Interview with Li Feng

NZ National Squad Technical Coach

“Growing Up and Training in China”

A Short but True Story

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Growing Up in China

My Mum and Dad grew up in a small village, but they moved to the city once married and I was born there. When I was about 5, I was sent back to the village to stay with my Aunt and Uncle until I was 7 years old. They had a farm and I would get up each morning at 4:30am to work. We used to feed the horses, sheep and goats.

The village was very small but very beautiful, lots of mountains and very peaceful. It was all green, ha ha but in winter it became all grey. Every day me and my sister, Yan Li (Li is my family name), used to run a lot for fun often getting up early in the morning.

In Winter it would get very cold – minus 35 – and I would run without hat or gloves just a track suit, I often had ice hanging from my ears and head after running. At school I used to win all the running races and I also tried out gymnastics and Kung Fu as well for fun.

Running, Running and More Running

Up until the Age of 12 I didn’t have anything to do with badminton - I was a runner mostly and trained hard At 7 years old I moved back to the town of Liao Yang with my parents and kept running Between the ages of 10 and 12 my Dad would cycle when I ran. After a while it got too cold for him and my teacher came out to train with me. For 6 days each week I got up at 4:30am in the morning and ran for 21 km while my Dad or teacher cycled. I was told I had great potential as a runner.

At 6:30am or 7am I would get home and have breakfast then go to school. After school at around 4:30pm I trained with the school and regional running teams. At the trainings we also had high jumps, relay races and flexibility tests. After that I would get home around 7pm for dinner and it wasn’t long after that before I fell asleep.

Up to 12 years old I never touched a badminton racket and had never ever played it.

My teacher (Chen Depei) who I called Teacher Chen out of respect trained us at school too. He was a very special person and had a huge impact on me and changed my life. He trained a lot of top players in table tennis in the province and trained a lot of younger players in all sports.

My First Exposure to Badminton

When I was 12 years old I was doing a fitness test in school, 800m running with the boys as usual. When I ran at that stage I had 2 little pigtails so I guess that stood out a little. The badminton coach was watching and talked to my teacher about me. Teacher Chen told the coach that I would be good for badminton. I knew nothing about badminton and had not even seen it before.

Teacher Chen told the coach that I was very competitive and that I did everything with the boys.

The coach was a women who I would come to know very very well, her name is Bai Li Hua in fact her daughter Liu Fan Francis plays for Singapore now and was in NZ recently at the Equinox tournament and making the finals of the Mixed Doubles. So I was selected for a training selection camp for my Province.

There were initially 20 girls in the camp but only 5 could be picked. The camp lasted for 3 months but it was very, very hard. It was the first time I had been away from family and I cried every day because I was missing home so much.

The training was mentally very tough - a typical day in the camp was:

5:30am Run till 6am then back to training

6am to 7am Group training

7am to 12noon school

12noon or 12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm to 3:30pm Training

5:30pm dinner and homework

7pm to 9pm Training then Bed

6 days a week.

Sunday was a half days training

I often fitted in extra trainings as I wanted to be the best.

After 3 months I returned home for 6 months then went back to the camps for good. But I was more used to it by this time and my Dad visited me every weekend which helped alot. I made a lot of friends in the camp. When I was picked for my Province it was a very proud moment – I am the only player from my home town to ever make the province squad (and later the national squad). When I came home things had changed and the way people looked at me changed. I was now on the radio and in the newspaper and everyone seemed to be so proud of what I had done.

My First Taste of Competition

I played my first badminton tournament when I was only 13. During the camps I had to learn so fast because I had never ever hit a shuttle before and I didn’t know what I was doing. I won my 1^st game but then I lost against someone who had been playing badminton for 4 years longer than me. I cried for 1 hour after game and even during the game towards the end because I was so frustrated and disappointed that I couldn’t play better.

My Dad came up to me and gave me some very simple but very helpful advice. He said that I had to move my opponent around, hit the shuttle to where they weren’t – so if they were at the back hit to the front, if on one side hit to the other – simple advice which helped.

At 14 / 15 I felt that I could play well and made 3^rd place in the China junior nationals. At 18 I was picked for the national squad. I played for China for many years before coming to NZ in 1995 – I didn’t know any English and had to start from scratch. I was spotted by Graeme Robson and Chris Bullen and asked to play for and then coach for Badminton NZ where I still am today J.

I am lucky to know Feng as a friend and as a coach and would like to wish her and the players

“Good Luck” for the coming year.