Greetings from the Lake District to Paul and all forum members! Firstly I'd like to thank Paul for providing the badminton community with such a fantastic website. The majority of the limited online badminton resources can often be misleading and poorly constucted so your insightful articles are very much appreciated. I have been following the website for around a year now but decided to post on the forum after seeing Paul bemoan the lack of posters in comparison to the number of people reading the forum. Having realised that I in fact was one of those people, I reckoned it was time to contribute!

My name is Rich, im 24 years old and I play for Ambleside Badminton Club in Division 2 of the Westmorland Badminton League. I first picked up a racket at the age of 8 but due to rugby and football occupying most of my time as a youngster it wasn't until I was 18 that I started playing Badminton on a regular basis. Unfortunately injuries curtailed my passion for rugby and at University I joined the rowing team and began playing badminton twice a week. Since rowing involved 5am training I decided to concentrate on Badminton as my number one sport and have been hooked ever since! In 2008 I began playing competitively in the Westmorland League Division 2 and the relatively high standard of play has seen my game improve dramatically over the last 2 years. 

Unfortunately the closure of the University of Cumbria's Ambleside campus has resulted in the mothballing of our sports hall – this is such a shame as its a top sporting facility and it will no doubt have a huge impact on our sporting community. Hopefully we will find a way to keep the badminton club going but with the astronomic costs of other sports halls and shuttles, combined with a decline in members, this will no doubt prove difficult. Despite Badminton England claiming that Badminton is one the rise with more people playing than ever, this does not seem to be the case in Cumbria – the Westmorland League once had more than 50 teams but this season will probably see the entry of around 25-30 at best. Is this the case in your area or do you play for a club where the team members are only interested in competitive match play rather than supporting their club by regularly attending club nights? Personally I cant get enough and cannot understand why good badminton players seem disinterested by club nights.

Ok rant over! Haha! Let me tell you a bit about my standard of play. I have had little coaching and have thus developed a veritable portfolio of bad habits which I'm trying to iron out of my game. I play mixed and mens doubles at two clubs so rely mainly upon the insights of senior players to improve my game as well as the trial and error of competitive badminton. Having a rubgy background i dont exactly have an ideal badminton physique…im 6,2″ tall and weigh 17 stone but I try and use my size to intimidate my opponents and im a naturally aggressive sportsman. Unfortunately my inherently competitive nature sometimes brings my temperament into question and its probably the biggest weakness in my game, despite my technical inadequacies! Im a bit of an all rounder though, I love to hit the shuttle hard when required but have deceptively good touch for a big guy. My biggest strengths though are probably my will to win and willingness to improve. Also, just like everyone else – I absolutely detest losing!

Paul – your articles on shuttle speed are absolutely spot on…one of my biggest frustrations about our sport is the variations in the speed of shuttles. It seems that in almost every large sports hall I play in, the shuttle will barely land in the same time zone as the doubles service line when tested! Furthermore, many senior league players seem to be incredibly misguided regarding shuttle speed and how to test it. In addition to this, should I dare to question them, i am not always met with the most hospitable response!

Thanks for reading guys and I look forward to Contributing on the forum.

Rich