Gāo yīdiǎn, gāo yīdiǎn," shouted Akbar Bayu Saputra (29) while swinging his racket to deliver a lob with his right hand while his left hand was busy holding several badminton shuttlecocks.
In front of him, a little girl rushed to meet a lob that flew high above her height but flew towards her. She immediately tried to hit it higher as Bayu ordered.
"Gao yīdiǎn" in Mandarin means "lift higher" and Bayu is the boy's coach at a badminton club in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
Bayu is one of nine badminton coaches from Indonesia who work for Bomington Badminton School located in Binhai district, Tianjin.
The club offers several classes, including both competition and regular classes. The competition class is for ages 10 and under, and is divided into reserve A and reserve B classes. The regular class caters to both children and adults.
Regular classes are further divided into "basic" and "intermediate" classes, tailored to each child's individual abilities. Private classes are also available, specifically for one individual.
Children can enroll in the club as young as 4 years old. At that age, children are typically still learning to hold a racket and catch a ball.
The number of children in each class varies with a maximum of 20 children.
Bomington Badminton School has two dedicated badminton sports halls. One contains nine courts, available Monday through Friday, and the other contains 15 courts, primarily used on weekends. Both are located in the Binhai District of Tianjin City.
