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Photo: Mark Phelan/Badminton Europe
Vladimir Malkov: “It’s important to build the routines”
Date: 11/7/2019 8:10 PM
Published by : Lilit Poghosyan
Russia’s Vladimir Malkov is one of the new players at Badminton Europe’s “Centre of Excellence”. Malkov joined the trainings for a week before Hungarian International Championships. Now he is back and will continue practicing with the CoE team until his next two tournaments – India International Challenge and Syed Modi International Championships. The current national champion of Russia talked to Badminton Europe about his experience as a “Centre of Excellence” player.

Malkov has been training for some time in Zhengzhou badminton academy in China. After trying out the facilities in Holbaek, he decided to practice at the “Centre of Excellence” for now.

- There is one disadvantage: China is too far, whereas the flight from Moscow to Copenhagen is only three hours. The conditions here are very good, there are lots of players but I also have the same in China. The badminton hall at the CoE is better, it’s more convenient because it’s always available for us.

Here is what he likes the most about the “Centre of Excellence”, 

- First of all, I have lots of time for trainings, for recovery and also some time to work on my own stuff. I wake up at 5:30 every day and start some work at the gym. I like the routines, it’s nice that I have my schedule for every day and that everything is very well-organized.

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Telling his story

Malkov is quite active on social media and if you are following him on Instagram, you have probably come across those long Russian posts and wondered what he is writing about. In Russia, badminton is not a popular sport and people have asked Malkov the question “Is badminton an indoor sport?” many times. Apart from promoting badminton by sharing his professional badminton player’s life with people, he also uses it as a chance to work on himself: 

-I have figured out that when I spend more time and pay more attention to the details, I understand my own mistakes, and then I start to analyse and think more about my game. It’s very beneficial for me. It’s also nice to share it with people and discuss some subjects with them.

When I asked him what his favourite place/corner in Holbaek Sportsby is, he replied without hesitation:

-The gym. I spend most of my time there. Not only practicing and using the facilities, but also just sitting there with my laptop and working. It’s a cool place. 

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Building routines 

Malkov’s favourite days of the week are Wednesdays and Fridays. The reason why he likes Fridays is simple – it’s the last day of the training week. But why Wednesdays?

-Wednesday mornings we have a multishuttle program, then strength training in the afternoon. Usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the most difficult ones but I like Wednesdays, don’t know why, he explains.

Malkov’s one day at the “Centre of Excellence” looks like this:

-I wake up at 5:30, then I have breakfast. I go to the gym for some stretching, running a little bit. I do that until around 7:00. Then I have my second breakfast at the hall. The on-court session is from 8:00 to 10:30. After lunch I take a nap a little bit before the second session starts. And then in the evening I have lots of time for myself – to study, to analyse matches, to work on myself. You know, it’s not only badminton in life and it’s very important to build the routines. 

-I always try to do something over the weekend and it doesn’t matter which country I am in. Now that I am in Denmark, I will most probably visit Copenhagen. 
©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

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