Top seed Snider set to make shuttles fly

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/01/2010 (5965 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NATIONAL badminton team member and top-ranked Canadian David Snider of Winnipeg uses the bulk of his time in a day for training and university classes, but more often than not has to use some of his time to explain his sport.

This isn’t your backyard badminton with a birdie, people.

It’s a world-class and Olympic sport that sees top-level athletes hit the shuttle with speeds upwards of 300 km/h and it will take centre stage today through Saturday at the Winnipeg Winter Club.

A field of 89 athletes from Manitoba and across Canada will compete in the 2010 Yonex Canadian National Badminton Championships.

"I like the balance of the stamina aspect of the game and the explosiveness and power that’s needed, as well as the mental focus for the tactical part of the game," said Snider, 21, who won Canadian titles at the junior and senior levels in 2008 and will be leading the way this week at nationals, as he is the No. 1 seed in the men’s singles division.

"It’s really challenging to get all three of those aspects firing at once in a game. You can do so many different types of (racket) strokes, way more than (other) racket sports — overhead, underhand, lobs, drives, smashes. It’s got the most strokes of the racket sports."

In Snider’s favour is the fact that his longtime rival, Andrew Dabeka, of Ottawa, has retired. Dabeka, 31, stepped away from the game as national champion, leaving the door open for a new titleholder.

Snider, who lost to Dabeka in the 2009 men’s singles final in Quebec, will be taking a run at it.

Among his competition will be 2009 under-23 champion Alex Pang, 21, and Joe Rogers, 21.

"I need to just execute my game plan. Last year, I got a little too antsy, then some anxiety kicks in and I got a little bit wild out there," Snider said. "I’ll be focusing on the simple things of the game, just executing my plans and not letting any of the hype of the event affect me, and play each game the way I want to play it."

He said his loss in last year’s final nags him, but he’ll "shut that voice off a bit" to focus on each match.

Archie Chawla, Manitoba’s provincial team coach, said Snider’s elite level of fitness will play a role in his success.

"Badminton requires constant backward movement and this is probably the only (racket) sport that requires overuse of the overhead movement. Almost 50 per cent of your shots in badminton are over your head, which is a very unnatural motion," Chawla said. "Our athletes, like David, train very hard to be stronger in those aspects."

"A lot of people don’t know that the badminton shuttle is the fastest projectile in sport coming off the racket. The highest speed recorded was 414 kilometres an hour, at the Beijing Olympics."

National team coach Ram Nayyar, a Winnipeg native who moved to Vancouver in 2000, said Snider is an ambassador for the game in addition to one of its top athletes. Snider is ranked No. 83 in the world.

"David is quite an exceptional athlete," Nayyar said. "In 2008, after he won the championship at such a young age, we had some young guys come back to the game and start playing again."

On the women’s side, Anna Rice is the second seed and defending champion. Rice, a Vancouver native, has won four national women’s singles titles.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

National Badminton Championships

At Winnipeg Winter Club

Today: 9 a.m.– games begin

Friday: 9 a.m. — quarter-finals; 6 p.m. – semifinals

Saturday: noon– finals