Josh Young and Teesside Performance Centre head coach Peter Higman
From quitting badminton for a year, to overcoming the problem of “location, location, location”, to gatecrashing England’s top 10 rankings, Teesside’s Josh Young has already been on quite a journey.
And that’s without mentioning a training stint in badminton’s world capital, Kuala Lumpur.
But while the 22-year-old’s immediate focus is on living up to his top seed billing on local soil in the Integral Collection Classic (Tees Valley-Yorkshire) Gold tournament at Thornaby this weekend, he has his sights set on journeying on to even bigger and better things.
Young plays in the Tees Active League for Marske-by-the-Sea, where he started playing aged eight, along with Dad, Paul, and brother, James.
Do the full family play?
“Just my Dad and brother. My Mam and sister don’t. My Nana used to when she was younger but I don’t think she was that great to be honest,” Young laughs.
“I think me and my brother used to be quite competitive when we were younger. I train with him now and again, do a few exercises and give him a daft game.
“It’s different now, I don’t go full out and just enjoy it really.”
“When I was 11 I stopped for a year. I just lost interest and started playing again back at the club and just never looked back really.
“I just started playing again and remembered how good it was.”
Young agrees that he was a late bloomer in the sport and laughs he never thought he’d reach his current ranking of England’s number nine.
He says: “When I was 16, I was ranked 15th for my age so I never even thought I would be top ten seniors wise. I think it’s quite a good achievement really.
“I just put more hours on the court really. I was just playing twice a week but now I’m trying to play twice a day so I am getting more match practice as well.
“That’s what I’ve struggled with around here so I’ve travelled to Leeds and Newcastle and I’ve played a lot more tournaments as well.”
Young continues: “When I was 16, I didn’t get picked for any Yorkshire Under 17 teams really, the ICT [Inter County Challenge] or anything.
“I think of all the people who were in my age group, I am higher ranked than them now well I’m Yorkshire’s number one – so it’s a good achievement.
“Yeah definitely a late bloomer,” he adds.
Young played a key role for the Yorkshire team who were recently crowned national champions, winning the County Championship Premiership.
The Teessider won eight of his 11 matches in the Premiership as the White Rose County beat Surrey to the title by three points, and Young admits earlier rejection gave him motivation to improve.
“Yeah it did because there was a lad called Alex James, a friend of mine, and he got put in above me and I had beat him twice previously.
“It depended a lot where you were from with Yorkshire and I didn’t get picked because I lived quite far north so yeah it really spurred me on to try and get better,” Young says.
Young played two of the three weekends for Yorkshire’s first team, despite playing for their fourths just four years ago. He adds: “I have just been moving up each year really. I think I skipped the thirds, I didn’t even play for them I just went from the fourths to the seconds.”
“I have beaten some good players in it. It’s just a different mind-set in those matches, where I’m not playing for myself I’m playing for the team.”
“It’s nice to be part of the best team in the country, but I would rather do better in the individuals.”
Three years ago Young spent a month training in Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and he says the trip “definitely” benefitted his game.
“When I came back I just felt a lot fitter and quicker. There was some bad stuff as well, they tried to change my racket action when I was out there, which I did when I got back, but I’d say my movement and fitness was a lot better and obviously the humidity helped.”
The 22-year-old also says this was the time when he began to take the sport more seriously.
“Leading up to that I was just training two or three times a week, and when I was over there it was six hours a day on and off the court. You got an insight into what you have to do to be a top player.”
A win in this Saturday’s Integral Collection Classic Senior Gold on Teesside would be Young’s first top tier win on the Badminton England circuit.
“It puts a bit of pressure on but I like being top seed,” Young says. “I played well here last year. It’s nice to be on home turf, you don’t have to travel far and I think quite a lot of local league players come to watch as well and support.
“The top four seeds, I’ve beaten every one of them before, it just depends how it goes on the day really. They can beat me, I can beat them.
“I have just decided to play the mixed, with Rachel Vickers – she’s quite good. I think 12th or something in the country so yeah we will hope to do well in that. I fancy our chances.”
The last 12 months has seen Young break into England’s top 10. The Teesside Badminton Performance Centre player reached the quarter-finals of this season’s national championships in Crawley, and won the Cambridgeshire Senior Silver in January.
Young, 22, says: “It could have gone better. I have played well in tournaments and got to the finals and then bottled it and not played well. I think I’ve got to six or seven finals and only won one, it wasn’t really nerves I just didn’t play well on the day.
“So obviously I’m really hoping to win the Tees Gold.”
As well as the Badminton England circuit, Young plays international events taking on players within the world top 50. He has played the Scottish Open, Irish Open, Welsh International this season with the possibility of competing in the Spanish International later this year.
“You don’t get sick of playing the same people but it’s something different. Different people, different nationalities, different styles of play.
“I played the Spanish last year, I beat to a guy from the Czech Republic and then lost to a Danish guy. It was just different, eating and stuff and you get a taxi round to places,” Young adds.
“My best tournament was probably the Welsh International. I got to the main draw and had to win three matches to get there and I lost to the finalist and I was quite tired really physically and mentally, so that was the best one of the season.”
Which one win stands out as the best of your career? “Probably last year at the Irish,” Young says. “Vincent De Fries, he was ranked 160 or something, so it was the biggest world ranked player I’d beaten. I want to get a big win over a British player, top five, that’s my main goal now.”
“The aims were to win one of the Golds and then to be top ten, which I’ve done. Top five is my general aim also to beat players in the top five I’ve beaten players in the top ten players but top five players I want to start beating.”
“I am going to keep going away and working on it and train twice a day. Obviously the England squad is a goal for me as well that comes with getting into the top five I’d say.”
North East Badminton 