A new year, a new man

Well I am very glad that 2011 is over after having a tough year regarding badminton. I certainly think I had a bad year and I was glad to go into 2012. 1 of the major bad periods for me was in November when I received a black card in a quarterfinal match in Norway. I have never felt lower and more disappointed in myself before. After receiving that card I had quite a few days without much food and without much sleep. It took some time for me to put this thought towards the back of my head and try to push on with training and playing but I had a lot of problems when it came to my matches that the thought kept coming back to me. I spent many hours thinking of ways to deal with it and things I should do to change how I behave on court as something needed to change because in my eyes receiving a black card, there is something wrong going on. I was lucky enough to get a opportunity to meet with a highly rated mental coach which 1 of my best friends here in Denmark is using. I met him for the 1^st time on the 23^rd December. I had been told before this meeting that we would sit down and have a talk and after he would then decide if he thought it was right for me and him to work together. After 1 hour he said ok I think its enough for today as we spoke about quite a few things and he felt that 1 hour was enough for 1 day. Suddenly 2 hours after that we then ended our first meeting. Since that day I feel like I have changed in many ways. I am delighted to have met this guy and delighted that after our first meeting he said he would love to work with me. I had a great Christmas in Denmark with my girlfriend and her family and on the 26^th December I started my 15-day crazy physical program, which I loved every minute of. I had my first tournament last week in Estonia where I lost in the semifinal. I had to retire as I had hurt my wrist in my quarterfinal match, which got worse and worse the more I played. I came home on Sunday and had treatment the same day and Monday. It has been getting better and better each day so I am ready to leave for Sweden tomorrow to play Swedish Open. Today I also received the final decision from BWF that I would get a fine for the black card in Norway. I am of course very happy with that, as it could have been a lot worse. I am glad that BWF could see that even though the situation is not very good, it has been very positive for me as I have learnt so much from this experience and I feel like I go improve my badminton came in the long run. I would like to thank a lot of people who have stood by me even when I have made mistakes and when things haven’t been going so well. All you of out there know exactly who you are. I would like to thank Badminton Ireland for the constant support and also badminton Europe and BWF for there support.

Thanks

Scott

French Open and the last 3 weeks...

Well it has been 1 month since i wrote my last blog. A lot has been happening in the last month. I will start with French Open. Last year I lost first round of qualification to the Swedish number one Henri Hurskainen. This year I was straight into the main draw and I played Brice Leverdez from France. I have played Brice quite a few times as we have been training together quite a lot in the past. The last time Brice and I met was in Dutch Open…..

go to www.scottevansireland.com and read more :-)

thanks

scott

Funny Story from Holland….

Funny Story from Dutch Open…

On Wednesday evening after I came back from my late night match I decided to have a cold bath. I sometimes do it as I feel it helps my legs to recover. I got back to my room at 12 o clock Wednesday night and turned on the bath and switched the tap to as cold as it would go and went into the bedroom to stretch some more before getting into the bath. I was doing the same at Czech Open a couple of weeks ago and the bath there took forever to fill up so I didn’t really look at the water for a while because I had the feeling it would take ages. I then checked and it was half way over the overflow pipe so I ran into the bathroom and turned it off. I went back into my room to finish off my stretch and during the next 5minutes Sam came back and we just talked about the match a bit.. suddenly there was a huge bang on the door and me and Sam looked at each other and thought WHAAAT… I was actually without clothing at the time but still decided to go to the door and answer it as for some reason I had a feeling it was Jim at the door. I then opened the door and there was a tall, bold Dutch man standing at the door shouting “I NEED TO COME IN” “WHATS HAPPENING?!?” “IT IS RAINING IN THE ROOM BELOW YOU” and he tried to come into the room… I said wait wait wait.. I don’t have any clothes on.. so he said ok put some clothes on quickly I need to come in. So I ran and put something on and ran back to the door and let him in and he ran into the bathroom. Our overflow pipe was broken so when I let the water go half way over it all the water was running down the walls and down into the room below us instead of into the pipes. All outside our room in the main corridor was floor was soaking wet and it started coming into our room all along side the wall were the bath is so our floor was soaking. The room below us had rain for 15minutes J I stood talking to the guy about it and we started to laugh that someone in the room below had called saying “its raining, its raining in our room” haha!! He then put his hand into the bath to put the plug back in once the water was quite a bit lower than the overflow pipe and felt how cold the water was and turned to me and started laughing again… he said - your insane… what are you doing? That water is absolutely freezing!!! Are you out of your mind?! I then had to explain to him the reason for it..

J what a Wednesday night we had!!!

Dutch Open 2010

Dutch Open 2010

Hey,

I had a good week this week here in Holland. I have not played this tournament for a few years but the last time I played I lost in the 3^rd round to Eric Pang in 3 sets. I remembered the hall quite well and remembered that I liked to play there. That gave me a bit of confidence once I entered the hall on Tuesday evening to have a hit before playing my first match Wednesday mid-day. First up was Saber Afif from Holland. I have not…

go to www.scottevansireland.com and read more :-)

Thanks

Scott

Czech Open Final

Hey everyone,

Well last week was an interesting and exciting week. Czech Open was the first time in quite a few years where i have played singles and doubles in the same tournament. The reason for me playing doubles was because Tony is away in India and i thought it would be fun to play a tournament with Sam and i also thought it would take my mind of the singles a little bit and that it did!! First up in the singles was Ashley Moss from Australia. I have never played Ashley before and I watched him play the day before in the qualifying rounds. I beat Ashley 21 11 22 20. The 2nd set.....

Please visit www.scottevansireland.com to read more :-)

Thanks everyone.

Scott

Autumn Open and Czech Open

Autumn Open and Czech Open....

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting this blog up.. seems like my days are getting shorter and shorter. Last week i was back in Ireland to play Autumn Open. I decided to play this tournament for a few reasons. Firstly – I have never won Autumn Open before and i wanted to J and i figured that it would be a good lead up to Czech Open for some confidence. To me it doesnt really matter what kind of tournament it is.. If i win i will still get the same feeling. The last time i played it was when i was 15/16(i had my 16th birthday on the saturday of the tournament) I lost in the quarter final to Nigel Boyne in 3 sets. I can remember the game very clearly J court 3 in whitehall road... Secondly – I

go to www.scottevansireland.com to read more :-)

Thanks everyone

Its been a while since my last blog...

Well its been some time since my last blog. I last updated here after my defeat at Bitburger Open and i that match is still on my mind in some kind of way. I should ofcourse should just forget about it and move on but for some reason i am finding it hard to do after this match. It was just a very strange feeling to have to go into a tournament feeling that good and then not play even close to the level i feel i can reach. Many things could be part of why i did not play well but then again a lot of the reasons are things that i have no control over. 1 thing i have learnt from Bitburger is....

Go to www.scottevansireland.com and read more :-)

Thanks

Scott