hi :D

Hello everyone. I am 13 and I live in Canada. I have played badminton outside with my dad and sister for about 3 or 4 years when it wasn't winter or windy.

This year, in gr. 7 at my school, Fallingbrook (in Orleans, Ontario), I joined the badminton team and got rank 4 out of the 5 doubles teams. We had our tournament yesterday, and me and my partner lost both games, but we did well since we only lost 21-15 against another schools top player, and 21-19 against that same school's 2nd best team (we would have won that game if the ref - just a person from our school that coach explained all the rules to - had seen that our opponent's serve which gave them the winning point was out, not in as the ref claimed it touched the line, but I could clearly see it out, anyway doesn't matter much we wouldn't have made it to finals anyway).

We use plastic shuttles (Yonex Mavis 300 blue), I have actually never used a feather one before. I started out using a Carleton C300 racquet, only like $14 CAD during PE classes and practices, then me and my partner both got the same racquet, a $40 Yonex Isometric 30 df from Sport Chek, which I think is good for beginners, I like it anyway.

We didn't learn very much on the team, just backhand hits from close and far, forehand, overhand, smash, and dropshot. No grips or footwork or things like that. Now the badminton team is over for us since me and my partner didn't make it to the finals, but I am hopefully soon going to start semi-private lessons at Soong badminton academy (soong.ca) with my friend from Taiwan, who is at the same level as me (not the same person as my partner on the team).

I'm not sure if I prefer doubles or singles. I never actually had the chance to play a real singles game in a gym before, but I'm not that great with co-ordination with the other player in doubles. Badminton is my favourite sport, since it is the only one that I'm any good at. I hope to improve a lot when I start my lessons though.

I don't know about anywhere else, but here in Ontario, Canada (the whole province), you MUST wear goggles when playing badminton in schools or during the tournaments for protection... kind of annoying and they always fog up . Until we started playing at school, I had always used the old rules where you only get a point on your serve and lines are a bit different.. the old rules seem safer when you are serving, but can also cause a never-ending game I guess.

Other things I do are playing the trumpet, Royal Conservatory Exam Grade 2 coming up in June, and uh.. take care of my pet guinea pigs .

Well I can't think of anything else to say now so I'll see you around on the forums from now on.