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Subtitle: Continuing My Love for Badminton
The badminton shuttlecock is light as a feather (hehe) and white as silk. At your first glimpse, it might look ugly and unattractive, but it is still cute. With 16 pieces of feather inserted on its base, it looks like a beautiful blooming white lotus lily and as well as a flying comet. Its unique shape can make people confused and curious. Who know that the badminton shuttlecock possesses such special charm and power? It has the power to make people active, happy, invest in their fitness, and even prevent injury and sickness. No matter how old you are, you will find that you have been attracted to the sport when you start to play it.
It was a really long time ago when I first started playing badminton. I was in high school during the period of time in China known as “The Great Cultural Revolution”. One of the notorious slogans of this messed up period was “There’s no need to learn English in order to continue the revolution.” I had an English teacher who came back China from Indonesia. Even though he was very short, he still managed to become a very good badminton player. He had nothing better to do after school other than teach a few of students how to play badminton. I was lucky to be one of his students. We all enjoyed his flexible footwork, adroit hand skills and amazing advanced knowledge of badminton. It was pity that I could not learn more from him before my high school career was over. After graduating from high school, like most of high school graduators, I had to spend two years of my life in the countryside to accept the re-education by peasants, and then, by good fortune, I was part of the first group of students to attend university after the end of “The Great Cultural Revolution” in China. In that period, I didn’t play badminton at all. Instead, I was a member of the university track and field team and I played sports such as sprinting, high jump and long jump. I was also a good player in basketball and volleyball. Badminton, however, was totally forgotten from my memory. Therefore, I had missed the best chance to train myself into a superstar of badminton.
Everything has changed in the last three decades of the 20th century. China experienced an unprecedented metamorphosis and opened some of its doors to the rest of the world. Following the current of cultural exchange between western countries and China, I got a chance to get familiar with the world outside of my home country. Keeping my hopes high and looking for the new life in a developed country, I immigrated to the country of the Maple Leaf and started a totally new life in this strange land.
At the beginning of my life in Canada, everything was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had no family and friends close by and had to start everything from scratch. You couldn’t guess how difficult it was during that time. It was obvious that there was a huge pressure on me to adapt myself to the new environment and circumstances, to accept the new challenge and to keep my mind in balance. Originally, I thought if I had enough mental preparation and if I am in good physical condition, I could deal with and overcome all difficulties. But, in fact, the things were quite different from what I thought. The stress of living in a new environment drained me both physically and mentally, and I eventually developed sleeping problems. At first, I couldn’t sleep as well as before. Then, it developed into total insomnia. Simultaneously, my career problems put me in a tough situation. Eventually I started to feel hopeless. I was at the lowest point of my life and no medicine I knew of could help me. It was a time of crisis, and what rescued me from this negative state was badminton. Its appearance made me to rekindle my love for the sport thirty years since the last time I played for real. Looking back now, this was one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life.
I remember during that period of time when I was down and out, my landlord, who happened to have played badminton for over 20 years and was looking for people to play with, asked me if I knew how to play badminton. I told him that I learned how to play badminton a long time ago and haven’t played the game for 30 years. I only had a small amount of knowledge and skill at that point of time. My landlord didn’t really care about my lack of skill and experience and encouraged me to go with him and provided me with some of his equipment. This was my first step toward truly playing badminton, and from that point on, nothing could stop my love for this sport. I was fascinated by the little white shuttle greatly and thought about badminton even in my spare time. In order to improve my knowledge of badminton and to correct my style of play, I went to library to read books written by former players and watched the tapes of badminton matches between world class players to learn more theory, tactics, techniques and skills. In the meantime, I kept playing badminton 2 or 3 times each week. Due to great amount of physical exertion and my improved state of mind, my sleeping problems were gone, and I developed the skills necessary for success and enjoyment in the badminton. My mental and spiritual attitude was greatly improved. I started to live my life optimistically and adapt myself to the customs of the foreign country. Finally, I reached the point where I started to enjoy my new life living abroad.
Canada is one of the developed countries in the world and has abundant natural resources and a low population. You couldn’t imagine how good the conditions were for playing badminton. All badminton courts are indoor courts with good ventilation. Community centers, schools, colleges, university and even some churches have badminton courts. Some places possess three or four courts, some places get eight or more courts. I was very fortunate to learn how to play badminton in such a wonderful country.
In my relatively short three year career in badminton, it could be said that my landlord was my first coach. He was a badminton enthusiast and enjoyed playing badminton. He paid 800 Canadian dollars for a membership at the exclusive Vancouver Racquets Club so he can play anytime he wants. He was a fairly good player who knew most of the skills. Like the all beginners, the first thing I tried to learn in badminton was the clear. In order to play well, I watched instructional videos and imitated the stances and styles of the best players in the world. After practicing and learning for months, one day, I saw that my shuttlecock could fly through the air with a beautiful trajectory. I was so excited, so happy and so enchanted. Over the last three years, I improved my skills and got instructions from better and better players. Among the instructors and coaches, there was a former member of the Canadian Olympic Team, a former champion of the Zhe Jiang Provincial Team in China, and many other people who were the good amateurs and/or former professional players from different parts of the world, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Out of these people, a former professional badminton player from China taught me a lot of badminton and enabled me to advance to another skill level. He is a left-handed player and the partner of famous Mr. Da Sha. They played together for a long time in men’s double and dominated local tournaments in the northwestern parts of China. His name is Su Zhi. He has many splendid skills and his killer move is a frighteningly fast forehand drive that is very difficult to defend against. Not only is Mr. Su a good player, but he is also a pretty good coach. Whenever I exposed my weak points or got some questions, Mr. Su could give me solutions to my problems. He likes to share his knowledge and experiences with people. Because of the excellent conditions here for playing badminton and having such a good friend and coach, my efforts eventually paid off and my skills in badminton and also physical fitness improved dramatically. Even though I did not reach the level of Mr.Su, but I can still manage to make the doubles matches between him and me competitive. One of these unforgettable games happened in the gymnasium of BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) on the summer vacation of 2004. I partnered up with my son, who was trained by me, against the combination of Mr. Su and his high-level student. It was a closely fought game and a grueling contest. At the end, my son and I won the last game point with 17:16, sneaking off with the victory. After the game, Mr. Su praised my son’s performance and said that my son knew how to use his brain to play the game. Even though my son didn’t play badminton very often and didn’t have a lot of experience, he compensated with his length, power, and quick thinking. We always play together as teammates and we are very familiar with each other’s style, so we make a good team in a doubles game. Sometimes, even players with more than 10 or 20 years experience still lost games to us. But we understand that no matter how well we play, there always will be better players than us. As long as we could enjoy the fun and excitement of badminton, it is doesn’t matter if we win and lose in a game.
Badminton can bring us health, liveliness and friendship. It also brings us amusement and excitement. I love it very much and it will be a part of the rest of my life. Nowadays, I still play badminton 3 or 4 times each week with my friend, and play 2 to 3 hours for each time. In my leisure time, if I am not on the court, I do some physical exercise to strengthen my body and I keep studying and practicing the various skills of badminton. Sometimes I surf the Internet to read the news and reports of badminton games. I research and analyze the skills, tactics, and strategies of the top players in the world and I try to use these new skills, tactics, and strategies myself. I understand that the degree of skill achieved will be directly related to the time and diligence spent in practicing all the skills involved in the sport. What are my future expectations of badminton? The answer is: I wish that badminton would bring more and more happiness and rewards to us.