Talent Development Scholarship

I am a shuttlecock player who is studying the Bachelor of Science Education (Honours) (Sports Science) programme at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). Shuttlecock is not a mainstream sport and many people do not know how “it” is played. Yet I love this sport and have kept on playing it for more than 11 years. 

I got to know this sport from the shuttlecock club in the secondary school I studied. Although I was just a beginner exploring “it” back then, my interest grew gradually. With continuous training, I was promoted from a substitute to a regular player, and then from a regular player to the captain. I trained hard throughout my secondary school years and spent my time with “it” every day during lunch break and after school. As a result, my school team won a place in the First Division Shuttlecock League. Unfortunately, since I did not do well in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination, I could not continue to study in this school. Having admitted to S6 by a private school, I started looking for other shuttlecock teams to join. Eventually, Mr Leung, the manager of a first division team, invited me to join his team, for which I am still playing. 

Mr Leung has a profound influence on me. Not only has he helped me make considerable progress in playing shuttlecock, he has also given me much valuable advice on how to behave and deal with problems. He is definitely my mentor, whose teaching will benefit me throughout my life. Under his guidance, I made significant and remarkable progress when I first played in the First Division League matches and was selected to represent Hong Kong at the 5th Shuttlecock World Championship hosted by Hungary in 2007. Although we only came fifth in the team event, I am still glad that I was able to participate in the game. 

Later, I sat for the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE). My results were so poor that I did not want to further my studies. So I tried to seek employment. With the help of Mr Leung, I got a job where he worked. I was very happy because I could continue to play shuttlecock which I deeply love and at the same time earn for a living. When I was working, my shuttlecock techniques improved continuously as I took part in a number of major competitions with excellent results. I won a bronze medal in the 3rd Asian Indoor Games men’s singles, the 4th place in the 4th All-China Games men’s doubles, and the 3rd place, 4th place and 5th place in the 6th Shuttlecock World Championship men’s team event, men’ s doubles and men’s singles respectively. While I was doing well in shuttlecock competitions, my career came to a stand still. When Mr Leung encouraged me to go back to school, I decided to enroll in a full-time Higher Diploma programme in Leisure Management. 

As my English was not good, it was quite difficult for me to catch up with the course. Luckily, some generous classmates helped me a lot in my studies. But then I encountered my major setback as an athlete when I suffered injuries in the leg. I was taken to the Accident and Emergency Department of a hospital immediately, and was diagnosed with knee and anterior cruciate ligaments and meniscus tears. My parents were worried that I could not face the reality. With sympathy, my teammates thought that I would not be able to play shuttlecock again. But this thought never crossed my mind. On the contrary, I saw this incident as something an athlete had to face and tried to find out its cause. During the eight months of rehabilitation, I did not stop training but worked out new strategies and techniques. They proved to be very successful when I put them into practice after recovery. 

Having recovered, I found that I played shuttlecock better than I did before my injury. It was probably because I had enhanced my skills by imagery training. As for my studies, my examination results were quite good and I was able to further my studies by pursuing an undergraduate programme at the EdUHK. Given my poor HKALE results, I had never expected that I could get into a post-secondary institution. A fellow student at the EdUHK encouraged me to set up a shuttlecock team in the school. After overcoming various obstacles, I was permitted to organise a shuttlecock team by Mr Hon Ching-lung, Physical Education Officer of the Department of Health and Physical Education. I was even more excited when I could organise the 1st Inter-varsity Shuttlecock Competition. Various post-secondary institutions were invited to take part in the competition. I had finally attained my goal of promoting the shuttlecock sport.