Badminton diary 2025/05/24

The weather in Seoul this week was strange. During the weekdays, it was sunny and hot. with the AC off I sweated a lot. Then on Saturday, the sky turned overcast and temperature dropped by 10 degrees. This cooler weather is perfect for working out, though. I was in a rigth mood to experience badminton elsewhere.

This time I visited a moim based in Ilchasan, located in the Gangseo-gu district. It took me one hour to go there by train - pretty far from my home. I have been subscribed the moim for several weeks now, and from what I could tell, they seemed very active and well organized. The moim has around of 150 members, ranging from E to A levels, including 10 monitors. Each session offers 20 to 30 slots, and most of the time, these slots are full booked. They are also quite hospitable as occasionally I saw guest registrations posted on notification board. The session I joined today has 24 members, a solid turnout.

The gym is called Ilchasan Gym No. 1 (일자산제1체육관). My first impression was how well-maintained the gym was. There are 8 courts with a high ceiling.  Look how incredibly shiny the floor is! You could really see the effort put into keeping it clean. If a court is not maintained up to a high standard, over time it will accumulate dirt and become slippery. The employee here must clean the floor meticulously and regularly to keep such polished appearance.

In the session I attended, there were about 8 decent players, probably at A and B levels. I played several interesting games with them. Their styles are quite unorthodox by Korean standards. They love doing trickshots and use deceptive shots during the game. It was hard to predict their next shot! Initially I planned to focus on practicing my singles' game: slower pace and strategic shuttle placement. Well, against such tricky players, that stategy is not gonna work . In such situtation, the strategy is to not let time have time to set up their deceptive shots. In other words, I should make them chase for the shuttle. So I switched gears to the typical Korean style: fast-paced drives and powerful smashes. That approach helped me either score points right away or force them out of positions, hindering their tricks. I can say with confidence that the strategy was very effective 😉.

It was a fun experience in overall. I will visit this moim again in a near future.