It is a turbulent week so far. On Tuesday the players group was informed that the Technical Director wouldn’t stay on and that the board of the Badminton Association has the intention to offer him another position. As chairman of the players council I get a call on this from the the president of the Association at noon. I am “amazed” and the whole group is far from happy.
Especially the timing of this decision is not good. The Olympic qualification process is currently underway and a change of Technical Director in the course of this process is not exactly pleasant. The rest of that day is filled with phone calls. It becomes clear that all players are definitely not behind the Boards decision. The President, Ted van der Meer, and I schedule a meeting on Wednesday after my mixed doubles match at the Dutch Open. At this meeting where both the President and I are supported by our deputies, I elucidate the point of view of the players group and make clear that we are far from happy with this action. We understand that the Association is seeking innovation but we don’t want this during the qualification process.
In the meeting it ultimately becomes clear that it is all a misunderstanding. The President says that from the beginning he had the intention to replace the TD after April 30th 2012. But this was not clearly communicated in the press release of Tuesday. Altogether it was a positive outcome of this meeting for the players. We got what we wanted and after these hectic days we could focus again on what it is all about, playing badminton.Â
Oh yes…And then there were my own matches to come. Because of all the turmoil I had no feeling whatsoever about having to play a tournament. I tried to get back that feeling by going to the venue early but that didn’t really help.
The mixed doubles with Ilse Vaessen went well at times but we failed to make it difficult for our Ukrainian opponents. I also lost the men’s doubles with Dave. However we played a good first game we still lost it in an unfortunate way, 21-19. I had high hopes for a third game and even a win against these guys but in the second game we didn’t play cleverly at all. We followed them too much in the flat rallies and we completely lost the overview. Result: no chances to win and end of tournament. We lacked the right focus at the right time. Very disappointing of course because especially now in our own country I had very much liked to continue the way of playing we showed in the past tournaments.
Every disadvantage has also an advantage. Because of the elimination I was able to join the ceremony at the Johan Cruyff University in Amsterdam where I got my Bachelor degree. Earlier this year I finished my studies Sports Marketing and now finally I also have the coveted paper diploma.
Next week we will continue with the Dutch league matches as we will play against Van Zundert Velo in Wateringen.
Tags: Almere, badminton, Dutch Open, jorrit de ruiter