Development

Moldova's Cristian Savin has been training in the "Center of Excellence" for two weeks.
Cristian Savin: It’s a good experience for me
Date: 1/14/2019 2:41 PM
Published by : Lilit Poghosyan
Christian Savin (Moldova) has been training in Badminton Europe’s “Center of Excellence” since last week. Having read about the “Center of Excellence” on Badminton Europe’s website and constantly hearing positive feedback about it, Savin was eager to try it out. He is planning to practice in Holbaek until the end of this week. Joining the COE for two weeks is, according to him, a good preparation before his first tournament of the year – Iceland International. 

Savin is usually training either in the Netherlands or in Austria, with the National teams and from time to time going back home to his home city Benatky nad Jizerou in Czech Republic for school. However, visiting the country he represents – Moldova, where his grandparents are living, happens only once in a year.

For Savin, the trainings in the “Center of Excellence” are different than the trainings he usually has, although the on-court exercises are almost the same, there has been some challenges for him doing the off-court practices:

-I really like the training programs. I think it’s good to have a lot of players of different levels and styles for sparring and doing some 2 vs. 1 or 1 vs. 1 exercises. And I really like the coaching, it’s very high level. 

-One of the differences is that I’m not used to doing short interval exercises, because in my practice I do exercises for 5-10 minutes for 2-3 times. There are some things I did for the first time – like the ones with the rubber bands and some of the group warm-up exercises for the balance. The testing is also a new experience for me, I think it’s very good because I can now know what I have to work on and what I am good at. 
From Junior to Senior
Savin finished his junior career after the Youth Olympic Games in October. He found it difficult to start playing in the higher level, however with the goal of qualifying for the European Games this year, Savin thinks it’s about getting used to the level:

-It’s tough because the senior players are more experienced. In this level it’s more about tactics, everyone has his own style. 

One of the highlights for Savin is the European Junior Championships 2018 held in Tallin, Estonia, where he lost to Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in quarterfinals. On the whole, Savin has won three gold medals and five silvers in the tournaments in his junior career.
 
Talking about his goals, Savin is aiming to reach the top 100 in men’s singles in the world until the end of this year, with the long-term goal of qualifying for the Olympic Games 2020. 
Life off-court
In the “Center of Excellence” Savin has been facing challenges not only on-court but also off-court, affecting him in a positive way: 

-One of the challenges was when I decided to cook my own food. That was kind of my first time cooking. But I am happy, as it was a good chance to improve my cooking skills.
 
The friendly atmosphere in the accommodation and the cultural diversities are one of the things that make him enjoy the life off-court in the Center, also due to the fact that Savin speaks five languages – English, Czech, Romanian, Russian and German:

- It’s fun to be here as I can understand most of the languages they talk. The players are friendly and nice off court. I think here everyone feels like a big family, everyone is supporting each other during the trainings and communicating very friendly in the free time. 
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