“We put the BAD in badminton.”
– Unknown
I’ve waited a whole season for this.
Badminton is my main sport. Since the young age of 9, I practiced and learnt badminton under various coaches from my previous school, Stafford International School, as well as private training. SAISA badminton, a 2nd season SAISA sport, will be held in Chennai for next year’s tournament.
My excitement really can’t be put to words because for the last two years, SAISA badminton was held in our homecourt in OSC and as much as I love having the school support, I have always wanted to travel with my team. This will be the last year I get to play with my captain, Devin Amalean, as well as my three-year doubles partner, Chelsea Karunaratne, given that the former is graduating, and the latter is migrating. I have to say it’s quite bittersweet as I’ve always wanted to travel with them and now I get the chance to do so but this will be the first and last time it’ll happen.
On the other hand, our team this year is rather new, with only Devin, Chelsea, Kevinja and I being the senior players. Given our success in the past years, being the reigning champions and all, high expectations have been thrown our way and we are trying our best to meet them.
Our selections took place two weeks ago where 8 girls and 8 boys were selected to travel for SAISA. The top 4 girls and boys would be representing the OSC varsity badminton team and the next 4 representing the OSC junior varsity badminton team. During selections I made it to the top 4, like the past two years.
The Learning Outcomes
- Identify own strengths
My strengths outshine the most during doubles because my coordination with my partner, built on many years of playing together, is very strong and we cover for each other even without needing to verbally communicate (a risk we sometimes take). My strength lies in my smashes, drops, and short services which my opponent tends to struggle to receive. These are areas that still need to be developed further however, as it is, these are the shots I am most comfortable taking.
- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken
Over the years, I have tried to reduce my mistakes and improve on my weak shots such as the backhand smash and clear which I continue to improve upon, however, I am concerned with my foot movement as I realized that I am slow to approach certain shots and fail to keep up some basic rallies due to some errors in my foot movement, specifically moving backward and forward, I was able to identify this error and realize that this is one of the primary causes of my weak backhand shots, given how I am always late to approach the shot and were I there sooner, I have enough power to clear or even smash it. But my struggling stems from my body positioning, or lack thereof, when I hit backhand shots because of arriving late due to incorrect foot movement. This is something I’ve been working with my partner, Chelsea, who helps me improve by giving me different rallies and making me hit that same backhand clear repeatedly until I get it right.
- Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
3 years. No, even more than that. 7 years of playing badminton and 3 years playing in OSC, for OSC. My commitment to badminton expands those within the school walls, I practice privately with a trainer outside of school, during holidays and year-round. I’ve lost matches many a time, but I’ve chosen not to give up. Every year, I break down from pressure during SAISA but every year, I keep playing, I keep going, no matter what. My commitment to this sport is something that started way before and I joined OSC and will continue to do so even in my university years.
- Recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Collaboration is key in both doubles and mix doubles. The individual matches consist of only one-third of the entire tournament and the doubles, respectively, take up the other two-thirds. To me, collaboration goes hand-in-hand with communication and really, that’s all there is to it. Chelsea and I communicate in more ways than one: we call outs for each other, we have hand signs that inform us of what service, long, short or parallel, each of us would make before we serve so that the other can be ready for a receive. But the most important thing, the 2 most important things, is shouting and cheering for each other when we get a point and talking and reflecting on our match afterwards. We cheer for each other by screaming after each point which energizes us and scares the hell out of our opponents and we reflect upon our mistakes and discuss what needs to be changed for next time.
This is not the case for everyone and I understand that my collaboratively skills are so great with Chelsea only because we’ve been at each other’s throats for so long and played side-by-side and learned from our mistakes we have a lot of experience playing with each other. Still, there’s much, much more to improve upon which we continue to work on as the holidays pass.
I am excited for this year’s tournament and I can’t wait to see my friends from last year so until then,
Eat. Sleep. Badminton. Repeat!