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(Photo: Badminton Photo)
Brian Yang: A kind of different training
Date: 11/27/2020 11:17 AM
Published by : Alan Raftery
The 2019 Pan American Games silver medallist, Brian Yang of Canada, trained at Badminton Europe’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) this month and shares his experience. 

The CoE is a training base for talented and deserving players from all over Europe, however, players from all over the world have become a regular feature of this growing facility. The long-term vision is for the CoE is to become a vehicle for extended cooperation amongst nations and benefit the overall development of European and World Badminton.

Having players like Brian Yang, 19, who is currently world number 58 in men’s singles is certainly in line with this vision. 

- I trained at the CoE in between the Danish Open and SaarLorLux Open tournaments, and it was actually Badminton Canada who made the arrangements for me to train there with the other Canadians because they wanted us to stick together throughout the whole trip. Back home, I was training almost every day, but we do have some protocols like keeping distance, minimising the number of people on court, using hand sanitizer and masks, etc.

The move was well-received by Yang.

- I think it was good for me to train there, both to keep in shape between tournaments but also to experience a kind of different training and to spar with different players.

- I was mostly training to keep my fitness level up in preparation for the SaarLorLux Open, he added.

The SaarLorLux Open was subsequently a great success for the young Canadian, as he reached the semifinal of the BWF World Tour Super 100 event. 

Train harder 
With fresh eyes on the centre, Yang talks through the pros and cons of stepping out from what he is used to and training at the CoE.

- I think the pros are that I'm able to have better sparring at the CoE than at home, and there are a lot of facilities at my disposal that I can use pretty much whenever I want. Some cons include getting used to the food and the food options, as well as the training being not what I'm used to, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, Yang points out.
 
A common statement about the CoE from players is how welcoming everyone is at the setup, making integration easier for the new additions. 
 
- Training at the CoE was great, everyone was really friendly, including the coaches, and there was always a really fun and light vibe at training, especially with the music playing. I made a lot of friends really quickly while I was there. Everyone is really eager to train and they motivate you to train harder as well, Yang confirms. 

Daily routine
While at the CoE, a player’s training is organised in a lot of detail. Yang talks through his daily routine in Denmark. 

- Most days there is a morning practice that starts at 8 am, and then an afternoon practice that starts at 2 or 2:30 pm. There are designated times for doing multi-shuttle, matches, technique, and using the gym, so everything is very organised. 

-Usually, I woke up at around 6:45, had breakfast, went to training, had lunch right after the morning session, took a nap before the afternoon session, then after the afternoon session I would either relax in my room and eat dinner a bit later or go out to buy some groceries or just hang out with friends. I only got to use the gym and the badminton courts while I was there, but if I stayed longer, I'm sure I would've used the pool, sauna, and track pretty often.

After a strong end to 2020 for Yang, with a semifinal finish in Germany and then a new training experience in Denmark, he is looking forward to the festive period.

- For Christmas, I just plan on maybe relaxing for a day before getting back to the daily grind, because 2021 starts off with the Asian leg tournaments in Thailand which I might play if I can make the draw, then there are some important tournaments in Canada, and then there's the remainder of Olympic qualification, so the start of 2021 will be pretty busy for me.

For more information about the CoE and to register interest, click here

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