Badminton – giving it a try

The SAISA badminton is nearing its end, so I thought of jotting down my goals and expectations, and the progress made so far. The SAISA badminton season began in early February, 12th of February to be precise. I have always liked playing badminton, and so I thought why not give this a try on a more professional and technical level. In fact, playing badminton on the dusty narrow streets, forms a major part of my childhood.

Goals

The primary goal of joining SAISA badminton was to improve my activity levels. I have already been doing some level of physical activity during weekends, be it in the form of swimming or going to the gym. But, during weekends, I wasn’t staying physically active on the same level. And hence, to fill that gap, I joined badminton since it allowed me to get moving and significantly increase my level of activity.

My next main goal, also another crucial reason, was to improve in the sport of badminton itself. Although I always had a liking for the sport, I always played it for fun and never really took it that seriously. Through the means of SAISA badminton, I hoped to improve my technique and my shot selection while playing badminton. For example, I was able to do half court clears only, and I planned on improving that to being able to do full court cross clears during the game. Smash was also something I hoped in improving, because despite being crucial during a game it wasn’t something I was good in. So, through these practices, I hoped on being able to do at least 3 out of 5 successful smashes.

Expectations

Due to prior family commitments, I knew I won’t be able to travel for SAISA. But I still wanted to give it a try. I didn’t expect to get selected, but I wanted to prove to myself, that yes I was good enough for this sport and that even though I am not travelling I still very much possess the skills and ability needed to play badminton on a more competitive level.

Process

During the practice sessions I got to learn a lot of things. I was able to work on my technique, with the coach, and able to improve (if not perfect it). Firstly, I was able to learn how to clear shots to the back of the court. It wasn’t about the strength, but about the technique and positioning of my arm. Before my arm would stay low while clearing, which resulted in a low clear that landed only to the half court. But overtime, I was able to correct that and clear while my arm was in a more upright position. This allowed me to clear to the back of the court, which gave me a better chance of winning during the game.

Secondly, I worked more upon my shot selection a lot. While practising outside school (not during sessions), I reflected and practised an array of offensives and defensive tactics to use during the game. Each tactic was different, depending on whether the player was good in smash shots, or whether they had the ability to play cross clear, or if they were agile in the court or not. For example, against my opponents, who didn’t have enough stamina to move around a lot during the game (no offence to them), I would play clears on each corner of the court and make them run around a lot. This also included very basic things like playing parallels, and playing a lot of drop shots, so they would have to bend and move more to return the shuttle which would drain them more. This did make me lose a lot of points in the beginning of the game, but by draining them I was able to come back during the latter part of the game when I mixed my shots with smashes and turn the momentum of the game.

One of my goals was to increase my activity levels and stay physically fit. The badminton sessions have motivated me to work on my cardio and agility outside practice sessions. So, now I make a point to do 30 mins treadmill on weekends and an agility routine as well to keep on track with badminton.

Learning outcomes

LO1 and LO2 – I was able to identify my lack of activity levels through the week, and was able to work on that and refine my skills during the process of playing badminton like improving in clears and drop shots. I was also able to improve my stamina – from 12 mins running on treadmill to 25 min.

LO3 and LO4 – Playing badminton falls under the category of activity in the CAS experience. I was able to plan out my goals and what I hoped to achieve and improve on during the process. Finally, I adhered to the badminton session, attending them regularly.