Badminton

Many years ago, when I lived in Atlanta, a colleague--Leighton--taught me how to play badminton. Well, he did his best. I'm not a great student perhaps. There was a regular group that used to play at a college gym in downtown Atlanta. After moving to Dallas I stopped playing.

In '97 I moved to the Bay Area and began playing again occasionally. There are a lot of badminton players in this area, and I found a good place to play at a local school near my office. I also discovered that my old friend Leighton had moved to the area, though he and I live some distance apart, unfortunately, so we aren't able to play together regularly.

Once again, though, for no particular reason, I let things slip and stopped playing for about 3 years.

Recently, however, I decided to start playing again, and after a bit of research, discovered two new dedicated badminton clubs in the East Bay: one near my office in Dublin, the other in Emeryville, not too far from my home in Oakland. I've been out twice now, and plan to start playing regularly again.

Those that don't play badminton or are not familiar with the competitive version of the sport think it's just a casual backyard activity. At a competitive level, however, it is an astonishingly fast game. In fact the shuttle travels faster than any object in any other sport (when stuck by the top players). It is a fast-paced and enjoyable game to play, even at the club pickup level. Now I have another activity in addition to ice hockey to keep me from getting too fat.

Badminton is most popular throughout Asia, though there are a few countries in Europe in which it is popular, notably Denmark and Great Britain.

Here are a few links to some badminton sites for those that might be interested in learning more about the sport:

http://www.badzine.info/

http://www.internationalbadminton.org/index.asp

http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/

See you at the gym. Smash!