TALES OF
BADMINTON
SPRING 2015
Hi everyone,
My name is Khanh Dao, and I'm currently a junior is San Diego State University. My major is Kinesiology, with an emphasis on Pre-Physical Therapy Program. I'm a transfer student, and this is my second semester in SDSU. Before that, I went to San Diego Mesa College for three years. I used to be a badminton player for the Olympians in 2014 and 2015.
Although I used to hit around with my cousin in Vietnam, I just seriously learned how to play when I was an eleventh-grade student at Lincoln High School. Since that time, I started to practice and compete with other school teams. In fact, I had 4-year experience in competition, including two years at San Diego Mesa College.
In my opinion, badminton has played a significant role in my life. Thanks to this sport, I learned how to confront with all obstacles, manage pressure and care of others. Furthermore, I made a lot of friends, who share the same interest with me. I also had many chances to travel to the other places and had wonderful memories with my teammates.
In this blog, I'll introduce about badminton briefly, talk about my best year in all badminton seasons and how it has changed me.
INTRODUCTION
BADMINTON RULES
Badminton is a racket game which is developed by the British India in the 19th century that can play between 2 players (single) or 4 players (doubles). The basic rule is just hit the shuttlecock (or the birdie) over the net, into the opponent’s court in a way that they can’t return it.
A badminton game play to 21 points and a match consists of the best 2 in 3 games.
The server always starts from the right court and serve on the left court when the game first starts from 0. The receiver will always stand in the diagonally opposite service court. If you earn one point from the rally, you will be the server for next point.
If a player has even number score, that player will serve in the right service court, and in the left service court if the player has odd number score. If both players have 20-20, who have 2-point lead first will win the game. But if both players have 29-29, who reaches 30 points first will win the game.
To earn points: never let the birdie lands on your court before returning the birdie inside the court lines that the opponent can’t hit it back and over the net.
THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE IN A BADMINTON GAME: HAVE FUN.
CONFERENCES
California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) is an integral part of California's extensive community college system that has the authority to establish the rules and regulations to administer the athletic activities of the nearly 27,000 men and women student-athletes in the state.
There are three different conferences in Badminton, and each conference has about 4-5 teams. A school team will play one home game and one away game against other teams in the same conference. The school team has the most win game will compete with other best school team in the difference conferences to win the State Championship Team Final.
NIGHT PRACTICES
Badminton season in 2015 started on mid-January, and each school has different practice time. At San Diego Mesa College, we often began to practice at 8 pm until 9:50 pm from Monday to Thursday. We would first do stretching, warm up and start to practice different skills or strategies. Last part was always a single or double game. We often played against other girls or the guys in the badminton club.
​​​TOURNEY !!!
In that season, we had two tournaments. The first tournament was set up in Grossmont College on the last Friday of February. Mesa College organized the second one before the spring break.
Unlike the official games, we allowed the guys in each badminton club to join in and play for the trophies. The locations were decided to depend on what schools willing to organize the tournaments.
Setting up a tournament was a hard job because there were a lot of things needed to be ready like set players into the different brackets, ordered the trophies, bought more birdies, got the budget, etc.
COMPETITION
The first official game often started in March. Each team would have 6 girls, ranked in order from 1-6. CCCAA indicates that this is a women sport so just girls can compete.
We had 12 single matches which worth 12 points and 5 double matches (each worth 2 points, except the third double match, was just 1 point). So there were 21 points in total. The team that scored 11 points and above would win that game day.
Therefore, a girl had to play 4 matches a day, which was 2 single and 2 doubles matches. Just the number five and six player played 3 matches (2 single and 1 double matches).
PLAYOFF QUALIFICATIONS
There were SoCal Team Playoff and Individual Playoff.
For the SoCal Team Playoff, we would choose the best team on the Pacific Coast (SD City College) to play against the best team from the South Coast region (Pasadena City) to determine the representative to play in the State Championship Team Final.
In the Individual Playoff, to qualify for the State Championship, we had to play against other athletes in the same region. Our region is Pacific Coast, which had 4 teams, 24 single players, and 12 double teams. However, we just chose best 8 single players and 6 double teams to play in the State Individual Championship. And my double team was qualified to play in the State as the second place in the ladder.
CHAMPIONSHIP
The State Championship was held on near mid-May. The State Championship Team Final was on Thursday while the Individual Finals were on Friday and Saturday. In the 2015 season, the State Championship was placed at Irvine Valley College.
In the Team Final, the rule is as same as the regular official games. SD City College played against De Anza College, and they won with the score of 11-10 to become the State Team Champion.
For the Individual Finals, they organized it like a tournament. A single player or a double team who lose the first game in the tournament would have a chance to play in the Consolation. Basically, each person can play at least two games in the Championship.
BANQUET
After the first game day, people from three Coast regions would go to the dinner, which was often a buffet. We just needed to let them know ahead of time how many people from each school would come so they could reserve the table.
We were the one would pay for that meal. If we were the athletes who were qualified to play in the State Championship, the budget would be from our school. For people who came to support, they had to pay that by themselves.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Besides of competing and having fun with other people, most of us also needed to bring our assignments or papers to do because the State Championships often occurred one to two weeks before the final examinations.
However, we still could have a relaxed time. The hotel we stayed that had a swimming pool so we could come there at night with all girls and friends from other schools would gather there and have fun.
SAN DIEGO MESA BADMINTON
In order to compete against other schools, we need to have at least four girls. In the 2015 season, we had seven girls, and all of us had shared one common thing: love badminton.
The coach would let us played other teammates to set the ladder up before the first official game started. The ladder couldn't be changed until spring break. I used to be a number two single player while being a player in the first double team.
VALUABLE LESSON
In the State Championship, my double team was expected to win at least the third place in the main bracket, but I couldn't handle all pressure and expectations. I made a lot of mistakes, and we lost the first game. I was very upset and disappointed in myself. I knew that was our last chance to play for SD Mesa College team. We then just tried our best in the Consolation, and we won that bracket.
Whenever I think about the State Championship 2015, I still regretted because of not being strong in mental and led to the unexpected results. This experience is a good lesson for me to start to learn to adapt all pressure to be stronger and face all obstacles, not turn away like before.