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Badminton World Federation Coach Level 1 Course Barbados January 10-16, 2015 ~ Richard Gregory Wong

3/30/2015

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I was contacted by German Valdez, PanAm Development Director, last October and asked to conduct a BWF Coach Level 1 course in Barbados. The original date for the course was December 6-13. This date fell through however, as Barbados had a little difficulty securing the location for the course to be held. I was later contacted in December and asked if I could conduct the course in January 2015. I agreed to host the course then.

I left Jamaica on January 9th to go to Barbados. It was a good flight with only one stop in Antigua. Upon arriving in Barbados I was greeted by the president of the Barbados Badminton Association, Mr. Kevin Wood. We got aquainted with each other on the short trip to the hotel, Dover Beach Hotel.

The hotel was quite nice. The receptionist, Chan (not sure of the spelling), was very nice and quickly took care of my check-in. She then asked the security guard, Mike, to take me to my room. The room was located in another two storey building. While not being large, the room was comfortable. I found the amenities of the room quite useful. There was a mini-fridge, a microwave oven, and an electric kettle - all the stuff I needed to "cook" or at least prepare some meals.

After settling in and relaxing a bit, I decide to go and check if German had gotten in. He was at the reception desk when I got there. We then spoke about the schedule for the week and he thanked me for answering the call to come and deliver the course. We spoke about the plan for the following day and then said good night to go and rest.

We met early the next morning and German offered to buy me breakfast at the little restuarant by the hotel pool. Food was ok, BUT EXPENSIVE! After breakfast we waited on Kevin to come and collect us. When Kevin arrived, we jumped into the car and went off to the location. The course was being conducted at Barbados Community College, approxiamately 15 mins away from the hotel. We we walked inside I saw one or two familiar faces. We then went up to the classroom. Kevin, being the president, went up to start off the proceedings. He introduced German (which was redundant... who doesn't know German?? :) ), then introduced me. German said a few words and then turned the floor over to me.

I gave a brief history of my coaching experience and the started off the course. Eleven persons were present to take part in the course - Sabrina Scott, Gloria Chung, Shari Hope, Caroline Vaughn, Mariamma Eastmond, Kevin Wood, Marc Trotman, Bradley Pilgrim, Sabeel Foster, Jade Brown, and Jevon Gaskin.

After all the introductions had taken place we dove into the course. We covered a few modules through presentations, group work, and exchanging dialogue.

At around 1:00pm we got the nod for lunch. We went down to the hall where a table was laid out buffet style. There was a kind of seasoned rice, chicken, macaroni "pie", steamed vegetables (broccoli, carrots and pumpkin), a salad, and a gravy. THE FOOD WAS GREAT!!! The menu changed slightly each day, but the chicken, steamed vegetables and salad were constants - still no complaints here.

After lunch we did practical work on the courts.The second day was similar to the first, and by the end of the first two days we had covered 8 of the 12 modules in the Coach Level 1 Manual. After that point we covered a module per day for the next 4 days, and the rest of the day was spent preparing lesson plans and other documents.

On Saturday night (the second night I was there), I was invited out to dinner by German. Kevin came and picked us up and we went to Oistin's. If you go to Barbados and you like/love seafood GO TO OISTIN'S!!! We went to "Uncle George" restuarant and had the grilled marlin. I got three nice sized steaks of marlin, a little salad, and garlic baked potato. IT WAS AWESOME!!! The grilled swordfish is also good, I had that on a second visit later on in the week. On Monday evening I was taken back to the hotel by Gloria, who gave me a mini tour. I really appreciated it, as it showed me a route for me to go jogging through the "hip strip" of St. Lawrence Gap. Upon getting back to the hotel, I quickly changed and went for a nice two mile jog, taking my newly found route.

By the end of the course 3 persons were fully certified as they had taken part in a previous course and only needed some practical hours to become certified. The three are Gloria Chung, Mariamma Eastmond, and Kevin Wood. Seven persons were granted provisional passes. They have to present documentation to support 4 more lessons and after submission of these documents I will evaluate and grant the final certification. On the last day of the course I handed out certificates to those who had passed. German and I said a few words of appreciation to the participants, and the particpants showed their gratitude to us by way of a small speech and a few souvenirs which included a picture frame with a signed collage of photos from throughout the course.

After the presentation ceremony we went home to relax a bit and get ready for dinner. German and myself were treated to dinner by the BBA and we went to a sports bar called "Bubba's". I had a 16oz burger. IT WAS MASSIVE!!

After dinner we went back to the hotel where I said "Goodbye" to German as he had an earlier morning flight and this would be the last time I would see him for this trip.The next morning I woke up, took a taxi to the airport and headed back home. It was a awesome trip where I met wonderful people and had a great experience!


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ShuttleTime in JA ~ Richard Gregory Wong

3/27/2015

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ShuttleTime - Insports
I was contracted by the Jamaica Badminton Association (JBA) to host a ShuttleTime Course for Officers of The Institute Of Sports (Insports). This course took place on November 6-7, 2014, at the G.C. Foster College in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica. The idea behind this was to teach the Insports officers from across the island so they could go back into their areas of operations and start badminton programs. Thirteen participants registered for the course - five women and eight men.
The course employed a two day format. The first day was used to introduce the sport, the program, and the resources to the candidates. They were also placed into groups and tasked with preparing and presenting lessons to the other participants (non-members of their group) who were acting as students.
The second day was the evaluation day. The candidates were evaluated as they presented lessons to kids from the surrounding community. Nine kids (six boys and three girls) were present to participate as students.
At the end of the course, nine candidates were successful. Three were further identified as potential candidates for ShuttleTime Tutor certification.

ShuttleTime
I was also contacted by German Valdez and asked to co-host (with Audley Astwood) another ShuttleTime course on November 27-29, 2014. This course was put on by the JBA in collaboration with the Pan-Am Badminton Confederation. The course was geared towards teachers from primary and preparatory school from the corporate area (although two teachers fro Montego Bay also took part in the program). Seventeen teachers from ten schools participated in the course.
This course was hosted over three days.
The first day was used to introduce the sport, the program and the course contents and resources. They were also put into groups and presented lessons to the other participants. The second day was also used to prepare and present lessons. The third day was used for evaluations. Students from another local coach were invited to participate in the evaluation sessions. Fifteen teachers successfully completed the course. The two unsuccessful candidates need only to arrange evaluation session to become certified.

BWF Coach Level 1A BWF Coach Level 1 course was also arranged by the JBA and Pan-Am. In speaking with German, I was asked to come on board with the Coach Level 1 course for the evaluation section on the the course. This was to assist Howard Ranger, as the other coach who was asked to assist (Stephen Kitchin), had opted not to participate. This evaluation exercise was also used to help me prepare for my delivery of the BWF Level 1 Course in Barbados in January 2015. At the end of this course, six coached acheived BWF Coach Level 1 certification.


ShuttleTIme Trainer
At the end of the Coach Level course certificates were given out to the participants of the two courses. I also received my certificates from the courses I completed in September 2012. These are BWF Coach Level 1, BWF Tutor - Coach Level 1 and BWF ShuttleTime Tutor Level 1. I was also surprised with another certificate - BWF ShuttleTime Trainer. This new certification means I am now officially certified to train BWF ShuttleTime Tutors. Tutors are the persons certified to train the ShuttleTime Teachers.
It was announced during this presentation that Howard Ranger and myself are the only two BWF Coach Level 1 Tutors in the English speaking Caribbean and two of only a few in the Pan-Am region. Audley Astwood and myself are two of four official ShuttleTime Tutors in the English Speaking Caribbean. I am the only person to have both BWF Tutor - Coach Level 1 and  BWF ShuttleTime Tutor and now the only BWF ShuttleTime Trainer in the English speaking Pan-Am region.
Coaching Assignments 
As mentioned earlier, I have been asked to deliver the BWF Coach Level 1 course in January 2015 in Barbados. In other talks with German, I may also travel to Peru in April to attend a 3-4 day meeting concerning coaching development in the Pan-Am region.

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Badminton in Trinidad  ~ Richard Gregory Wong

5/4/2013

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On March 17, 2013 I travelled to Trinidad to host the Badminton World Federation's ShuttleTime Pliot course. Shuttle Time is BWF'S program to make badminton the most popular school sport in the world. It is geared towards teaching teachers how to teach badminton in school and focuses lessons on kids aged 5-15. Teachers are given three main resources, these are : the Teacher's Manual, the Lesson Plans and access to video clips.

The course began on the Monday, March 18.

On my first and second day of the course, my focus was on teaching local coaches about the program. The aim of this was to identify other possible Tutors. Tutors are the ones that teach the teachers. Twelve coaches attended first day, eleven in the second day.

Third and fourth day was spent working with teachers from secondary schools across the island. Twenty-nine attended first day, and twenty-five on the second day.

Final day was spent working with the tutors, who oversaw the teachers while the delivered lesson to kids. In the morning 10 kids from one of the teachers' high school attended and then in the afternoon twenty-five kids for a nearby primary school attended. All enjoyed the course.

Six coaches were recommended as Tutors (five local coaches and one from Florida) and approxiamately 24 teachers were recommended as Shuttle Time Teachers.

With the recommendation of the five local tutors, Trinidad now has a sustainable program as the next time there is a need to implant  the program the local Tutors will be used.

http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-BADMINTON-199970341.html
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Professionalism of the RJR Sports Foundation

1/27/2013

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After our experience at the RJR Sportsman and Sportswoman Award Ceremony, Charles wrote an email on behalf of himself and Katherine, to inform the chairman of the RJR Sports Foundation, Mr. Gary Allen of our experience.  Charles received a phone call from Mr. Allen within 30 minutes of sending the email to apologize for our experience and that he will launch an investigation to find out what happened that night.  I just want to comment on how professional and personable, Mr. Allen was in handling the matter in such a prompt manner.  Although badminton is not a big, well known sport in Jamaica compared to other sports such as athletics, football or cricket, Mr. Allen's response demonstrated that he and the RJR SPorts Foundation have an appreciation for all sports regardless of status. 
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Day 11: Likkle more Jamaica! Wi soon come back!

1/21/2013

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It is with mixed feelings that we are saying good bye to Jamaica today.  It has been a wonderful 11 days in this beautiful tropical paradise.  Despite not being able to tan on the beach or swim in the ocean, we have met many wonderful people on our trip which include many raising stars in the sport of badminton!  It never ceases to amaze me the amount of talent there is in Jamaica.  I truly believe that with the right plans and programs in place, Jamaica can and will become a power house in badminton on the world stage.  The athletes have the drive, dedication and strength to achieve great things.  What is missing, in my opinion, are the resources  necessary to help these athletes develop into the stars that they are.  Badminton may be seen as an individual sport for some, but to me, badminton is also a collective sport.  One cannot improve and thrive without the support of others.  People are needed to spar with, to compete against, and most importantly to encourage and motivate each other to push harder and to lend a hand when we are down.  In order to develop athletes and foster their development and growth, one must look at the entire program along with the individual athletes involved.  Development of a sport should be holistic, current and relevant to adapt to the changes that are taking place around us. 

With that said, I hope everyone who participated in our training clinic or came out for the exhibition had enjoyed their time as much as we had enjoyed ours.  We look forward to coming back to Jamaica for future projects.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments about our programs or badminton in general, we are more than happy to assist in any way we can.  We can be reached at info@cpbf.org. 

Take Care Jamaica and we shall see each other again in the near future!
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Day 10: Clash of Champion!

1/20/2013

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The day has finally come for the Clash of Champions!  After months of preparation, the exhibition signifies the end of our debut in Jamaica.  For the exhibition we had about 150 people come out to support the events.  These people included some past All Jamaica Champions, JBA council members, CBA board members, participants from our training clinics, parents of our participants, people from Kingston and Mandeville (thank you for taking the time to drive to Kingston to take part in our exhibition)!  We also had a raffle draw to help raise funds for the foundation and people were supportive by purchasing tickets which got them a chance at one of our draw prizes which included two top of the line Li-Ning racquets!

Thank you everyone for making it a huge success!  The exhibition featured our founder, Charles Pyne along with 3 other current and past All Jamaica Champions Gareth Henry, Garron Palmer, and Bradley Graham. Online voting was used to help determine which two champions will face off against each other.  After more than 1000 votes, the match up between Garron Palmer and Bradley Graham was in the lead heading into the exhibition with a whopping 397 votes.  After a round of live voting using a decibel metre to measure the cheering of the crowd, Garron and Bradley's match was still in front.  Two singles matches were played with the first singles match featured Charles Pyne and Gareth Henry and the second singles match, our main event as voted by the public was between Garron Palmer and Bradley Graham.  Then the champions played a doubles match of the team of Charles Pyne and Bradley Graham (the two old man) against the younger team of Garron Palmer and Gareth Henry.  All matches went to three sets and the four put on a spectacular show for the audience which showcased their athleticism, speed and power.

All in all, the night could not have been successful without our group of extraordinary volunteers: Kibwe Smith, Ruth Williams, Kemar Valentine, Kareem Chin, Kerrie-anne Tucker, Kathryn Prendergast, Kathrine Wynter, Jemarey Gordon, Demarley Edwards, Toni-Ann Lyew, Shelby Stephensons, Willroy Myles, and Oshane Morgan.   Also, a big thank you to our directors Chris Zacca, Richard (Gregory) Wong, and Kingsley Ford for all their hard work over the past few months!

THANK YOU ALL! 

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Day 9: Unfortunate turn of events

1/19/2013

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This morning we woke up early, met up with a friend and headed over to Charles' family friend's house for breakfast as we did last Saturday except we were actually on time today and didn't show up an hour late on hour last visit.  We enjoyed a lovely breakfast as always which also included ackee and saltfish!   The food was so good and we were so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of it before eating it all!!!!  After breakfast we even got a fruit basket because Chris was a new guest!!  This time I did take a photo and there were mangoes, guavas, and Otaheiti apples.  They were so juicy!!!  Of course I had a field day again with the hummingbird and this time we saw a baby humming.  Also, Charles made another presentation about CPBF and we networked with some people there. 
While we were having breakfast and networking, we were hoping to find someone who could give us a ride down to Mandeville.  As you will remember from yesterday, we had a leaking tire while we were in Mandeville and was told by the mechanics that it would not be advisable to drive back to Mandeville in the car's current condition.  We called a few friends to see if we could convince them to come down to Mandeville with us or to borrow their car, but unfortunately since it was such short notice, everyone already had plans.  As a group, we decided it was best for us to cancel our afternoon session in Mandeville.  Charles then made the difficult phone call of information Ranger of the change in plans.  To all of the participants of this afternoon, we are truly sorry that we could not make it down as we heard that many of you were looking forward to it.  We hope you had a great training session without us and we will for sure try to make it up to you guys the next time we are down. 

In the evening we had a dinner that was hosted by the JBA to thank Charles for his contribution to the sport.  It was really nice to see some of the national players that Charles used to train and play with at international tournaments such as the Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games and Championship.  These people were Alya Lewis (who coaches some of the junior players), Kristal Karjohn, Christine Leyow-Maine, and Bradley Graham (it was also his birthday today).  This dinner certainly gave Chris and I a glimpse of the badminton world in Jamaica.  Then after the dinner, some of us headed over to Wyndham for some cheesecake at the recommendation of Kerrie-ann, who was with us for dinner.  We were so glad she recommended Wyndham to us because the cheesecake was so good!!!  We ordered Rum & Raisin Cheesecake and the Red Velvet Cake.  It was heavenly and we also had a small taste of the Red Velvet Cheesecake which was drenched in rum..... *drool*

Now it's time for bed as tomorrow is the Clash of Champions and there's still lots to do! 
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Day 8: There's never a dull moment.

1/18/2013

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We had quite the eventful day today.  We started our day with two sessions at NCU, 9-10:30am and 10:30-12pm where we had many new faces join us but also a few returning players from last night.  Then we went for lunch in the city and enjoyed some curry goat.  Ranger then took us over to Ingleside Wellness and Recreation Centre for us to rest before our 3:30pm session.  When we arrived at the club and got out of the car, we heard a hissing sound like something was leaking.  With some investigation, we discovered that one of our tires was leaking air rapidly through its valve.  So now we have to add in changing and fixing a tire to our schedule of activities.  While, Chris, Charles and Ranger busied themselves with changing the tire, I took the liberty of taking pictures for this blog :)  After changing the tire, Ranger and Charles took the tire to get fixed while Chris and I looked after our belongings at the centre.  We managed to get the tire fixed but was advised by the mechanic that the tire may not hold up for long and that driving back to Kingston is manageable but coming back tomorrow may be an issue.  With that, we left the centre and headed over to DeCarteret College (DC) to begin our evening sessions. 
We ran 3 sessions at DC from 3:30-10pm with a half hour break at 5:30pm.   DC has two courts in its gym and for the first group we had about 20 people who were beginners.  We were at first wary of how we can fit so many people on court but with the creativity of our coaches and help from the participants we were able to maximize our court space.  We went through some basic drills with them involving net shots, drop shots, and clears and the participants learned so quickly that by the end of the session they were doing drives amongst themselves.   Then for the 6:00-8:00pm group, we had 12 intermediate players.  With this group, we did basic drills with the addition of drills that involved movements such as utilizing basic footwork to do drop and net shots.  Once again, the participants are very quick to learn and very receptive to what we are sharing with them.  The last group (8-10pm) we had 12 advance players.    With this group, we put them through a grueling warm up which involved a lot of footwork and then put them through drills that involved a lot of movement.  Everyone worked hard and pushed themselves!!!  We've seen many talented players and there are some future stars in our presence!

We concluded our day at 10pm and cannot say we were looking forward to the drive back to Kingston especially with the knowledge that the tire can burst at any minute.  So needless to say the drive back was both exciting and scary at the same time.  I must say I am very impressed with the driving skills of the people in Jamaica because I don't know how they can manage to drive on roads that are barely big enough for two cars without having to slow down and dodging pot-holes at the same time when there's an on-coming car on a winding road on the mountain.  There were a few occasions where I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw an on-coming car and the road did not look like it was big enough for the two cars.  Kudos to all the drivers and especially our driver Charles, who was extremely tired after a long day of coaching and driving for an hour to get us back home safe.  

Our feet are sore and we can barely keep our eyes open but we had a great time coaching today.  Off to bed we go and tomorrow will be our last day of training clinic in Mandeville, hopefully we can find another car to use! 

I have to apologize that some of the pictures are not great because of the lighting at DC and this amateur photographer does not how to use the camera beyond point and shoot to compensate for the lighting.  

Tip of the day: When going to the net, remember to point your toe in the director you are going to prevent injuries.
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Day 7: Start of training clinic in Mandeville

1/17/2013

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Today is the start of our training clinic in Mandeville.  Mandeville is a city about 89 km away from Kingston which is about an hour's drive.  We began our drive to Mandeville around 1pm after enjoying some absolutely to die for stew peas by Ms. Lorna.  The drive was nice and the beginning part of it reminded me of driving in Toronto with the highway, as we got off the highway, the road was much more narrower.  

We did three sessions today.  We met up with Howard Ranger (aka Ranger), who is the Jamaican National Coach for the Junior Team and he runs many of the coaching programs in Mandeville.  Ranger helped us in setting up all of our training clinics in Mandeville.  We started at Bishop Gibson High School, which is an all girl school.  We did a two hour session there with 12 girls.  Then we had a quick dinner break at a local restaurant where we enjoyed oxtail, tripe and beans, and baked chicken.  Then we were off to North Caribbean University (NCU) for our evening sessions.  We ran two sessions, 6-8pm and 8-10pm.  The NCU's gymnatorium is a 5 court facility with wooden floor.  We had close to 40 people come out for one of the session and sometimes as the session went on, we noticed the group was getting larger in number as more people dropped by and joined in.  It was great to see so many people interested in the sport.  

Tomorrow we start again at 9am at NCU.  We want to thank the Baileys of Mandeville for taking us in tonight and giving us a place to stay so we don't have to drive back to Kingston and back in the morning.  Thank you for sharing your beautiful home with us and also Sean Wilson, who came out to NCU to personally escort us to the Baileys at such late hours.  We really appreciate the hospitality shown to us by the people in Mandeville!

Tip of day: Proper warm up and cool down are necessary for injury prevention!
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Day 6: Last day of training clinic in Kingston

1/16/2013

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We started off the day by visiting some family friends and relatives of Charles and then it was back to the grind. Today is our last day of running training clinic in Kingston.  We ran our usual two sessions (4-6pm and 6-8pm) and most are returning players from previous days.  For the first group we worked on overhead shots and drives and we ended at the end with a little team match.  The second group, we started off by playing Diamond (8 people per court and players are not allowed to hit the bird twice in a row) and then we put them through some multi-shuttles drills for skills and speed.  We also ended the session by playing a team match which got everyone in high spirits cheering for their fellow team members.  

We had enjoyed our time doing the coaching clinic in Kingston tremendously and we hope that everyone who came out had a great time as well.  We will be off to Mandeville tomorrow to start our 3 day training clinic there.

Tip of the day: Keep your racquet up!
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    Angie Lau is the Operations Director of CPBF.  She's been involved in badminton for over 15 years as a player and coach.

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