4-0

I've proven today that the keys to success are a shameless face and resilience to constant embarrassments. ;) And if that success is one that is shared with somebody else, teamwork plays a crucial role.

I played badminton only occasionally in the past, but for lack of other more enjoyable alternatives, I took the game a little more seriously in recent months to help lose the piling weight. I ended up signed to a badminton tournament (doubles) and thus, the necessity to play against other badminton club players for practice.

"Practice" sounds good, except that the club mostly has veteran players...people who have been playing even before badminton became as popular as it is now. In years, that equates to about a decade of regular play.

And that disparity in experience (10+ years to mine's months) shows. The club's practice system is designed in such a way that players are on a queue and so, we don't really get to choose our opponents. Most of the time, my opponents are the vets.

Having experts to play with is primarily good for me because that just means that I will learn from the best. However, playing with the best also means that I stuck out as the sore thumb (I spoil a good rally), I made otherwise unnessary errors (I miss hitting an easy ball), and I deprived the vets with a challenging game.

This is not to say that the vets were not gracious enough to invite me to play despite knowing how little I spice up a game. Some even encouraged me to play more since I supposedly had 'potential' (ehem). =) Others who I get to partner with were even heroic enough to cover the rest of the court that I sadly couldn't reach.

Still, the fact remains: I played relatively bad. If that's not embarrassing enough, I would have to add to my conscience the additional fact that I may also have been making the games of other club members bad. These facts regardless, I continued to play, and play, and play.

The pay-off?

A 4-0 tournament result, in our favor! Yep, that's winning all four of our games and us (me and my partner) becoming "champions" in our bracket. Cheers! =)

And speaking of 'partner'. An important element of our sweep was our amazing teamwork. Let me tell how it worked:

• my partner did most of the smashes (kills) while I made sure to keep my service errors to a minimum =)
• my partner kept herself busy with returning the ball while I applauded everytime she scored =) =)
• my partner ran the courts while I stayed out of her way because she had a better chance of hitting the ball =) =) =)

Amazing, eh? LOL.