip today is something that I really enjoy doing, and which many coaches and players often underestimate in value… Can you guess what it is??  Net games!  Most people train their net shots quite a lot through technique training, for example one person throwing 20 shuttles in a row and the other hitting nets.  I’ve done a ton of that over the years, and I think it’s a good thing to do while you’re learning a specific technique.  But when you have the technique and you need to improve your control, then try playing some net games.  About a year ago I started playing net games with my training partners, usually before or after our regular training sessions.  I started to notice that my feeling at the net in regular matches was better.  When we play a net game, we play out to the doubles lines, because our coach thinks it is better to include the alleys so that you have to move more quickly and can’t just hover in the centre above the ‘T’.  It’s important to focus on trying to reach the shuttle with your racquet as high as possible, so you get used to meeting the shuttle early and hitting a good shot from there.  Try it out, maybe it’ll help your net game too!!

Bye for now,

Anna.

February 7, 2008

  Hello again! 

   I just returned to Denmark after being home to play the Nationals.  It was so fun to play in the Vancouver area and I’m happy that I won in front of a great home crowd…thanks to everyone who came out to cheer me on.  Badminton BC and Clear Two Badminton Club did a fantastic job making these Nationals one of the best ever!  Special shouts out to Badminton BC’s Brock Turner and Clear Two’s Darryl and Michele Yung, you guys did an awesome job all around! Thanks also to all the volunteers who worked hard leading up to as well as during this event.

   I got a lot of positive feedback about my blog from the junior players I spoke with while I was home, so I’ll try and update it more regularly now that I know you guys are actually reading it ; )  I got some specific requests for more badminton training ideas, so I’ve decided to include one new drill in each of my posts from now on.  I’ll mainly include drills that I do myself here in Denmark, but I’ll choose ones that are valuable for junior and senior high performance players.  The most important aspect of any drill is QUALITY, so it’s up to you and your training partner to get the most out of yourselves and one another by bringing the highest quality possible to the drill!

      Remember that you can always email Badminton BC with a question for me and I will answer it in my next entry.  Send your questions to info@badmintonbc.com, and don’t worry, your questions can remain anonymous so don’t be shy! : )

Drill of the Day:  Smash Defense Drill (I was doing this one myself earlier today!)

 For this drill you will work one on one on the full court.

Player 1 lifts shuttle into Player 2’s forehand rear.  Player 2 smashes straight. Player 1 cross blocks the smash to the net. Player 2 runs cross to net and plays a straight net shot. Player 1 hits a straight net back. Player 2 lifts straight. Player 1 then smashes straight to Player 2, and now Player 2 cross blocks the smash.  Player 1 runs cross to net and plays a straight net shot. Player 2 nets back. Player 1 lifts straight into forehand rear…. And that is one cycle.  You continue with this routine for 3-5 minutes.  Then repeat on the other side, i.e. begin by lifting into round the head rear rather than forehand rear. This will allow you to train both backhand and forehand cross blocks.  Do two sets on each side, for a total drill time of approximately 25 minutes (allow for a minute or so break between each 3-5 minute set).  This drill is great for consistency training and concentration training.

September 25, 2007

 Aaaa…finally badminton season again!  Hope you’ve all had a good summer training hard and getting fit for the upcoming season.  Time to pass your nemesis on the weekly doubles ladder, or win that Junior Circuit tournament you almost won last season. 

    My season is pretty much 12 months a year and this summer has been busy.  In June I was part of the Canadian Team that went to Glasgow for the Sudirman Cup, which is the World Team Badminton Championships. It’s a very cool tournament because it’s basically the biggest tournament there is.  You see, at the big tournaments like the Super Series and the Grand Prix tournaments, pretty much only the top 50 in the World attend.  At the smaller tournaments, the participants are mainly from around 30-100 in the World.  So the Sudirman Cup is basically the only tournament where you get players from both brackets, and from almost all badminton playing countries.  This year there were over 49 countries participating!  Canada ended up maintaining our position in Group 3, which ensures we’ll have a chance to fight to move up to Group 2 at the next Sudirman Cup.  There were three Badminton BC members on the team: myself, Sarah MacMaster, and Ram Nayyar as coach/manager.

     I went to Asia again in July to compete in Thailand, China and the Philippines.  Had a great time in Thailand and the Philippines and reached the quarter finals in the latter, but I had a nightmare of a time in China…  I got really sick with some kind of stomach bug and ended up having to go to the local Chengdu hospital.  Well I will never again complain about the hospitals in Canada, because my experience in China was quite eye-opening.  The doctors and nurses in the hospital were very nice from what I could make out (and the student translator from the tournament confirmed that).  I don’t want to go into detail, but I will say that there is clearly not a no-smoking policy inside this hospital, and they must not have got their last shipment of soap because it was no where to be found!! Luckily, my fellow Canadian team mate and friend Andrew Dabeka arrived later that same night and subsequently nursed me back to health.  It’s never fun to be sick, but being sick when you’re on the other side of the World is really an experience. 

     I’m not sure why I got sick, but I think it had something to do with the extreme heat conditions that we had been training in the previous week in Thailand.  It’s incredible how much you sweat out there, and so it’s crucial to hydrate before, during and after training, not just with water but also with electrolytes that you can get in sports drinks.  If you get de-hydrated your body gets weak and then it’s easier to get sick or injured.

  Bye for now!

June 8, 2007

    Finally back to Copenhagen after a whirlwind of tournaments.

    As of May 1, 2007 the year of Olympic Qualification officially began.  First stop was Asia for the fifth and sixth Super Series events in Singapore and Indonesia.  I played decent out there but lost to two top 16 girls who’d I’d met before.  From Asia I flew directly to Calgary for the Pan American Individual and Team Championships.  When I say “flew directly”, I have to qualify that I mean without traveling back to Denmark first, since in fact it was anything but direct.  To be precise, the zigzag route took me from: Jakarta to Seoul, Seoul to Tokyo, Tokyo to Seattle and finally Seattle to Calgary!  But I didn’t mind the long travel since I was just happy to be heading home and excited to finally be playing an International tournament on home ground.  The last time I’d played an International tournament in Canada was at the Canadian Open in Toronto back in 2000 when I was fresh out of juniors!

    The Pan American Individual and Team Championships in Calgary were a success for Team Canada.  In the Team Event we brought home the Gold after defeating the U.S.A. in the finals 3 matches to 1.  We won despite the fact that practically half our team was absent for the finals, since teammate Mike Berris was getting married that weekend so he and his two partners (Will Milroy and Val Loker) had to fly out to Ottawa half way through the team event.  (By the way, Congrats Mike!!)  Canada also dominated the individual Championships, where we won Gold in all the individual disciplines except the Mixed Doubles, where we won the silver.  I won the Women’s Singles title, which I was very happy about since I hadn’t won the Continental Championships since I was a junior.  I had a lot of fun playing on Canadian courts again and a big thank you goes out to the organizers of the tournament and all the volunteers. 

    What’s doubly impressive about the organizers of this big event is that it was the second of two back to back tournaments that the Calgary Winter Club had agreed to organize and host.  The week before the open players arrived, the best U19 and U23 Canadian players battled it out at the 2007 National Championships.  I arrived in time to watch the semifinals and finals and I was really impressed!  It was especially great to see that many provinces had players reaching the final rounds as opposed to just two or three- (though I admit I didn’t mind that BC had a few more players through than the rest ;).  Congratulations to all the BC Medalists!) 

    I’m excited to follow many of the Canadian juniors and watch how they develop in the next few years.   It was fun to compare in my mind the top Canadian players with some of the top Danish juniors who I coach over here…Look out Denmark is all I have to say about that!  There were also many familiar BC faces in the Umpire’s chairs in Calgary and I was happy to see they’re still involved with the sport.

    After the Pan Am Championships I spent a week at home in Vancouver for some R&R.  My visit home also ensured I got my sushi fix, (or five) - which only Vancouver can adequately satiate (even better than Tokyo if you ask me.)  Denmark charges absolute robbery for sushi so we don’t eat it much here.  But my visit home was short and sweet as I had to get back to Europe to compete in the Toulouse Open in France.  I reached the finals there, losing in two close sets to Commonwealth Games Gold medalist Tracy Hallam of England, who is back on top of her game after an ankle injury kept her out of competition for several months last season.

    My results in Calgary and Toulouse are a good boost towards Beijing and have bumped me up to number 23 in the World ranking, which brings me closer to one of my goals for this season of getting into the top 16.  Next up is the Sudirman Cup next week in Glasgow, then three big tournaments in Asia in July.  I’ll keep you posted. 

    PS… Not sure if I’ve mentioned it before but check out www.badmintonsite.com where you can see cool interviews and instructional videos.  It’s the official site for the Badminton Players Federation.

Anna

March 29, 2007

    This past month my team has played the semifinals for the Danish Club Championships and I’m quite choked to report my club lost to the top seeded KMB Club.  We still have a chance to redeem ourselves as we will play against the other semifinal losers  for the bronze medal next month.  Although it was really disappointing, our team has only just moved up to the Badminton Liga this season and our goal was to finish in the top 6 out of 8 so we’re still satisfied with how the season went.

   As I think I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the top division in the Danish league is called the Liga and changed formats two years ago to make it more “T.V. friendly”.  The previous format for a team tie was 13 matches, which could take anywhere from 3-6 hours, depending on how many courts were used.  The Danish TV networks suggested the ties be shortened to just 6 matches: 2 men’s singles, 1 women’s singles, and one of each doubles and so the Danish Badminton Federation made the change.  If the match is tied at 3-3 then a “Golden Set” is played to determine the winner.  The event that is played in the Golden Set is chosen through a process of elimination decided by the coaches of each team. 

    To decide who will play in the exclusive League Finals for the Team Title, two ties are played in each of the semifinals to determine who goes on to the final.   One tie is played “at home” and the other a week later “away”.  We hosted the first tie and over 1,500 spectators came to cheer us on.  Unfortunately their cheers weren’t enough and we lost 4-2.  This was especially painful because we had 3 match points in the mixed doubles but couldn’t close it out.  Then last week we played the second tie, this time our opponents hosted us and their notoriously annoying fans didn’t disappoint…whoever says Malaysians are the craziest fans obviously haven’t been to this Danish town!  To win or force a deciding Golden Set we had to win 5-1 or 4-2, which would be really, really tough…but we were still ready to put up a strong fight.  The big names on our opposing team that some of you might know are Tine Rasmussen in the Women’s Singles (she’s Danish number 1 and ranked top 15 in the World), Jonas Rasmussen (2003 World Champion in Men’s Doubles), Kasper Odeum (Danish Men’s Singles number 3) and Thomas Laybourn (current top 5 World Ranked in Mixed Doubles). 

    We lost the tie 3-3, winning both the first and second Men’s Singles as well as the Mixed Doubles.  I lost in three close sets to Tine Rasmussen, which was disappointing but I played well and will take some confidence away from the match, since I had lost to her in straight sets in our previous meetings. 

    The other semifinal showdown took place last night and it came right down to the wire, as the winner was only determined after a final Golden Set was played.  Greve Club was up against Team Vestsjaelland and there were no less than 3 World Champions in the line-ups!  Greve got out to a terrible start after their captain and Danish Super Star Kenneth Jonassen went down to compatriot Joachim Persson in three thrilling sets. The other matches went as expected and so it was decided a mixed doubles set would determine which team would go on to the Club Finals.   To everyone’s surprise, Team Vestjaelland opted not to use their World Champs Gail Emms and Tony Gunawan, and went instead with Anastasia Ruskkih from Russia and Rasmus Mangor from Denmark. Though they put up a really good fight, Greve’s pairing of Donna Kellog and Lars Paaske proved too much for the younger pair and the set ended 21-15.

      I thought I’d use this entry to tell you a bit about the Danish Club League, since it’s quite an important part of why Denmark has remained at the top of World Badminton.  All Danish players play for a club and the matches they get over the years competing in the club league gives them enormous match experience, much more than only playing tournaments.  It would be so cool if Canada could some day get a club league going.  I know BC has got some kind of an inter-club league going and I think that’s great. There is talk that the BWF (World Badminton Federation) is trying to create the structures in place for a World Club League and I look forward to seeing that some day….Just imagine… Channel 12: the hockey playoffs featuring the Canucks versus the Oilers, channel 13: the badminton playoffs featuring the Copenhagen Coyotes versus the Beijing Bulldogs…No question which I would watch! ; )

Anna*

March 20, 2007

     Hello again, thought I’d check in with the latest news from over here in Denmark.  But first I want to send out a big "CONGRATULATIONS" to the Badminton BC Canada Winter Games Team!!! You guys did an awesome job in both the individual and Team Events and should be really proud.  I made sure to brag the results to the Albertan and Ontarian (Bob Milroy and Stephan Wojickavich) who I train with over here ; )

    I want to share with you a funny story of something that happened to me at the Swiss Open last week in the city of Basel.  You see, there’s a tram that runs from the tournament venue to the tournament hotel- kind of like a sky train but on the ground.  Bob Milroy and I had just been watching the Men’s Singles semi finals match between Lin Dan and Simon Santoso and were waiting for the tram to head back to the hotel.  As some of you may know, Lin Dan had to retire from the match in the second set as pulled a stomach muscle at the end of the first set.  Lin Dan and the Chinese Doctor were also waiting to board the Tram and Bob was asking Dan about his injury.  The number 14 tram arrives and the four of us board…but 20 minutes later the tram stops and the conductor says we must get off as it is the end of the line.  So the four of us get out of the tram only to find we are in the middle of nowhere, in the complete dark with not even a clue of where we are! 

    After humming and hawing for ten minutes trying to decide what to do- and after failing to find a tram employee who could help us call a taxi, we realized we were really stuck.  So I decided our best chance was to hitch hike.  We were very lucky, because the first car that came along stopped and was a very friendly man who was willing to drive us to the tournament hotel, even though it was 20 minutes out of his way.  Lin Dan and the Chinese Doctor seemed nervous, as I don’t think it happens so often in China that strangers stop on the street to taxi hitch hikers around town!  I was very grateful for having endured French Immersion at school, as this man’s English was rusty to say the least.  The funniest part was that this man had no idea about badminton so I had to explain to him that he had the reigning World Champ in his back seat.  Once he found that out then he wanted an autograph, which Lin Dan was happy to give.  I told the man to watch the Badminton results of the upcoming Olympic Games, because there’s a probable chance that he’ll be able to brag to his friends that he picked up some hitch hikers and one of them turned out to be the Olympic Badminton Champion!  Bob and I had a good laugh over dinner as we imagined what Lin Dan and the Chinese Doctor would have done if we hadn’t been with them, since neither of them speak very good English- let alone French or German….Maybe they’d still be there! ; ))

Ciao for now.

Anna*

February 25, 2007

    Hello again fellow shuttlers.  Thought I’d drop another message before I head out again for three more tournaments.  I’m going to Düsseldorf, Germany this week to play in the German Grand Prix, then I’m going to Birmingham, England the following week to play the All-England Super Series, and finally I am heading to Basel, Switzerland the week after that for the Swiss Super Series.

   Since I last wrote I traveled to Malaysia and Korea to play in the first two Super Series tournaments ever.  (The Super Series is the new Grand Slam circuit of badminton, boasting a minimum prize purse of 200,000USD per tournament. Most of the Super Series events will be in Asia, but Europe will host four: the All-England, Swiss, French and Danish Super Series.)  I had been to both Kuala Lumpur and Seoul before and had enjoyed both cities- especially Kuala Lumpur, so I was looking forward to the trip.  Very luckily, I checked the weather forecast before I left Denmark only to find out that Kuala Lumpur was averaging a temperature of +25C while Seoul was averaging -10C!  Without a doubt the most annoying trip to pack for: tank tops…check. Snow boots…check.! 

    I got into the main draw of 32 players in both tournaments, which I was happy about because the new BWF format is such that almost all the top players attend, which makes these tournaments really strong. During the qualification rounds, I even overheard one coach saying he thought the qualification draw for the Men’s Singles was stronger than the main draw! I wouldn’t go that far, but the overall depth of the entry list was incredible. 

   In Kuala Lumpur I had to play the top Korean player, who I had seen play before a few times though had never played against her myself.  The first set was really good and we were even throughout up until 18-18, when I let two lifts drop on the backline.  The second set I lost my rhythm and struggled with the draft, though still managed to put up a decent fight.  The following week in Korea I had to meet Zhu Lin of China, who had won the tournament in Malaysia...not the ideal draw but I was up for the challenge.  But unfortunately, at 2-1 in the first set I slipped at the net and got injured.  I had some acupuncture treatment from the tournament doctor but the pain was still there. I was able to change my flight and get back to Denmark the next day to see my doctor and physio.  I was meant to be leaving to fly back to Canada for the National Championships just a few days after returning from Korea, but due to my injury my doctor and physio said I had to take a couple of weeks off to recover. 

    After a lot of treatment I am feeling better and am now ready for these three upcoming tournaments.  There’s nothing more frustrating for an athlete than being injured.  Not only can it be painful, it can also be really depressing.  Nothing shows an athlete how attached they are to their sport like an injury that takes away their ability to train normally.  Having said that, I also want to reinforce the fact that every “injury cloud” has a silver lining and if you are really committed to becoming the best player you can be, you have to find a way to train even if you can’t play as you normally would.  For example, if you twist your ankle and can’t move on court for a couple of weeks, that could turn into a great opportunity to improve your serve, or your wrist power or your swing.  Although I’m lucky that I’ve never suffered any major injuries, the dozens of small injuries I’ve had have all been physical as well as mental challenges.

     Ok, I’m signing off now.  Train hard and I’ll write again after these three tournaments…hopefully with some victories to report.

Anna*

PS…I’m sending the positive vibes out to the Badminton BC CWG team!

PPS…Congratulations to Lisa Davison for winning the Bobbie Steen Award of Excellence.  Sounds like she’s doing awesome work to promote our sport in Northern BC.

January 5, 2007

   Happy New Year!  I just arrived back to Copenhagen from a great visit back to Vancouver for the holidays.  Hope you all enjoyed a bit of a break from school/work…but hopefully not from training! ; )  Holiday breaks such as Christmas break, spring break and summer break can be great opportunities to improve your game since they usually allow more time for training.  Also, there aren’t usually many tournaments during these periods, which allow you to train new things that maybe you wouldn’t want to work on in the middle of the competitive season.

    So I’ve been busy the past couple of months, as I played 5 tournaments all around Europe.  The tournaments I played were: the Denmark Open in Aarhus, the Dutch Open in Eindhoven, the Welsh International in Cardiff, the Bulgarian Open in Sofia and the Italian International in Rome.  The last three tournaments were all in a row and that proved to be too much for me, as I was totally burnt out by the time I got to Rome.  But on a positive note, I got to sight see around Rome!  As you know tournaments are tough on the body as we usually push just a little harder in a tournament than we do in training.  But tournaments are also really mentally exhausting, as it takes a lot of energy to stay focused and concentrated while at the same time maintaining a high motivation to win.

    I was happy with my results in some of the tournaments though, in particular the Welsh and the Bulgarian tournaments.  In Wales I beat the Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Susan Hughes of Scotland in the semi finals before losing the final to a strong Chinese girl who has recently moved to Australia.  In Bulgaria I reached the semi finals, which is the furthest I’ve reached in a star grade tournament other than the Pan Am Champs, so I was happy with that.

    While I was back in Vancouver over Christmas I had the chance to do some training with some of the players from the BC Canada Games team.  I’m excited to see how the team does in White Horse in a couple of months…I expect they’ll do really well.  The Canada Games is such a cool experience because it gives young players a taste of what a multi-sport Games is all about.  It’s especially important for badminton players, because we develop quite late in relation to most other sports.  As a result, participating in an event such as the Canada Games can be a really inspiring experience that can motivate players to pursue bigger goals such as participating in the Pan Am, Commonwealth or even Olympic Games. 

   When I traveled with the BC Team to Corner Brook for the 1999 Canada Games it was a great experience that really inspired me to pursue some bigger goals in badminton.  It was a really exciting experience that I’ll never forget, especially when we upset Team Alberta to win the bronze medal in the team event.  Exchanging clothing and meeting other athletes from around Canada was also really cool.

    I hope the upcoming Canada Games will be a success for our Team BC badminton players, both in the team event and also in the individual tournament.  If my experience is anything to go on, they’ll leave White Horse with a lot of great memories and a lot of new dreams…

Bye for now!

 : ) Anna

November 1, 2006

Hi Again!

     Hope you’ve all been training hard during the past month!  Just wanted to fill you in on what I’ve been up to the past few weeks.  It was back to Asia for me in the beginning of October, this time to Japan and China for two tournaments.  It was my first time to Japan and being the sushi lover that I am, I was really looking forward to the trip.  The tournament went ok but not great, I lost to a young Japanese player 21-17, 25-23.   I had a few set points in the second set but couldn’t close it out, which was a shame because she was getting tired, so I would have liked to have seen what would have happened in a third set… In China I had a tough draw, as I met the top Singapore player Li Li.  I have played her a few times before and have come close to beating her but haven’t quite been able to do it, so I was really looking forward to this match.  We had some great rallies and most of the time I was playing like I wanted to do, but I made a few too many unforced errors and went down in two close sets.  As you may have noticed in your own matches, unforced errors are lethal in this new scoring system, since every rally counts!  So remember do a lot of consistency training and also serve training.

    The venues at these tournaments are pretty tricky because they’re so big, often as big as GM Place in Vancouver!  As a result of the size and also from the use of air-conditioning, there’s often a draft in the venue, which affects the flight of the shuttle.  I’m getting much better at playing with a draft, but I have to admit it can be extremely frustrating when a shuttle is flying a foot out the side and then curves back into the court just as it hits the ground!!   The wind is one of the major challenges of playing the Grand Prix Circuit today, since all the big tournaments are held in large venues. There are very strict tactical rules that one has to apply when playing either with or against the wind and forcing yourself to abide by these rules is really tough.  A few years back, the major challenge with playing in the big Asian tournaments wouldn’t have been the wind, but rather the extreme heat conditions that existed before tournaments started using air-conditioned venues.  Don’t know which I would prefer, but I think I’d rather deal with the air-con…

    Anyway, I better get going now.  I’m heading to Holland tomorrow to play the Dutch Open.  I’m really looking forward to the mere 1 hour flight, as opposed to the 15 hour flights I’ve been taking over to Asia!

Train hard!

: ) Anna

October 1, 2006

Hello BC Badminton Players!!!

My name is Anna Rice and I am a professional badminton player from North Vancouver, BC.  I started playing badminton when I was 8 years old at the Hollyburn Country Club in West Vancouver.  Even though I was involved in almost every sport under the sun I loved badminton the most.  After playing in the junior and senior tournament circuits around BC and Canada for many years, at the age of twenty I decided to move to Copenhagen, Denmark and see what badminton was like over there.  As well as going to play badminton, I also studied on an exchange year from UBC at the University of Copenhagen.

     I’d heard that the sport was very popular in Denmark and I knew a lot of the World’s best players came from there so I thought I’d check it out.  Well, judging by the fact that I’m now 26 and am still living in Copenhagen you can deduce that it’s pretty awesome here!  Denmark is basically the non-Asian badminton Capital of the World.  The Danes have a long tradition in the sport and not only does everyone know what it is (a welcome change from the exhausting experience that I’m sure we’ve all had), an incredible amount of people play the sport over here.  It’s so cool to actually get respect when you say “I’m a badminton player” and not get that funny look of a response that so commonly occurs in North America.  There are over one hundred badminton halls in this small country, which is geographically about an eighth of the size of BC with just over five million residents. 

    For the past six years I have been living and training in Copenhagen, Denmark at the International Badminton Academy (IBA).  The IBA was started eight years ago by a Danish coach named Michael Kjeldsen, who was formerly involved with the National team and was Peter Gade’s personal coach.  There are about 25 players in the IBA, three of which are Canadians: myself, my boyfriend Bob Milroy and Stephan Wojcikiewicz.  The others come from Guatemala, Finland, Norway, Ireland, England, Estonia, Iran and Denmark. The purpose of the IBA is to provide a good training environment for players who come from countries where badminton isn’t a major sport. 

   As well as the IBA, another great thing about badminton in Denmark is the Team Match League that exists over here.  There are over a dozen different levels ranging from the under 10 league all the way up to the new “Badminton Liga”, which is hands down the strongest badminton team league in the world right now.  Several of the top players in the World play in the Liga, including recently-crowned Mixed Doubles World Champions Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson, former World Champions Tony Gunawan and Peter Rassmusen, as well as six other medalists from the recent World Champs!  There are 8 teams in the Liga and the matches attract big crowds and are shown on TV.  I’m happy to be playing for one of the Liga teams called the VEB, and our team of 6 guys and 4 girls includes men’s doubles World silver medalist Robert Blair from England, top Malaysian player Roslin Hashim, as well as Peter Rassmusen.  The club league has been a big part of why I have stayed in Denmark because not only is it a lot of fun but is also my job over here and helps pay for my training and tournaments. 

     This past summer was very busy for me as I played a total of 8 tournaments, all of which were in Asia except for the recent World Championships, which took place in Madrid, Spain.  At the World’s, Sarah MacMaster and I were proud to be the two British Columbians on the team.  Back in July at the Macau and Thailand Open tournaments, I met up with two other BC players, Kyle Holoboff and Richard Liang, who had been in China training for several months.  I was happy to hear about their recent experiences over many delicious Chinese and Thai dinners!  While in Macau we had a couple of days to look around and Richard showed us some cool sights.

I better wrap this up since I have a team match tomorrow and we’re currently fighting for the top spot so I have to be well rested! The purpose of this blog will be to share with you some of my experiences and let you know what it’s like to be a professional badminton player.  Badminton has taken me to over 40 countries and the experiences I’ve had as well as the people I’ve met in these different cultures have been life-changing.  From Nigeria to Brazil, Iran to Japan and a lot of places in between, I owe so much to this incredible game, which has taught me a lot both on and off the court. 

     For the younger players reading this, I hope my stories will inspire you to want to keep training hard and someday represent BC and Canada at the International level.  For the older players and coaches reading this, I have to thank you for inspiring me to pursue my dreams.  From the years of Monday/Wednesday Team BC trainings at the VLT, the Thursday night mixed ladder at the VRC, and the endless hours of multi feeding with my coach Julia Chen at Hollyburn, just to name of few examples,  I’ve learned so much from the coaches and players around BC.

    Over the next 22 months, I will be training hard and competing all around the world leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  I hope to share some of these experiences with you.  If you have any questions for me about badminton training or competing, email them to Badminton BC and I will try and answer them in the upcoming postings.

Good night! : )

Anna