Life recently brought me to Bangkok for a few months and I was lucky to spend one of those months training at Ban Thong Yod.

Ban Thong Yod is a world-famous badminton school, known for producing both a male and female world champion over the years (Ratchanok Inthanon in 2013 and Kunlavut Vitidsarn in 2023).

The school sits around an hour from the city centre, in the Bang Khae area.

Arranging it was easy. I sent a message to the Whatsapp number and someone was available to answer all my questions and organize everything. They have a dedicated staff member who speaks English to take care of this stuff, so that was helpful.

I hadn’t pre-planned anything, so while chatting I asked her when I could come and she said “you can come today if you want”, so I did!

I showed up that afternoon with my bags and moved into the BTY House, just in time for the afternoon training session.

What’s A Typical Day Look Like?

When I arrived, I was introduced to the head coach who watched me hit around for a few minutes to see which group I would be in.

There seem to be around 4 different groups, but I’m unsure exactly how the system works.

Anyway, I was put in one of the middle groups where I was training with mostly young teenagers.

There is five hours of training per day.

The first session is the 7-9 am session, which is a conditioning session.

After that, you go back to bed if you hate early mornings like me, or maybe go to the restaurant and eat some breakfast.

Then you relax until the 1-4pm session, which is an on-court session.

After that, you’re free! Go eat some dinner at the restaurant.

A lot of players also order food on Grab (the Uber Eats of Thailand) if they get sick of the school food.

What’s The Training Like?

If you’ve trained for badminton competitively, there will likely be nothing new. Pretty standard drills like multi-feeds, footwork, sequence drills, sparring and so on.

There does seem to be more focus on fitness/consistency, compared to Smash Travel where we spent lots of time on technical things.

I think in the whole month of there we only did one or two drills focusing on learning/honing new techniques, the rest was more on footwork and repetition.

However, the school has produced two world champions, so obviously they have a good idea of what to teach you and when!

The morning session is things like footwork, skipping, weights, calisthenics – no rackets or hitting. I actually missed this session quite often because I couldn’t wake up that early. But the few times I did go it was pretty good and not too hard. For the older players, you generally get put in the gym with the weight training session. For younger players, they do more footwork-type conditioning on court.

At 1 pm you are back on court and it’s drills for the first two hours. The third hour you usually do some sparring to finish out the session. The drills are nothing revolutionary, but they have 6 or 7 coaches to feed, so you get quite a lot of time on court.

Saturday and Sunday the schedule is quite different – the afternoon session is 3pm-6pm, and consists of only sparring and games.

This sounds fun but they turned out to be the days I enjoyed the least. The class is bigger than usual, and there’s no real structure to it. The coach just points to a few of you randomly and says “go play doubles, go play singles”, then when you’re done he points to some others for their turn. So half the time, you’re just sitting around waiting for your turn to be told to play. I had my skipping rope and spent a lot of time skipping while I was waiting. Quite a few times I actually considered just leaving the class and going to the gym instead. But also for a lot of players, it’s good to get an easier day, especially those who train 3x a day during the week.

Is the training hard?

I was coming off a 5-6 week break, having not been on court since the Mauritius International.

The training at my first court session was not that intense, but somehow I was almost dead before we reached halfway. Badminton is funny like that. Even 1-2 weeks off and you feel like you haven’t played in years.

However, the next day the body had adjusted and things were much better.

It’s kinda hard but nothing crazy. Some days are harder than others.

Overall if you play badminton regularly you will probably be fine. If you’ve never “trained” like some of the people there, will probably be a shock to your system. But still fun! And since you’re training every day, you should adjust quickly.

Who Else Trains There?

The group I was in had about 25 students.

When I arrived, the class was mostly Thais, but there were a lot of foreigners too. We had players from Canada, France, USA, England, and also a big group from Taiwan. Over the month I was there, the turnover was quite big as most people stay 2-4 weeks, but we also had players from Philippines, Malaysia, Poland, Korea, Japan and maybe a few others I’m forgetting.

What is unique about BTY is anyone can train there – they have 18 courts and run training all day for everyone from beginner to elite (world champion level, literally).

This is why many people come here to train – because although Japan, Korea, Malaysia etc might have good schools, they’re not open to everyone. They’re usually exclusive and you need to be selected.

At BTY, you can train even if you’re still a newbie, as long as you don’t mind being put in the class with 5-year-olds! (and of course, if you can afford it 😉

There are lots of local Thais training here, I would guess over a hundred, from kids to adults.

It’s called a badminton school but most people don’t realise it’s literally a school, as in school-age kids live there and this is their education.

I figured this out when I noticed my 1pm session was filled with 14 year olds. From what I can gather from chatting with them (their English isn’t perfect) they do some online schooling, but the priority is badminton.

They all train 3x daily and I guess they probably do some online maths lessons during their rest time or something, but they don’t seem to worried about it. Also, I’m just guessing here, maybe it’s different.

What Are The Facilities Like?

It’s a big facility which is like a mini badminton campus. It has:

• Dorms where most players live (local and foreigners)
• BTY House which is a more expensive option for foreigners
• Very well-equipped gym
• 18 courts
• Restaurant
• Small Yonex shop to buy gear (shoes, rackets, grips etc)
• 7-Eleven right outside

Staying in the dorms is free, or rather it’s included in the training price.

However I chose to stay in the BTY House, because I’m working and also skin issues, so I need my accommodation set up in a certain way. You pay extra to stay in BTY, it gets you a private room with an ensuite and a fridge and desk. There’s also a little lounge in the house with a big TV that nobody really uses, and a small yard to hang your laundry and sit around if you want. If you can afford it, it’s worth it!

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of my room, but it’s a pretty standard small hotel-style room.

The gym is available to you whenever you want (except while the squads are using it for training) and has everything you would need in a gym – treadmills, spin bikes, machines, free weights, kettles etc.

The restaurant is pretty good and the prices are regular Thailand prices.

You can pay maybe $2 for a meal. Not bad.

What Can You Do On Your Off Days?

On Mondays, school is closed!

People usually use this time to go visit some things around Bangkok or just relax at the mall.

I’m familiar with Bangkok so I didn’t do much on Mondays other than eat and maybe get a massage. However, for many, it’s their first time in Thailand so the trip doubles as both a training trip and a vacation!

Unfortunately there’s no beach in Bangkok, but there are many cool things to do like watch some muay Thai fights, go shopping, visit the markets, eat some street food, temples, floating markets, and plenty of amazing restaurants, cocktail bars, cafes and so on to spend some time at. My Bangkok guide can give you a few ideas!

How Would I Rate My Experience?

Me and head coach!

I think the school is probably too expensive for most, but it’s a well-established school and as far as badminton training goes I think it’s great.

Why is it expensive?

The facilities are all top of the line – Yonex courts, Yonex shuttles, an excellent gym, lots of coaches, and unlimited good players to spar with. You also play with new Yonex shuttles daily (they must go through hundreds of tubes a day!) so it’s easy to see why the cost is high compared to other camps.

It’s probably too much for casual players, but if you’re competing at national/international level (or aspiring to) then it’s a good place to get some intensive training and lift your game. Some players who are serious about doing well on the BWF circuit come and train here for months or years at a time.

Overall – had a lot of fun, and met some cool people. Some say my game improved a lot in a month, I don’t know about “a lot” but I definitely did learn some new skills and started winning more by the end of my stay. So overall, great experience and can happily recommend going! I would love to go back!

To train at BTY, you can contact them at the details on their website.