Badminton

Badminton involves a lot of agility and reflex training when returning the bird. Every Wednesday and Friday I would go to the Arbutus Club to play recreational badminton. I usually play doubles because of the large amount of people. It is both exciting and an excellent way to exercise especially when you are limited by the academics that the Diploma Programme entails.
The learning outcomes that came out of this experience include my increased awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth, worked collaboratively with others, shown perseverance and commitment in my activities and developed new skills. I increased my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth by being able to see my successes and mistakes when playing matches. After i see those point winning shots or mistakes, I am aware of what I am good at and what I still need to work on. For example, my drop shots are usually the kind of shots that I use to score points; however, my smashes tend to be easy to return because they are not hitting the bird fast enough. I also work collaboratively with others because of the nature of a doubles match in badminton where you work collaboratively with a partner. I also show perseverance and commitment in my activities because I attend badminton on a weekly basis and finally I develop new skills by being able to practice playing matches and create new game strategies.

What I hoped to accomplish prior to participating in badminton was to gain agility, speed and exercise. I am happy to say that my three aspects that I wanted to gain from this experience have been met.

There were no difficulties encountered with badminton other than minor injuries such as sprained ankles.

I interacted with others by playing games against or with them. Working collaboratively in a doubles match is important because there is always a person who would need to get the deep clear shots and another at the net to return the soft shots. There are numerous badminton formations that are required in order to cover the court effectively and therefore my team skills were enhanced from this experience.

What I learnt about myself is that I am able to be competitive in a positive environment where both sides benefit from going out and exercising. I also learned how to exemplify sportsmanship in this game which also carries through to how I deal with other situations outside badminton.

The skills I obtained from doing badminton include my drop shots being able to drop sharper and closer to the net, my smashes being more angular, my clears being more deep and my net shots sticking close to the net. As well I gained team skills which include my ability to anticipate where the bird will land and adjust our form based on that. As well as said previously, I developed an attitude of sportsmanship which fed to my humble and easygoing personality I possess today.

What I would do next time would apply to after I graduate. I would definitely play more badminton per week but since the IB makes a student extremely busy I wouldn't get as much free time to exercise.

I can apply my sportsmanship skills to other situations when interacting with people as well as playing other sports. As well, badminton has also enhanced my peripheral vision and reflexes which are helpful when trying to maintain my safety when driving for instance.