Popping in to say Hello

Hello Everyone,

Well I have managed to get a few minutes to drop in to say hello. It has been a hectic few days and training has been hard but really enjoyable. Yesterday I had one of those really gruelling sessions. On Court of 90 minutes then my bike ride with Lauge which was followed by weights in the evening. Tomorrow I have another hard day and I get to play my good friend HK Vittinghus in the afternoon. He is just back from a serious injury and has also been picked for Denmark for the Thomas Cup so I delighted for him for that achievement especially after the hard time he has had of late. He has his own blog that you can visit at http://www.hkvittinghus.blogspot.com/.
On Friday im returning to Ireland for the Irish Nationals but my stay will be short as Im back in Denmark on Sunday evening. Come along to Baldoyle to say hello. Would be great to see a nice crowd there.
I am starting Danish lessons to shortly as i need to get a grasp of the language. I say that will be fun!! Next for me on the International circuit is the Thomas Cup in Holland where I get to play for Ireland. I just love to play for my country, its something that Im really proud off. Then the following week its the Austrian Open.

take care all

Scott

Back In Denmark and Training Hard

Hi All,

Just popping in to say hello. Im back in Denmark now after my two weeks away in Asia. Flight home was a bit dodgy and nearly missed my connection at Paris to but not to worry all back safe and sound now.
Had training this morning and did a good weight session. I really enjoyed it. Im looking forward to the Irish Nationals in Baldoyle next week. I just love going home to play. A few days after that I have a massive club game which should decide who gets promotion to the Danish premier league so again something to look forward to. Loads of positives and loads to work on and build on.

All the best

Scott

BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE

Hello Everyone,

Its very hard to come on here and report on a second consecutive defeat in Super Series qualifiers. I was beaten today by Rajiv Ouseph 22-20 21-14. Its probably been the worst two badminton weeks for me ever when I think about it.

Im just having a crisis of confidence lately and no matter how much you try and dismiss it to back of your mind it just seems to crop up. I had a good chat with Lauge and Peter Gade after the game and they advised me as to what went wrong. Think maybe im just putting to much pressure on myself.

Anyway Im just going to continue to work and get thru this bad patch. You have to have a bad patch to appreciate the goods ones. Im heading back to Denmark on Thursday for a week then it will be back to Ireland to play in Irish Nationals in Baldoyle so Im looking forward to that and hopefully I will get that winning feeling again.

Again the guys at badmintonphoto got some good shots of me as you can see above. Thanks so much to Raphael for supplying these.

Talk soon and thank you all for your support.

Scott

Next Stop Korea

Hi all,

I arrived in Korea last night. Yesterday we had to fly from KL to Hong Kong and then from HK to Seoul. They didn't give us are boarding cards in KL for are flight to Seoul which was a little bit strange but when we arrived we suddenly realised why... they like most airlines companies had over booked the flight and because we couldn't check in before all the seats had been taken we were left scratching our heads. The next flight was not for three hours so they gave us 50 Euro and moved us up to business class for are flight. So in the end it wasn't all that bad!! We arrived in Seoul last night and then had to take a 1 hour bus journey to our hotel. The driver must have been very cold as the temperature on the bus was about 35degrees.... nightmare!!! We were glad to get out of that bus i can tell u :) This morning I am training with Peter Gade. Peter has just arrived from Denmark after missing the Malaysian Open. Kenneth Jonassen will maybe join us later on. Looking forward to training with Peter and having a good session!! I had a good sleep last night so all is good...

Talk Later Scott

Back Training

Hi All,

Well I'm back at it now after my defeat the other day. Time to put that behind me and move on. This morning I went to KLRC club in KL to train with Lauge. I have been invited there to use there facilities while I'm here in Malaysia. Its a very nice club and I enjoyed the session. It was shockingly warm though and that's something I certainly was not used to. I will train there for the next few days in preparation for Korea next week. We fly to Korea via Hong Kong on Sunday so hopefully I will be well and truly ready for my match on Tuesday. At least there is not a huge time difference this time so the body should be well and truly acclimatised.
Ok... The games have just started in the next round of the tournament so I'm going to pop down to have a look and just chill out for the evening.

Talk again soon

Scott

Malaysian Disaster

Hi all,

Well as you all probably know by now I had a very disappointing defeat in Malaysia today. I was beaten 21-14 21-14 and to say im angry with myself would be an understatement. It just did not happen for me today at all. I was just not myself and my head was not there. I was lethargic and slow and I was beaten fair and square.

There are no excuses to be made for a poor performance like that but arriving yesterday has left me really really tired today. I got up this morning and felt fine but come midday I was shattered and I just had to sleep. I only slept for 45mins and woke up absolutely wrecked. I thought that I could handle the flight and play a Super Series match all within 24 hours but I clearly could not. Lauge was furious with me after the game but we sat down then and talked it through and we vowed never to let that happen again. I need to prepare better and be in top shape mentally for such important tournaments. Neither of us can handle going through a match like that again. That is not what we are about.

On the upshot badminton photo got some nice shots of me as you can see above and I will put them up in the gallery on the main site in due course. These shots will serve to remind me of a bad day at the office and I will refer to them again in the future I know.

What do I take from this then............ Well I always try and take the positives. I know now that to travel half way around the world the day before a Super Series event is not the ideal preparation. I know that I need to put in a really hard weeks work now in preparation for Korea and use this poor performance as a stepping stone. I need to acclimatise better and do my coach, myself and you guys at home justice and prepare better. I have learned and the mistakes I made this trip I will not make again.

I'm going to sort out training facilities now for the rest of the week and I'm going to work my socks off to be ready for Korea next week.

Rant over. Thanks and talk soon

Scott.

Arrived Safe and Sound but..............

Hi All,

Well I arrived safe and sound in KL this afternoon at 3.30pm but unfortunately my bag didn't take the flight as it was left behind in Copenhagen. The Airport staff have assured me that I will have it tomorrow which is not so bad. At least my equipment bag traveled with me so I can get on with the job at hand. I might smell awful for a day or so but I thankfully I will be able to play badminton. The flight was excellent and I even managed to get a decent sleep en route which is highly unusual for me.

Im staying at the fabulous Mines Resort Hotel which is the tournament hotel. It is amazing with every facility and extra you can think off. Lets hope now I can play well and get a few games under my belt so I can enjoy the hotel for a few days.

There has been a bit of a mix up with practise time this evening as the Hall closes at 7pm and my practise time was never booked. Again not ideal but nothing I can do about that now. My game tomorrow is not until 4pm so I will get to hall early for a good warm up and practise. Its important to get the feel of the hall before a game to gauge wind conditions etc. You would be surprised how much the breeze in a hall effects the shuttle.

I have just heard that Jan Frohlich and Richard Vaughan have not travelled and both were in my side of draw which is going to make things interesting to say the least. I assume that there will be a few Malaysian reserves called upon to fill the gaps.

Ok guys.........thats it for now....

Talk Later

Scott

Badzine Editorial

Hi All,

If you visit http://www.badzine.info/ you can view a feature article on me and my career to date. Thanks to the guys at badzine for their support not only to me but to badminton as a whole.

The countdown begins

Hi all,

I had a brilliant training session last night at the club. We just played some games as we have a match on tomorrow. The games we play in the club are very important...the coaches are always looking and taking note of the results so its important that i am playing well and giving it 100% all the time. First up was a doubles :) I always like the odd game of doubles!! I had a good game with 3 of the lads from the club.
Next up was a game of singles against the number 5 in the club. I have played him alot of times so i know how he is playing so it was a handy game for me to win, but saying that i stil had to go out and play well.
My last game was against the legend himself Mr Anders Boesen :) and it was on court 5 in Gentofte which is a famous court for many people who know the history of the club!!! We have had some very good games on court 5 in the last year...I am still yet to beat him but have been very very close quite a few times!! So every time I go out to play I always try to get the first game under my belt. I think once I win the 1st time i will start to win more and more!!! Last night was no different to any other game...I went out from the start 110% getting a decent lead of 11 5. As usual Boesen crawls his way back into the game and bring its to 14 14. We had some unbelievable rallies...both of us being on the floor many times and up again and back down again!!! I will have to take a picture of my leg just to prove that diving really isn't a good idea!! Anyway we were neck and neck to 18 18 and I had a chance to lead 20 18 but hit 2 mid-court smashes in the net and Boesen led 20 18. We had a huge ralley at 20 18 and i won to make it 20 19. I could see Boesen was pretty tired...i just needed 1 point!! my heart rate was in the 170's so i new i had more left in me... but what did i do? FLICK SERVE OUT :( i could see he was moving forward before i served so i flicked and it went inches out... NOT HAPPY AT ALL!!!!! anyway that was that and went home after that and straight to bed.
Lauge and I decided that we would train at 12 today just for 1hr so we could both sleep a bit more and not do too much as I have a match for the club tomorrow!! I am playing the number 1 guy from Norway Steiner Clause. I have played him many times as we use to train together at the IBA(International Badminton Academy) now i have changed coach and he has moved back to Norway!!! So thats my plan for Saturday. Sunday Lauge and I will leave for Malaysia. Our first flight is at 1730 to Frankfurt and then we fly from there to KL. We arrive 1530 in KL on Monday and I will play my first match on Tuesday mid-day as i have a bye in the first round!!! Most likely we will go directly from the airport to the hotel and get our rooms and maybe rest for 1 hour. Then we will go to the hall to have a hit for 1 hour just to get some exercise and also get use to the hall. Its not good prep for this tournament but this team match is important so we had to stay!!! I dont think I will have a problem with playing on Tuesday though. Flying doesn't really bother me at all so a good nights sleep on Monday night and i will be ready for my games on Tuesday :)
I am really looking forward to getting out there and playing. It feels likes a long time since i had a tournament!!! Its also really good that Lauge is coming with me... I think we will have a good trip away and hopefully the results will go my way!!!

Keep checking the site as i will update with all my news as much as I possibly can

Scott

Todays Training

Howdy All

Well today was another day and another hard training session. This morning was just 1 hour and we did a multi shuttle program. It was very tough this morning but i gave it 100%!! I felt I did quite well today so that's good!! I am using my heart monitor alot now and trying to get my heart rate as high as i can and keep it high all through the training session!!
After training I have to fill out some forms for my Danish residency number. I really need to get that sorted. After that i will rest a bit before training tonight when I have Gentofte practise from 6.45pm until 9pm. After training later i will be going straight home to get some sleep for defensive training tomorrow morning at 10am. I always need to be ready for that as two of the other lads from Gentofte join our training and we give each other a hard and drive each other on. Its always fun and a bit of friendly competitive banter is inevitable!!!

Scott

Now I Know Why Im Not a Professional Cyclist

Hi Guys,

Well after a good nights sleep I was up at 8.45am this morning for training at 10am. I got a phone call from my coach Lauge to say he could not find his car keys. He had been looking for 20 minutes and could not find them. He told me to start warming up. 15 minutes later he walked in and he didn't look to happy at all.
We started off with 1 hour of technique... working at the net and from mid court forward. After that hour we went to the gym for a bike session. It has been a while since we did a bike session together so I was looking forward to that. Lauge hopped on the bike beside me and typical of him he started shouting at me to motivate me and keep me going. I had to keep my heart rate between 150 and 160 beats per minute for the long intervals and for the flat out periods I had to get it up to over 180bpm!!!! The flat out periods were 1 min each and i basically had to go 100% flat out. I had Lauge beside me the whole time shouting stuff at me that I cannot repeat here but suffice it to say it got me pumped!! For the last minute Lauge hopped off his bike and stood right in front of me shouting all sorts at me. There was one old guy in the gym with us and he must have thought we were freaks. The last minute was horrible and my heart rate got up 10 191bpm. At last it ended and all I could do was lie down for min before I even commenced my cool down. I didn't get very far on my cool down and ended up rushing outside to part with my breakfast in the most undignified manner........ The less said the better eh!!
I back home now resting and thank god I have rest of the day off before another very tough session tomorrow.

Bring it on............

All the best

Scott

My Game Against Rassmussen

Hello everyone,

Well last night I had a good training game against Peter Rassmussen. We played a total of three sets and they turned out to be three long sets to. I was leading in the first 14-6 but slowly he clawed his way back into the game and I ended up loosing it 21-19. The second set was poor from my perspective. I made several and many mistakes and ended up loosing it 21-14. The third set was much better and it was neck and neck up to 16-16. Peter then got a run of 4 points to lead 20-16 but i got those 4 points back to tie the game 20 each. But Peter then got two quick points to take the game 22-20. It was really nice playing against him. I have been training with him a good bit lately and it has always been tough but enjoyable.
Today is another busy day for me. I trained this morning with Lauge from 10am until midday. We didn't do anything major as my foot is still hurting me so we just have to be a bit careful. As I'm typing this I'm eating my lunch and after this I have to go and sort out my residency permit to stay in Denmark. I have been a bit lazy with that and put it on the long finger as I should have done this months ago:(
Tonight I have club training from 6.45pm until 9pm and afterwards we all go upstairs for dinner and that's always an added bonus. It will be straight home to bed after that as I have training again in the morning at 10am.

Talk soon

Scott

Its Monday and what a way to get back at it

Hi Guys,

Well its Monday and I was supposed to go and pick Lauge up from the Airport this morning as he was in Ireland coaching U15's and U17's for the weekend. He was to arrive on the 6.40am Aer Lingus flight from Dublin but with delays and the fact that he is just not feeling well today we have postponed training for today.
There I was thinking I would have a nice easy day but thats not the way it works im afraid. In place of training I have a match against the legend that is Peter Rassmussen at 5pm. I always like playing Peter. He still plays in the elite league in Denmark even though he is now a full time doctor. I beat him the last time so I would think he is out for revenge.
Im going to go down to the hall beforehand and do some footwork drills. I hurt my foot on Friday so Im hoping it will be ok. Im going to hook up with my friend Christian to and get some food and just relax for an hour or two. Later on tonight I will meet up with Lauge to discuss arrangements for Asia next week.

That's all for now and I will let you know tomorrow if I managed to keep my winning streak against Rass going.

Scott

Its A New Year

Hi All,

Well Im back in Denmark now after taking a well earned rest over the Christmas period. While I was home I continued training and working on my fitness in order to keep in shape for the upcoming Malaysian and Korean super series events.
While I was home I took part in the Xmas Xhibition at Whitehall Road and had great fun and even got to play Santa. Thanks so much to all the 300 spectators who attended and made it a great fun for us who were playing.
I got back to Denmark last night but only just after sitting on the tarmac in Dublin for 2 hours before taking off due to some air traffic problems around Copenhagen. I was longer on the tarmac than I was in the air.
I now have 11 days to prepare for my Super Series exploits and a game for my club Gentofte on the 12th Jan will set me up nicely for those events. I fly out with Lauge my coach on the 13th and play in the qualifiers of the Malaysian SS on 15th. I have a bye in the opening qualifying round and then play the winner of the Abian (WR 48) ,who I beat in our last meeting, and Hsien (WR 53) in the second round of qualifying. The draw has been kind to me and I am confident of making it through but I will have to perform to the best of my ability as these players are class players in their own right. Should i get to the final of qualifying I will most probably meet Richard Vaughan from Wales as he is the highest seed in my half. The reward for making it to the 1st round proper on the 16th is a game against world number 5 Peter Gade........ Wouldn't that be just perfect.
I cant wait now and I completely focused on going out there and playing to the best of my ability. Having my coach with me is a massive boost so I look forward to some good tournaments. I look forward to keeping in touch with you all while I'm on tour so check the forum and chat pages on my main website www.scottevansirl.com when you have a minute.

All the best for 2008

Scott