Ben Hussey trusts his trainer’s technique and skills.

He knows it works because he knows his trainer real well.

Ben’s trainer is his dad.

Ben has been playing badminton with his father, Kevin Hussey since he was 10 years old.

“It took about five years before I was able to beat my dad at badminton,” Ben said.

“Badminton camp gave me another output, but most came from my dad. I learned some tips from touring, but my style from my dad.”

Ben said his style is to keep the birdie in play as long as possible to wear his opponents down.

The style he uses is primarily defensive.

Ben would watch his dad play at tournaments when he was younger and played with him between matches when no one was on the court.

Ben’s father, however, was not the first in the family to pick up the game of badminton.

Ben’s grandfather started playing badminton in college and when he came to Eastern he started the Eastern Illinois Badminton Club for anybody to join.

The club meets Tuesday and Thursday nights and players are welcome to pay to play only one session or can pay a set fee to play all semester.

The fee pays for the shuttles.

Ben practices eight hours a week on the court and occasionally runs, but he has no set schedule for cross training.

“I do weights Tuesday and Thursday,” Ben said. “I mostly focus on my legs, I need more leg strength.”

Although Ben dedicates a lot of his time to badminton, he still attends classes as a physical education major with the intent of becoming a physical education teacher and coaching badminton.

“Hopefully it ends up working out where I can keep playing,” he said.

Being at such a high skill level, Ben often has difficulties finding someone to train with that can challenge him to improve his skills.

When Ben trains locally he usually plays two on one.

In high school Ben was forced to become a badminton player playing tennis because his high school didn’t have a badminton team.

“I like playing badminton better, I’ve been playing it longer,” Ben said. “It’s quicker. I like the fitness level I play at better, maybe because I’m more skilled in it (badminton).”

Although it may be tough for Ben to find someone to train with he isn’t suffering in his game.

“He can smash the bird at about 170 mph,” Kevin Hussey said.

Ben looks forward to tournaments to find players to challenge him.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to travel and practice,” Ben said. “It’s tough in the Midwest, there’s not a large population of badminton players. I get a lot of my training through traveling.”

Most badminton players come out of California.

“California is the densest population of juniors and adults,” Ben said.

Ben will be the only player of the United States team attending the Junior World Championships from the Midwest region. The other nine are from California. There will be 32 countries represented.

The tournament will be held November 2-11 in Inchon, South Korea, near Seoul.

The U.S. team consists of five girls and five boys that will participate in singles, doubles and mixed matches.

“It’s exciting,” Ben said. “It’s a good opportunity for me. It’s a big tournament; it will be a good experience.”

Training for the tournament requires Ben to hit the birdie 100 times without messing up a shot.

“I hope to do my best,” he said. “I will hopefully win some rounds and see where it goes from there. There are a lot of countries.”

The teams will not have a lot of down time in South Korea.

Kevin will serve as the coach of the U.S. team. He is a member of the USA Badminton Coaching Committee.

As a player Kevin Hussey traveled to Canada in 1985 and Beijing, China, in 1987 for World Championships.

The best he finished was fifth in the singles tournament.

He also traveled to New Zealand in 1984 as part of a training trip.

In South Korea, Kevin Hussey’s strategy will be to allow his players to enter into tournaments they know they could win.

“We will enter people in the matches they have a chance at winning, if we know we can’t win a match we will put the athlete with the best chance in,” he said.

Ben will be playing in the singles and doubles rounds.

The singles matches will be held in single elimination knockout form.

“Singles is definitely my favorite,” Ben said. “I don’t play doubles enough to get enough practice. I like the fitness side, I like the running. Doubles also has more of an attacking technique; I have more of an offensive strategy.”

The future of Ben’s badminton career has dreams of an Olympic invite.

“My goal is to go to the Olympics,” Ben said. “It’s what I’m shooting for. To figure it out I have to get into a mindset. It’s a four-year deal; if I want to go in 2012, I have to start in 2008 with my training and touring to start building ranking points.”

“He’s got to go quite a ways,” Kevin Hussey said. “Can it happen? It can, you just have to look at the next level and take it one year at a time.”

Next year Ben will be competing in the adult division which he and his father think he can win.

“He has to start touring and building points,” Kevin Hussey said.

Ben has played in international tournaments before, but this is the first time leaving the country.

“All the international tournaments I’ve been in so far have been here (America),” he said.

USA Badminton is only able to offer partial funding to the Hussey family, but the Eastern Illinois Badminton Club will be accepting donations to send Ben and his father to South Korea.

Anyone with questions can contact John McInerney at 581-7177.