A friendly conversation with another badminton player usually involves the "how long have you been playing?" question. I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to answer. The first time I had a badminton racket in my hand was probably in my childhood and I did play couple of times during the school. After that, I played recreationally now and then, maybe once a month at my most active times. But even then, it only lasted for couple of months and then I might have not played several years in between. Then, last fall, I finally had a proper chance to start playing. I joined a friendly doubles game which was once a week. Seeing that I can continue playing actively, I started to take the hobby seriously. I've attended a couple of beginner's courses and nowadays I play at least two times a week. I have even competed a little, albeit only in recreational tournaments. (I won the last one I attended, yay. So whenever someone asks how long I've been playing, I start by saying that I've really only started playing badminton last fall, but that's not the first I time I've held the badminton racket. I was wondering what you want to hear when you ask this question and how do you define your "started playing badminton"?
my answer would be when the person started playing badminton seriously and not just hitting around outside. i agree that merely playing several times a year wouldn't count and neither would playing in school (unless its a school team lol)
Depends on what you'd like to signal. You can assure people or you can threaten them; you can assure them to be comparitively strong (1) or weak (2); you can (3) threaten them to be strong or weak (4). Your desire to raise expectations make the number of years high, otherwise keep it low. I think it's a good idea to be better than you claim to be within social and recreational settings.
I would define 'starting badminton' as when you began to a) take training or b) play regularly, at least once a week (rather twice). In Germany or countries with a similar system, I'd say you start playing when you join a club. But as this usually comes up in a face-to-face conversation, I'd usually explain that although I held a badminton racket a few times in school, I really started 2 years ago when I joined a club, played with feathers the first time and got coached a bit
oh my god. I completely agree with your question. There's like no definite answer you know? So, what I say is this. "uh... I don't know. Since I've been playing on and off, it really wouldn't mean anything if I say to you that I've played for like 3 years."
For myself I would say: 10 yrs casual/recreation with a group of friends and their wives. 1 yr of more serious/competitive play with a few lessons taken.
oh.. tough one. to be accurate, i started playing in 1987. 25 yrs ago. if i answer 25 yrs, people always assume that i am really really good. after all, i have played badminton longer than Lin Dan or Lee Chong Wei have. but probably not add together. but in reality, the number of years and proficiency don't always have a direct correspondence. so i usually just answer, "a very very long time."
It's now got to the stage at my club where I can answer "longer than you've been alive" (viz. 15 years) to some of the players. That's when you know you're old.
I had played a few times at secondary school, but if anyone asks me the question I will tell them that I've been playing since X (just a few years ago) when I started to play weekly.
Since I started playing once a week (or more), which was when I started university. I don't count playing in school because we only played about six times in one year (for about 3/4 of an hour at a time.) There was a club of sorts at school which I went to for a bit, but there were no coaches and it didn't survive for very long. Thinking about it I now play more in one week than I played at school in a year... Mark A, I played against a doubles pair who had been a partnership for 5 years longer than I was alive (they had been playing together for 27 years, I was 22 at the time). Unsurprisingly me and my partner who had played together for 2 hours, lost. Getting them out of formation was nigh on impossible and they knew everything I was going to do before I had even though of it!
Perhaps over-thinking it a bit? I take the year I started and minus it from this year. E.G. my answer would be "14 years". If I feel the need to justify how crappy I play, I add on, "But I didn't start playing regularly till last year".
There's nothing worse than coming across a pair of telepaths like that... those are some of the very few times I revert to "HULK SMASH!!!" mode.
