Hasn't been the best week if training for me, have only done about 3 hours on court and 4 hours of off-court sessions. Am hoping to increase the amount of sessions that I do this week, I have my first tournament coming up soon so will need to train hard to prepare for that. Looking forward to getting back on court this week :)

Last weeks badminton seen less than usual training sessions due to cancellations and with working. The sessions that were completed were 2 or 3 v 1 routines followed by plenty of singles games. Just sorted out my first tournament which is 18th september for the Duchy of Cornwall open followed by my first club match in Ibiza on 2nd October.

For the past week and this week my focuses are for my first club match of this season this weekend. I play for the spanish club Sagel Torrejon which is in Madrid and we play against Veleta this weekend. I am really looking forward to playing for the club again this year as it gave me lots of match practice and experience last year. Then i leave next Wednesday for the Belgium Open

I've just got back from a training camp in the Olympic Training Camp in Barcelona (CAR). We had really good weather, nothing else but sun :) Richard was the head coach at it so I knew it was going to be hard! All of the food was great and the rooms were really nice!

The first day wasn't so hard as it was more of a 'get to know day' but the worst thing was the heat! Over the week I got used to it but then the training got harder. On the Tuesday we had Physical in the afternoon and I heard rumors that we were doing the 2000M. Now I knew I was quite a good runner but I didn't know how I would cope as I hadn't done 2K before. But after my short worries I came 3rd which was so annoying as I was leading form the start until the last 90M. Grrrrr... After the running we then had an hour football game which killed my legs and my calves cramped up.

Wednesday seemed even hotter than the days before so it made training even harder in the small sportshall which acted like an oven :( On the day after we did physical again but we did 2400M and that was a lot tougher than the 2K, with Richard on my tail from the start but I knew I wouldn't be first as Rafa, the Spanish coach, was like a race horse and more than half a lap ahead of me and I was second!!! I then came 4th in the last 90M again :(

Friday was a good day with mainly games and a bit of technique work but at lunch Richard said to bring my running shoes which wasn't a good thing. At the end of the day we did hill sprints which creased my legs and I bet Richard did it on purpose.  As my flight was that evening my knees were so sore from sitting in the plane! :( We also had trouble at the airport as my badminton bag had to go on a different belt and guess what, the belt broke down, but luckily superman came an hour later and fixed it. We nearly missed the plane!

But the whole week was very good, I really enjoyed it and I fully recomend to anyone to go next year if it's on.

David Evans

Just back from a good weeks badminton training camp at the Olympic Training centre (CAR) in Barcelona. Great venue for training with excellent facilities, not bad food, and accomodation all in one complex. Badminton hall is the not great but there is a good football pitch so that makes up for it.

Also lovely weather - so so much better than the UK.

The running tests killed me a little more than usual, so I think I need to start running more :)

All the Catalan badminton players have improved which is great, and along with the new coach they will hopefully get some great results this year. We also had a few Welsh badminton players on the camp, and I think everyone enjoyed it despite being tired by the end of the week. All the Welsh contingent were a big help in making the badminton camp work so well.

Next week - prepping Aimee Moran for the UK School Games, and getting Sarah Thomas on track for the Commonwealth Games. Sarah is playing the first match in the Spanish Badminton League for Madrid against Veleta Granada. I am surplus to requirements :( and not needed anymore...I get to play against Ibiza next month :)

i havent started the season off to badly. Last week played in Langenfeld Under17. Beat the german in first round  in 3 hard sets! with the scores being 20-22, 21-19,21-18. I found the win of that match a huge positive as in the second set i was losing 12-17 and managed to keep focus and determination up to come back and win the both sets. Unfortunately in second round came across the number 1 seed girl and lost, she was just to good for me! this weeks training has been hard work involving a lot of singles practise ready for the \UK school games next week in gateshead!

I have taken part in 4 on court sessions this week all lasting 2 hours, started feeling it at the end of the week. I have a few days off now whilst Richard is living it up in Spain so I will be taking it a little easier doing running and weights instead of the on court sessions. Have also started putting my tournament schedule together this week, looks like it could be a busy season... just looking forward to see what I can do in some of the tournaments.

Last week saw very little badminton for myself as I was sunning it up in Greece :) first day of training out there soon became my last, running 9k in 44 degrees is not the nicest! Since I came back on Saturday I have had 4 oncourt sessions. Each session now will contain a lot of game play due to my first tournament coming up in the middle of september, hopefully the summer training will pay off.

Last week I had a really hard weeks training, with 2 hours on court every day which consitently had good quality, but by Sunday i was really feeling the weeks training and my quality quickly dropped.
The next 2 weeks are going to involve alot of match practice ready for my club match in spain on the 4th of September and the Belgium Open on The 10th of September 

Bellamy signing for Cardiff was the big news of the week!!! :)

Training went well, feel much better now I am not doing the 30-50km running a week. I feel as if I can actually move again on the badmitnon court.

Aimee has her first tournament this week in Germany, hopefully she will win. UK School Games up next for her.

Sarah has been training well, and Gareth Day can almost get a point now! (almost).

Vikki is sunning it on a beach in Southern Europe somewhere...bur says she is training ...yeh right!!! ;)

Everybody focused on the big match today ... Vs Doncaster...I mean Aimee against the top seed from Denmark in Germany!!! :) Aimee beat the German girl in three games in the first round.