一位羽毛球爱好者的博客

Yeah, that’s right. I still haven’t won a single game yet playing at my university’s badminton club. This afternoon I went to the club for the second time. A lot of people showed up just like last Tuesday, but I was able to get four games in this time. My team lost the first game pretty badly, but that’s mainly because my partner kept hitting it into the net. His finger was injured or something, so too bad. For the other three games they were all really close, but my team just couldn’t make the little extra push to seal the deal. I wasn’t playing very well today, because I wasn’t really feeling well. I admit that I’m really not that good at badminton, and I’m still not used to partnering with people other than JP. Better luck next gym night I suppose.

As I have mentioned before, I wanted to join my university’s badminton club this term, since I don’t have the time to play on weekends anymore. So last week I bought my membership. It is 50 dollars for new members, which is not a bad price considering that there are two gym nights every week and the membership is good for two terms. Unfortunately, I won’t be taking advantage of this because I only have time to play on Tuesdays and only this term. I have to work next term again, so I won’t be able to play unless I happen to find a job at the university.

Tonight was the first meeting, so most members decided to attend. Tonight’s session was only two hours long, so I only played three games because the large number of attendees. I lost all three of the games. I think I don’t want to blame it on my partners but it is tough partnering up with strangers, and I’m not used to playing with anyone other than JP. All the games were close, so I’m not too disappointed. I think I’m just not quite used to the gym we are playing in, so I think I’ll get better after a couple of sessions. The skill levels of the people in the club varies. There are some beginners, and there are some people who are good. Overall I think the average skill level is similar as most of the community centres I’ve played in, so I definitely be able to work out some sweat.

昨晚（九月19日星期五）所安排的打球活动真火爆，前来参加活动的人数比报名的人数多了许多。其中不少是刚从中国回来的老球友，其中有DAVID LEI， KEN L 等，还有慕名前来第一次参加我们打球活动的新球友，例如 PENNY，LI NAN ，PATRICK 等。有的球友家住很远，开车都要在高速公路上跑一个多小时，真是对羽毛球的热情极高。更特别的是还有一位白人青年，他自费到北京看奥运，然后留在中国自费跟中国省队专业教练学羽毛球，现在回到加拿大就参加我们的活动，将自己学到的本领施展出来。果然让大家刮目相看。

为了使大家来了都有球打，我们组织者将活动由原来的2少时延长到3小时，但还是未能让大家尽兴。主要是羽毛中心的场地都被租用，供不应求。

我们感谢新老球友给以的支持，同时也请大家合作，最好能预先报名或确认自己要参加活动，以便组织者能提前安排场地，以满足大家参加活动的需要。

Yesterday JP and I went to the local community centre to play our last session of the summer season. I’m around average in terms of skills, and my dad is a bit better, but when we play together we usually win more games than we lose. Unfortunately, yesterday was just one of off days for me. First game, we started out strong and got a 5-0 lead (in a 15-point game). Our opponents quickly tied the game though, so I tried turning things up a notch but found out that I don’t have any gas left in tank, and this was the first game. Needless to say, we lost the first game, and then the second game, and then the third game, and on and on…

At the end of the day, we played like seven games and only won one of them, and that was against opponents who were significantly weaker than us. Granted, some of the people we played were quite good, and we probably would have had trouble with them even if we were performing as normal, which we were not. What is frustrating is that out of the games we lost, there were a couple that we should have won, but lost because we, mostly I, made too many unforced errors such as hitting it out or putting shots into the net. It was pissing me off, but at the same time I just couldn’t get it right… what can I say, I was just having a bad day on the court yesterday.

So to summarize, I lost six games yesterday, almost cramped up, and got a blister so bad that it hurts every time I take a step; basically, I was beaten in more than one sense. JP and I haven’t been whooped like this on the court for a while, and it just goes to show that I’m actually not that good at badminton.

Yesterday was a tough night, but I’ll do better next time. I’m sure of it.

Today I went to play badminton with some of JP’s buddies, but JP himself didn’t go today. This is because the ever popular JP has found another student, and his lessons take place at the same time as the badminton session we were playing in. So this could be one of the last session for a while for both JP and I, since I probably won’t have much time after school starts again.

The hosts of the badminton session brought over quite a few of their friends over today, so it was a bit crowded during the first hour when we only had one court. During the second half many of the courts at the badminton centre were empty so we just took over some of them. For most of my games, I teamed up with one of JP’s students who showed up today. She’s a grade 9 student who has had some badminton training in China, but she’s still a beginner. We teamed up for three games and managed to win two of them. We lost the game pretty badly because both players of the opposing team were decent players (near my level). In the second or third game though, there were beginners in the opposing team, and basically my partner and I just kept hitting towards the weaker guy, who either can’t make the return or make a bad return where I can just crush the shuttle with a smash. We won those games pretty easily. I also played two games with different partners and won both of them too, so that was pretty good.

Overall today was a decent session. I wasn’t really tired because half of my games were against beginners, so I didn’t have to do much. Now that JP has lessons at this time, I’m not sure if I’ll be going to these sessions any more. After school starts, I plan to join the university’s badminton club. From what I’ve seen from a couple weekends ago, there are some pretty good players in the club, so I think it’ll be fun.