“Badminton Is My Passion” – Jennifer Lee

Outstanding Canada’s Coach, Jennifer Yiu Yiu Lee has had the opportunity to share her experience and knowledge with players and coaches in the various events she has participated, either in tournaments directing her athletes or in coaching conferences.

Lee met badminton in Hong Kong, her native country, where as a child, she chose to learn badminton and a family member taught her how to play it. After a few years she would win her first tournament and the path of success would just begin.

“I wanted to formally learn badminton and asked my mom to find me a good coach. My mom asked around and found me a really good coach. He coached me to get my first at the Hong Kong U15 WS.”

For Jennifer, choosing sport as a career has not been easy. She has learned a lot during these years as a coach and continues to learn from our sport every time she picks up a racket and shares her experiences.

“I would say that sport has given me the best survival skills in life. Perseverance, discipline, staying positive, building that internal drive, taking risk….all these things I learned during training, during tournaments…I apply them in building my business, handling difficult people relationships and coaching.”

Owner of her own club, Jennifer Lee works as Head Coach for the different level Teams at the Club and with Badminton Canada when she is needed. The passion she has for our sport does not allow her to think only about goals for herself, but how to share them with others.

Badminton is my passion. There are many things I want to achieve through badminton at many different levels and perspectives. I would like to bring badminton in Pan Am countries to be a mainstream sport like that in Asia. I would like Pan Am players to be developed to higher rankings internationally. I would want to develop more badminton coaches at a technical and strategic level. I would want to coach in different kinds of international tournaments like Pan Am Games, World Championship, Sudirman Cup, the Olympics.”

And without a doubt, the different situations that Lee has lived allow her to think in that way, knowing how difficult it is to fulfill her own dreams and how necessary it is to share her experiences with others to provide them with more opportunities in life.

“I have encountered many challenges to where I am today. It is really true that you get older, you get wiser! When I decided to open a badminton club to coach badminton on a full-time basis almost 30 years ago, the concept of coaching badminton as a living was so unheard of that no banks wanted to finance my business. I was so determined that I decided to start small, one court, a few students. It is about making a living, but it is more about the passion of badminton. Now, my students are children and even grandchildren of some of “students” 30 years ago. Hold on to what you believe in, your return is priceless.”

It is only in recent years that there is more support for female coaches in sports. Traditionally, being assertive as a woman is seen as being aggressive. Devoting your life to sports (rather than raising a family) was looked upon as unconventional and so it must be really difficult to work with. Also, expressing yourself using a different language is a challenge, at least at the beginning. For all this Jennifer had to pass but did not give up.

“What kept me going? It is the perseverance, the believe and the love and passion of badminton. I made mistakes too, I made a lot of assumptions and I made decisions when my head was not clear. I am very fortunate to have lots of people around, men and women, who have mentored me, coached me and encouraged me all these years.”

Jennifer is a clear example of perseverance and always has something new to share with those around her. Each episode that she has lived has allowed her to see life in a different way and today she wishes to share this with all the women who are involved in the sport:

“With the increasing awareness of gender equality, additional resources in support of women in sports, I encourage all women to go in with an open mind. Understanding that most people are good at heart, they just may not know what and how to support women. We, as women, should help others to understand what we need and how to work with us. It will be the same for sports. Be bold, be proud of yourself, and go with what you believe in with passion.”