Graydon Robb has been coaching badminton for 15 years. He has coached every level from first timers to national and international medalists.
Born and raised in Calgary I was immersed in competitive sport. Competing in Hockey, Golf, Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Athletics, and of course Badminton.
My Grandfather Don Torstensen was a masters provincial and national champion and also the president of Badminton Alberta. My Mother Karen Torstensen was a U19 junior pan American champion and many time World Masters and National Masters winner.
High performance coaching is just as prominent in my family as my Father (Randy Robb) and his Father (Clayton Robb) are both lifelong high performance Golf teachers. My brother (Colton Robb) is following in their footsteps continuing the legacy left Robbs has left in the golf world.
As a junior I consistently got silver at provincials every year and would often lose first round at national events until first year U19 where I double crowned provincials and made finals at national events. I took a long hiatus from badminton living in BC studying geopolitics, art, then settling in business school. Despite only having a few hours of court time per week and rarely any training partners I achieved 5 CCAA national medals for VIU and became a 4 time All-Canadian- while finishing a bachelors in International business, marketing and management. After almost ten years not training I came back to train at 28 and finally pursued my dream of competing internationally. I climbed my way back to being top 200 in the world and the 3rd ranked Canadian and had incredible experience traveling and showing the world my unique style of playing. As I was competing I was also coaching full time and developing some of the strongest students in the country with my creative method of coaching.
On the surface my style seems unorthodox and special but truly it has a very logical pathway that any player can learn. It entails thinking beyond typical strategy, overcoming fear, and retaining the spirit of play.
For a long time I've been dreaming of a company that will help take the sport of badminton to the next level.
Inspired by the culture behind tennis, golf, basketball, hockey, skateboarding, and the arts and music scene. I felt like badminton was the ultimate sport that requires power, speed, touch, and the highest level of coordination. But the culture around badminton-especially in the western world, was lacking.
While I studied international business and marketing at VIU I conceptualized Oncewing. One of the core ideas was to give "wings" to the top athletes and "Once Winged" they would be free to travel without the worry about finances. Transforming the players from struggling athletes into world class professionals. At that time in around 2015-2018 we brainstormed many ways it could support athletes.
We designed an app to facilitate league play and automatically update ranking which was very well received in the competitive Vancouver badminton community when we tested it and we are going to use it for the backbone of the Oncewing Americas League.
We designed an app to measure the progress of athletes on and off court and a system where the Oncewing sponsored players could mentor and provide feedback and training programs for the students. We dubbed this the "Temple" which is set to roll out soon.
As of right now we are putting together a Oncewing pro team, opening a international training academy and launching the Oncewing shop which will feature the Oncewing season 1 clothing line as well as Victor badminton equipment.
The first Oncewing pro team will be based out of Calgary and they will be given platforms to do online coaching and mentoring. Designing programs and monitoring the progress of the dedicated students that enroll in the temple. They will also be coached in branding and encouraged to vlog and share their journeys creating content that can help spread their knowledge and learning. All while promoting the brand. As Oncewing grows the Pro team will also receive stadium practice time, exclusive oncewing gear, and last but not least, potential funding from companies that sponsor the team.
Calgarian players have the talent to compete with the best in the world. Now with the proper support our vision is to go from being ranked 200-400 in the world to top 50 and build a system for the future Albertans, Canadians and beyond.
The clothing line has been a long time in the making. Being an artist and musician I always used the court as a canvas for my creativity. Now with Oncewing apparel the style of the clothing can be on the level that the sport calls for.
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