Watch the birdie! A sport takes flight
As a child, Liu Bin was sent by his father to a sports school in Jiangxi Province. A lollipop shaped wooden racquet was his sole piece of athletic equipment, and the concrete floor was so hard that it damaged his knees whenever he fell.
The austere start didn’t dim the young lad’s love of badminton. Today, 30 years later, Liu is the founder of the Yizhan Badminton Club in Minhang, where he and his team strive to provide an ideal sports environment to train children and nurture in them a real passion for the sport.
“See the wooden floor here,” said Liu, pointing at the club’s badminton arena. “We laid vinyl flooring over it to reduce abrasions from falling. We have also improved the lighting.”
Liu Bin teaching students in the stadium
After leaving professional badminton in 2000, Liu became a trainer at the Changning Sports School, the sort of dream job sought by many retired athletes. But in 2008, Liu quit the job and settled in Minhang to establish a partnership with schools and seek out new opportunities.
“I felt that Minhang, as a newer district, would have more potential,” he said. “In the city center, where every meter of land is priceless, it’s hard to find big facilities suitable for sports.”
According to Minhang’s Three-Year Plan of basic school construction, every school is required to provide a basketball court, a swimming pool and a sports stadium.
It’s all part of the district’s desire to focus on physical education as well as exam results.
A 2016 survey of 100,000 primary and middle school students across China found that children weren’t engaging in enough high-intensity physical activity and were spending too much time every day in front of digital screens.
“A booklet of guidelines was published to rectify the declining physical condition of Chinese youngsters, which included obesity and poor eyesight,” said Jiang Fan, a professor at the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center.
It was the first booklet of its kind.
Badminton fits comfortably into the aims of the program. It’s a relatively easy sport to play and doesn’t require elaborate or expensive equipment. The sport not only improves the physical condition of students but also teaches them teamwork and a positive attitude toward the life.
“When they lost a game for the first time, some children would cry like it’s the end of world or would throw their racquets to the ground, or would angrily vow never to play,” Liu said. “It’s important to teach them how to deal with failure and carry on.”
He noted news reports about students committing suicide when they encounter obstacles they don’t think they can overcome.
“It’s true that teenagers are facing more pressure nowadays,” he said. “That’s why it’s important to cultivate the right attitude at an early age.”
Liu’s Yizhan Badminton Club has worked with dozens of schools in the district and has trained over 500 students since it opened.
“The Minhang sports bureau has helped us along the way,” he said. “They point us to schools in need or help and organize meetings with sports clubs. It’s a chance for us to share information and ideas. The resources we have can’t compete without what the government can offer.”
Liu said he has seen great progress in the fields of national fitness and competitive sports in recent years.
In 2000, when he first came to Shanghai with his big dreams, what he found wasn’t what he expected. There didn’t seem to be any demand for professional badminton coaches, even though the game is second only to table tennis as the most played sport in the nation.
Because it’s easy to play, local residents simply batted the shuttlecocks wherever they could — in local parks, on streets or in wide corridors.
“At the time, people didn’t see a need for any professional badminton courts when they could just play the sport almost anywhere,” Liu said.
But that perception has changed dramatically.
Badminton is now not only just a leisure activity, but also a serious sports challenge for those who want to learn the skills of lift, block, drive, smash and serve. They get a thrill when playing on a professional court and perhaps harbor dreams of joining the national team someday.
“Sport and fitness are the new hot trends in China,” Liu said. “People now relate to badminton champions like Lin Dan, who is considered cool, funky and edgy.”
The youngest children brought by the parents to Liu’s facility are still in kindergarten. Introducing them to the sport at such a young age bodes well for the future of the sport, Liu said.
