HOW TO START COMPETING

Posted by Derrick Ng | Aug 15, 2022 

Side note: This article is geared toward juniors who are wanting to start competing competitively in the United States. This is not recommended for athletes who want to compete recreationally as Sanctioned Tournaments are highly competitive.

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Starting to compete in Junior Tournaments can be intimidating but also very exciting! Before you decide to compete, we do have some recommendations and ‘need to knows’ to make sure one gets the best experience and also to not feel too overwhelmed when starting.

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Things to know:

1. USAB stands for USA Badminton. USA Badminton is the National governing body for badminton and is directly linked to the US Olympic Committee.

2. Sanction tournaments mean the tournament is sanctioned by USAB and will have a ranking attached the tournament. How an athlete does at a tournament will give specific ranking points which will affect one’s ranking and seeding in future tournaments.

3. Types of Tournaments:

• National Championships: Open to all athletes in any region. Worth 100% for ranking pointsA.

• Open Regional Championships (ORC): Open to all athletes in any region. Worth 40% of points of National Championships

• Open Local Championships (OLC): Open to all athletes in any region. Worth 10% of points of National Championships

• Closed Regional Championships (CRC): Only open to athletes in the region. Worth 10% of points of National Championships

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4. Who Can Play?
U.S. citizens living in the U.S. and outside the U.S

• Non-U.S. Citizens

  • U.S. Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) living in the U.S.

  • Non-U.S. Permanent Residents with long term U.S. visas (living and/or studying in U.S.)

  • All participants should have their Birth Certificate or Passport copy and a current passport sized photo uploaded to
    verification. Please upload your photo to your Club Locker account. https://www.dropbox.com/request/rbX8saDQ94glJAdONThx or sent to Trenton.Szeto@usabadminton.org for age verification.

  • Non-U.S. Citizens who are living in the U.S. are responsible for uploading to
    https://www.dropbox.com/request/rbX8saDQ94glJAdONThx or emailing to Trenton.Szeto@usabadminton.org a copy of their
    current U.S. Permanent Resident Card (Green Card) and/or long-term U.S. visa (more than 1 year) to show that they are legally residing in the U.S.

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*Some tournaments will be citizens only like the Junior International Trials. This is because Pan Am Badminton requires athletes competing to be citizens of the country they are representing.

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5. Age categories

• U19: Under 19 of age throughout this calendar year

• U17: Under 17 of age throughout this calendar year.

• U15: Under 15 of age throughout this calendar year.

• U13: Under 13 of age throughout this calendar year.

• U11: Under 11 of age throughout this calendar year.

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6. Who Should Play?
We recommend students in the Intermediate level to start competing in U11 and U13. If a student is U15, U17, or U19, we recommend starting to compete when they reach the Advanced level.

We do not recommend students to start competing in an ORC tournament as this is one of the highest level tournaments in the nation.