The best way to illustrate diversity is from this analogy. Most players want to be comfortable naturally. Take driving a car for example. Initially it is challenging. After 50 hours or so, it becomes automatic. After that, more time spent driving doesn’t improve performance. If you want to keep improving, you have to keep driving in challenging situations like new terrain, higher speeds or in difficult weather. Therefore, in order to improve, a player has to be pushed beyond their comfort zone. Explore a number of badminton academies. Different academies and coaches provide different ideas, approaches and training programs. Also watch the chemistry between the coaches and the players. If the child is unhappy or bored, it is probably time to find another club.
Ever since Kiera started swinging her racquet, she has had base training with me and my wife and assisted occasionally by her two older brothers whom were former Pjba state players. Whenever we had time or during holidays when clubs and academies were closed, we would take her to court to train and spent game time with her.
When Kiera was 10yo, she started training with an external coach arranged by her primary school. Gradually through recommendations, she switched school and joined Artsport. Later, we managed to get her in the Selangor Badminton Association to train with the state team. As she was progressing, we decided to supplement her with another academy ie. Sports Arena in Cheras Mahkota where they had a group of KLba and SBA players training there. Artsport later decided to form a separate group for the Elite players which later attracted some Pjba, KLba and SBA players. The group grew steadily and Kiera was one of the remaining pioneers there until today.
In mid 2022, at 12yo, I foresaw it will be difficult for her to get a place in the U14 category because SBA had a strong girls team in that category. There is a possibility she may not be eligible to play for 2023 JET. Therefore I decided to buy insurance and pursue the doubles category instead. Doubles require 8 players (away to non-host venues) and up to 12 players (if SBA host JET) - in the hope that she will have better opportunity to be in the doubles team in case she cannot get into singles. We decided to pair Kiera up with Felicia Ho who was then training with LJYBA. Therefore, Kiera joined LJYBA for this purpose and had to split her training days equally between Artsport and LJYBA while still attended SBA trainings.
The other reason why we went with LJYBA was because coach Lee Jian Yi was also in the panel of voluntary coaches for SBA. Obviously, by being in his academy, we belief Kiera's interest will be looked after as well. If at all.
Sometime in the 3rd Qtr or 2023, we added additional gym (coach Rosli) and physical training sessions (LJY on Sunday sessions) for fitness, agility and strength building into her training program. Therefore, I belief her progress would have, in all likelihood came from the diversity in her training programmes over the past 2 to 3 years. You can see it depicted in the colored bar chart below, a summary of her training hours (by months).
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