Things you hate about badminton!

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by Wizbit, Dec 14, 2002.

  1. Shoulderpain

    Shoulderpain Regular Member

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    Hey there timeless, can't disagree with anything you've said. Seeking out games you know you should be able to win, or with players who aren't as serious about winning as you are is pathetic. I'd rather lose a game that's well-matched than win a game I should win easily. If you know some players only play for fun, you shouldn't try to up the level of intensity, and then gloat about it.

    On the other hand, as a competitive person myself, I just know how hard it is sometimes to control your natural instinct to "kill" on the court. In fact, I can say that I don't really enjoy a game so much if I have to control this instinct. But then again, I always seek out games with other players with the same attitude...and we all have fun because we're on the same page. When someone gets hit with a smash, everyone usually smiles, and apologies are made to be friendly and make sure the person hit knows you weren't trying to injure them, not because we feel we shouldn't have hit it like that.

    Bottom line: If you're playing to win, you should play with others you know the same attitude. But the opposite should also apply: If someone you know is fiercely competitive asks you to play, you should either decline, or accept the fact that they will try to kill you on the court. Don't expect them to play nice just for you, especially if you don't openly say it before the game.
     
  2. wildstyler

    wildstyler Regular Member

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    Looks like this whole post of "Things you hate about badminton!" has a lot of anger in everyone. Just stop complaining and play as well as you can. As my friend says "Don't get made, get GLAD" LOL:D

    Wildstyler
     
  3. Joanne

    Joanne Regular Member

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    You're right. :D :D :D I'll be glad. No worry. :)
     
  4. Shoulderpain

    Shoulderpain Regular Member

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    I always prefer irrational anger, myself, but...
     
  5. badrad

    badrad Regular Member

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    Timeless - i am guessing who 'skinny jerk' is but i think i know who you are talking about.

    as for getting hit, i get hit all the time, and i know i'm a target. that's the fun part of the game. you encounter different types of opponents. there are those who are competitive and are good friends. hitting each other seems to be the highlight of the evening and is quite fun.

    there are beginners who hit other players by accident or lack of control. those are acceptable and usually they apologize like crazy after anyways. but there are a small group who are competitive, can avoid hitting you but do it for ego/spite or whatever they thrive on. you know who these dorks are, and usually they are not particulary pleasant to play with anyways.

    I don't get upset too often on the court, i usually have lots of noisy loud fun. I had one dork hit me in the face with the shuttle. This came after a fault call - we had a double hit - and we all called fault. his partner, my partner and i all stopped play and relaxed. the shuttle was still floating at the net - but he smashed it directly into my face, (i was near the service line) - he popped out my lens. He said he didn't hear the call, even though all three of us called out nearly simultaneously. He reluctantly apologized for hitting me, but he still asserted that he did not hear the calls. Even though all three of us showed a relaxed position, racquets down.

    Needless to say we were all pissed, even his partner who is a good friend of mine. After i put my lens back into my frame, there was a small cut on bridge of my nose. I proceeded to make his life on the court absolutely miserable. As matter of fact anytime I am playing with this fellow, whom i only see occasionally, i make it a mission to make his playing against me absolutely miserable. He's not really that strong, but he hates to lose. Knowing that, and knowing his limitations, that;s the fun of it. Making him look stupid is my goal everytime i get him on court.
     
  6. Phil

    Phil Regular Member

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    This isn't really things I hate about badminton, it's more about things I hate about people in badminton.

    When people hit the bird in the net and are much closer than you, and they leave it for someone else to pick up, as if they're too good to pick it up. If they're too good, then they wouldn't have hit it in the net in the first place. If you're almost standing on top of the thing, and I'm half a court away, and you walk back to your receiving position, you can be assured I will take my sweet dandy time getting to the shuttle and picking it up. You waste my time, I get a breather.

    Long/odd serve or serve receive rituals. I don't really have a problem with these. If the player thinks they're screwing with my head by holding the bird extra long, or whatnot, it just makes me laugh inside at their futile attempt at intimidation. Of course, these tactics may work on less battle-hardened shuttlers, but not the great Phil. :D

    badrad: I'm almost in the same boat as you. It wasn't as if play had been stopped, but I was in the forecourt, my partner in behind set up the opposing team's front player perfectly at the net. I had no chance. I tried to duck, but by that time I had a burning sensation about two inches below my eye. Not even an apology! :mad: The fat old man trots back in his little orbit around the badminton court to his spot as if he had hit ground. Like, c'mon, how can you have the nerve to nail someone like that? And not even fake an apology! Most likely case of old fat guy jealous of young junior with less than 50% body fat. :)

    What else do I hate? People making your calls for you. Most cases are when the shuttle lands close to the line. If you call it out, their body language, and sometimes their English language will insinuate that that shuttles was definitaly in, despite the face that they are anywhere from 3 to 10 times the distance from the shuttle than you. In a tournament, if this happens, why don't they call a line judge? If they are so sure that you are cheating, why not? I have been mildly guilty of this in the past, but not to the degree of being offensive. Usually just an inquiring "That was out?," and play goes on. And once, it was because the gym was too hot, causing the birds to fly just a few inches farther every time. (Even my opponent, whom I had a great time talking with for the duration of the tournament, his coach said that the conditions were terrible) However, I've heard that cheating does happen even in high-level play. I've been told that some players at the Boulevard Club call shuttles at the baseline even 3 to 4 inches in the court "out." After all, if the other player is all the way over there, how can they tell? And unfortunately, an audience with any class is powerless to say something. Of course, get some Indonesians in there.......

    Oh yeah, I hate it when people, usually those who have just developed some sort of a smash laugh at and mock beginners and smash as hard as they can to intimidate. Don't they realize they were once like that themselves, and if anyone showed them the treatment they are handing out now, they would likely not be "enjoying" the sport? Of course, these types usually just want to win, and laugh off defeats by "lesser," players as some sort of cosmic freak accident.

    Anyways, some thoughts,
    Phil

    Why don't we have a Things You Love About Badminton thread? :)
     
  7. timeless

    timeless Regular Member

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    On the subject of getting hit by your opponents smash. My personal perspective is simply, "It happens". I seriously don't think I've ever played an evening without seeing someone get hit by a smash. Fortunately, approx. 99% of them are soft hits to the body. And I whole heartedly agree with both Badrad and Shoulderpain when they say it's not usually anything personal, but rather part of the competitive nature of the game. And competitive matches, it does add to the excitement and mental adrenaline knowing you can hit or get hit by your opponents. All very exciting and all very much a part of the game.

    There is of course the flip side to all this where someone gets hit by a smash and they can't help but feel it was intentional. I'm talking about the one classic example where the shuttle pops/floats loosely over the net, one player is stuck at the front hiding behind their raquet, and the opponent across the net just blasts the shuttle right into the poor player stuck at the front. As the player at the front, sometimes you can't help but feel that shot was intentional. Afterall, the player who smashed it had all the time in the world to think about where they were going to play it, had more than ample open court, and heck you would have walked off the court and let them hit it anywhere because it was a 99.99999% winner anyway. So why did the opponent choose to nail you with the shuttle?! As in the scenario I described in my previous story/post, when the opponent has the skill and time to indeed make a clear decision on how they were going play their "free gift" and chooses to nail you with it, I personally see an absolutely un-called for act of blatant assault with a piece of cork :D. But seriously, any player who does that for no reason other than to "start some sh*t" deserves to be taken outside. And as for doing it as vindictive acts of retaliation against players with really poor attitudes... well, what goes around, comes around, and they asked for it :D.

    And as for mixing a game up with higher caliber competitive players and lower caliber players. If it's not a tournament, then it's obviously for fun. When/why else would higher caliber players be playing with lower caliber players. If you're a high caliber player stuck with lower caliber players, well that's just too bad. Taking it out on them by assaulting them with the shuttle just means one thing: you're an ass. And although it would be wrong for lower caliber players to expect to be "let off easy", it is also unreasonable of the higher caliber players to expect the same kind of competitive match they are used to. Although every case is unique, I believe some sort of compromise is indeed necessary.

    A little off topic but...
    Elitist badminton players actually remind of me of elitist skiers and snowboarders. They usually bomb down every run, regardless of the difficulty of the run and the skill level of the other patrons on it. And they always yell and curse at everyone they hotdog past and undoubtedly cut off. They forget that the skier/boarder downhill has the right of way. Why? Because they have limited view (ie. they can't see behind them) while the uphill skier/boarder has a view of everything. This totally reminds me of the attitudes of elitist badminton players and how they treat others. They have all forgotten that they too were beginners at one time, and somewhere along the line, they all lost (or never had) their courtesy and integrity.

    Anyway, enough ranting for now, from the general posts in this thread, it seems like the #1 most hated thing in badminton are some of its patrons *LOL*. I'm with Phil, someone should start a "The nice people in badminton" thread or something so people don't think badminton is all about elitist jerks.
     
  8. Winex West Can

    Winex West Can Regular Member

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    Have kept myself away from this discussions 'coz I was having so much fun just reading your posts :D :D :D

    In truth, there are always a few folks in any club who are just absolute jerks. The "skinny jerk" described by timeless fit the description of one chap who plays at my club on Sundays (which I occassionally do play) and yes, it sure gives me pleasure to play against him and beat him mercilessly. ;) Aren't we mean? :)

    As for getting hit, I gotta agree that it is all part of the game but good sportmanship dictates that the hitter apologies to the hittee. Heck, even making unintentional shots like fluking a return winner or the shuttle hitting the net and rolling over, most players (even the pros) will hold up an arm to indicate "Sorry, fluky shot".
     
  9. nSmash

    nSmash Regular Member

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    Some of the people I play with are pretty nice and still yell "good shot"
    when one of us (i.e. their opponents) obviously flukes a point e.g.
    by clipping the net tape or hitting the frame. :)
     
  10. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    While, for the "hitting" incidents, most of the time, I am the "receiver". Even though, most of the ppl do make apology right away, I still question myself, "Am I the public enemy (due to my nasty net plays)? Or, it's really the time to lose weight???"
    :D
     
  11. Shoulderpain

    Shoulderpain Regular Member

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    There are so many comments by everyone how they love making certain opponents look foolish, and the basic tone of the comments is highly competitive. I think that all of this basically sums up why people get so irritated by others when playing badminton...badminton players are a competitive group of people, by nature. When people like this get together, of course there is both fun and anger. We should all probably remember that while we are secretly hating someone we sometimes play against, someone else probably hates us just as much, and thinks that we are "elitist" or snobby.

    As for a "What I love about badminton thread", well, how boring would that be?
     
  12. badrad

    badrad Regular Member

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    so aren't we glad that we are all one happy family here at BCentral? :D
     
  13. Phil

    Phil Regular Member

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    Oh yeah, one more thing to add to the list:

    NYLON SHUTTLES

    Phil
     
  14. Phil

    Phil Regular Member

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    Oh yeah, one more thing to add to the list:

    NYLON SHUTTLES

    Phil

    Oops, double post.
     
  15. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    Really??? I found out that, at least Yonex Mavis 300/350 are much better than some crappy brand feather ones.

    Nylon ones are more durable, which save some $$$. However, once the "skirt" get twisted, the flying won't be consistant anymore. Also, crappy nylon ones are nightmare for its heavy weight and bullet like speed.
     
  16. nSmash

    nSmash Regular Member

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    I don't like nylon shuttles either. They don't suit my style of play. I
    find that except for the vibration, they're fine for a bashing game
    but quite frustrating if I want to play control since their flight patterns
    are quite a bit different from feather ones. I find feather more fun
    since I'm wristy and many of my fancy shots depend on the flight
    characteristics of feather.
     
  17. Mikie

    Mikie Regular Member

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    JWU - respect :)
    "I can tolerate everything xcept for the intolerable..." ((c)nearly)
     
  18. edwin

    edwin Regular Member

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    I understand what you mean. A guy - let's call him Leo - did everything that you've mentioned above to me before, and I got so angry after he continuously treated me like that for a month.

    And what got me even angrier is that Leo is someone whom I once considered to be a close friend. We even started training badminton together when we were young. After a while, I stopped playing badminton completely while he kept up with his training and he kept improving.

    1 year later, when I picked up my badminton racquet again and wanted to play some badminton for fun, I was so shock and upset when I find find that Leo, someone whom I thought to be my friend, was ignoring and disrespecting everytime we see each other on the badminton court when he is now a much better player than I am. Is that the way a childhood friends should treat each other?

    And to make things worse, he kept talking down upon me, and he expects me to lose every single game even when I'm slowly getting back into shape. Oh well, some people aren't meant to be friends afterall.
     
  19. Winex West Can

    Winex West Can Regular Member

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    Re: Re: Things you hate about badminton!

    Edwin,
    Best revenge is to train elsewhere and improve so much that you can beat him silly. Then come back to the club and to partner with someone else and hit him with everything you got. :D :D

     
  20. edwin

    edwin Regular Member

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    Re: Re: Re: Things you hate about badminton!

    Unfortunately, that didn't work. Originally, I thought about that too, and I then wasted so much of my parents' money and my effort to train elsewhere. But no matter how hard I train, I couldn't catch up with him. I wasn't about to give up on training, but I was in University at that time. When my marks have dropped as a result of the effort that I've been putting in badminton, I concluded that it's not worth it to give up so much of my time (and waste money) to train just because I want to beat a loser in badminton. I've stopped playing badminton completely once again. It wasn't until 2 years ago when I picked up my racquet and attempted to play for fun. This time, I played with different people, and I was able to put the unhappy memories of my past behind :).
     

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