Human of Shuttle Time – Mauricio Irias

Text by BWF
๐—”๐—ฅ๐—Ÿ๐—ข๐—ฆ ๐— ๐—”๐—จ๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—–๐—œ๐—ข ๐—œ๐—ฅ๐—œฬ๐—”๐—ฆ ๐——๐—”ฬ๐—ฉ๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—”๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿฆฐ
๐™Ž๐™๐™ช๐™ฉ๐™ฉ๐™ก๐™š ๐™๐™ž๐™ข๐™š ๐™‰๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™–๐™ก ๐˜พ๐™ค๐™ค๐™ง๐™™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ค๐™ง ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ƒ๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™™๐™ช๐™ง๐™–๐™จ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ณ
I grew up in a small city in Honduras. I was an only child, and I lived with my mother and grandmother. My mother always was keen that I participate in sports, so I was in baseball and then in swimming. I really enjoyed those sports.
I once received a badminton set as a birthday present, but I didnโ€™t know what badminton was. So I played tennis with the badminton rackets!
I first saw badminton about 14 years ago at the National University of Honduras when I was practicing aerobics. A coach came over and introduced us to badminton.
I looked like a fast and fun sport, and I fell in love with it. I started to practice and later substituted for the team coach. These days I still compete, and I am the Shuttle Time Coordinator in Honduras. I also teach and promote badminton through my YouTube channel.
โœˆ๏ธ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐— ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐˜€
One of my most memorable moments was attending the BWF Annual General Meeting 2019 in Nanning where I represented Honduras and met delegates from many countries.
Representing my country at international tournaments in Honduras and El Salvador between 2014 and 2019 was also special for me.
Many years ago, I organised two competitions with about 200 competitors. That was quite satisfying. It is very important is to make friends around the world, and to be part of the global badminton family.
๐Ÿธ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—•๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ผ๐—ป ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€
Badminton to me is more than a sport; itโ€™s a way of being healthy, a way of living. It is safer than many other sports because there is no direct contact with your opponent. I feel it is an honest and clean sport.
๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿซ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜€
It has been hard, hard work to develop the sport in a country where people knew little about badminton to begin with. Working without a big budget is challenging, but it has also been interesting to work with children from various regions, and to show them the different, exciting and fun sides of badminton so they can develop physically and mentally.
The opportunity to receive Shuttle Time courses helps me improve my knowledge about the sport and train better athletes.