For me, badminton is about playing. If I’m at the court, I’m not sitting off to the side chatting with others. I’m out there playing…
…But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Here’s a peek at some of the less serious aspects of the badminton life.
As my coaches beloved group, we are often asked to sit and wait if the courts are too packed. (He knows he has our loyalty already, so we aren’t the priority.) I find waiting soooo boring but one time my friend insisted we take a series of selfies, haha.
Most of the fun time happens after we play. usually after 10:30–11pm when we are all exhausted and don’t quite have the energy to go home. This is also usually the time when my phone comes out. As devoted as I am to my phone, when I’m playing badminton it stays in my bag untouched. So most of my pictures happen late when it’s just our group hanging out.
Sometimes we just plunk down right on the court and hang out. One night my coach brought out some pomelo fruit and proceeded to peel it with his hands. Total bad ass. (That’s really hard to do.)
My coaches son is a regular part of “the gang.”
One night my friend made me take a bunch of pictures of him, with different filters, being serious and slightly emo.
Are we total dorks for walking around with sunglasses on, indoors, at 11pm? Yes. Do we care? No.
Sometimes we play around. This is my coach practicing smashes for the sole purpose of getting cool pictures.
Nun chucks come out from time to time. Still waiting for someone to smash their face, heh heh.
I caught a bunch of younger players sitting around my coach listening to him talk about badminton. I couldn’t help but think it was like a master and his disciples.
My my all-time favorite nights are when I unexpectedly see the restaurant owner come in, carrying his big silver stream trays full of food. My coach will sometimes just order a few dishes an drinks for us and we sit around, eating and drinking together till way too late.
The restaurant brings over the dishes and plates and it feels like we are at the restaurant yet still in the snug environment of the courts.
I’m not the most social of people in the badminton courts. I like playing too much, hate taking breaks and still have some language barriers to get over. But badminton is the thing I spend my most time on and I seem to be making friends in spite of myself.
