The Newest Best Badminton Place in Xiamen. Nay, in China. Nay, THE WORLD!!

After several months of planning and building my coach finally opened up his own badminton courts! And they are aamazzzinggg!

He built it from scratch, and it’s exactly what you would expect from someone who is an expert and connoisseur of all things badminton. For instance?

Well, I always assumed that you bought the green ground for the court as a kinda set pack. Like astro-turf you just buy it in packs and roll it out. I know that because older places have a problem where the pieces separate and the line gets misaligned. But at my coach’s place each green springy ground was made to order and hand painted.  Yep, I didn’t even know they did such a thing, but I saw them painting the lines with my own eyes.

See the white lines? All custom and hand painted by experts. It takes several days to complete and I went before all the courts were open. You can see in the background the workmen preparing the lines on the other courts.

I think a lot of people won’t notice or care, but it makes a difference in game play. And that’s not the only detail he got right. While he was building it my coach discussed at length the concrete and the wood material that’s under the green stuff. I wish I could tell you the details but my “flooring and building materials,” Chinese isn’t that great and I didn’t understand much of what he said.

But I did understand it’s something special that he’s very excited about. Playing there is much quicker and feels, I don’t know, more professional. (Not that I know what professional actually feels like, but it feels like I would imagine professional is.)

The lighting is on the sides of the court, which is much better than above, and the ceiling is covered in a black material so you can clearly see the birdie. It’s little touches like these that make the place so good.

It’s only been open for 7 days but I’ve already played there three times. I’ve met a bunch of cool people and the most exciting person was my coach’s coach! (My coach granddaddy.) He lives in Shenzhen and was just there for the night, so it was lucky to meet him.

After watching my coach and him play (clash of the titans style) I went out with them and some of their friends for a big midnight Xiamen-style dinner (all seafood eaten next to the ocean). They talked for hours about all things badminton which was awesome for me even if I only understood about half of what was said.

Classic Xiamen seafood dinner. Unfortunately seafood isn’t my favorite to eat. Being a good Chinese host my coach kept piling crayfish and stuff on my plate without me asking. I had to yell at him to stop because I knew I didn’t want to eat it. I am an expert at pulling apart a shelled shrimp nowadays though.

My coach (center), my coaches coach (in red), and another guy comparing their leg muscles to see which one was bigger. In badminton, the thigh muscle is important and the bigger the better.

It’s my new “badminton home” and as his student I feel a bit of ownership of the place. I don’t need to worry about booking a court, or having enough people to play with. I know I can show up at anytime and my coach will find people for me to play with. I’m also included in a lot more than I would as just a customer. Two nights ago his wife cut up a cold watermelon for me to eat after playing. I think she felt bad how red and sweaty I was.

He built it from scratch so everything is shiny and new.

For some reason my coach is super proud of his toilets. They are nice and clean with good showers but he mentions them on every advertisement and I don’t quite get why.

So if you are coming to Xiamen, make sure to check out these awesome courts! And as it is only 20 minutes away from my home, maybe I’ll see you there.