Badminton Team Training Update 2

Today the official badminton team training has ended. During the 6 weeks of this team training, I feel that I’ve learned a lot about badminton as well as developed some good leadership.

Usually Tuesday and Friday were the training sessions and we had matches on Saturday. On the 12th of March, we had matches with the OSC parents, on the 18th of March, we had matches with Alethea International School and on the 25th of March (today), we had matches with Colombo International School. Every time there was a match with other schools, I felt that I’m getting used to the environment of competition. As Mr. De Silva said, we only start learning and noticing many things once we have real matches, and I really think that this is true. I played with many players whose playing style is very different and each time I felt that I’m gaining good experience and learning more about badminton.

Reflecting on the criteria of the CAS, I’ve realized that I’ve covered many aspects without noticing them myself. In terms of leadership, I definitely feel that it is one of my strengths. Despite being the captain of the first badminton team ever and undertaking a challenge that I’m not fully familiar with, I was committed in every aspect of the team training, I’ve shown perseverance even when things didn’t go as I’d expected, and I was responsible and made sure that planning and initiating is well-organized and everybody is informed etc with the collaboration with Mr. De Silva and Mo.  As a leader, it was indeed a challenge for me to make sure that everything is ok and running smoothly, but as I have had some leadership from leading Art Project, badminton after school activity etc, those things helped me a lot and I feel that I’ve increased expertise in the leadership.

In terms of badminton skills, I feel that I’ve developed many skills over the course of 6 weeks of team training, however I also feel that I’m still inexperienced and have a lot of room for improvement. Sports is not something that one can be an expert in within a few weeks and as I’m willing to develop my skills further, I’ll continue to show commitment and perseverance in badminton. This may be through participating in the badminton after school activity, joining the badminton team again next year etc.

Overall this badminton team training has been very beneficial for me in many different ways and despite this interfered with my school work (is it ethical to commit in sports at the expense of school work?), I believe that this wasn’t a waste and I’ve gained a lot of  valuable experiences. Hopefully there will be a team training next year too, and if so, I hope to join again and show my spirit and represent OSC.

Practice picture

Alethea International School: Match

Alethea International School: Match 2

OSC Parents: the match umpire

Badminton Team Training Update 1

On Friday the 4th of March, we went to the British School of Colombo to play badminton. Although we have 7 boys and 6 girls on the team, due to some people who were involved in the MUN and some people being absent, we only had 4 boys and 5 girls (however we somehow managed to play all the games which were planned).

We had 3 boys singles, 2 boys doubles, 3 girls singles, 2 girls doubles and 2 mixed doubles. For boys, we unfortunately lost all the matches, however for girls, we won 2 singles, both doubles, and we won 1 mixed doubles.

This was the first time we played badminton with people outside the school as a team (and first time I played badminton with people from other school) and it was indeed a great experience for me.

As we represented OSC, I made sure that everybody is behaving well and not acting on their own and creating a disorder. This was a challenge that I had undertaken as a leader. Unlike playing at our school, I felt that I had a lot more responsibilities. In addition, to make sure that everybody knows what they should be doing, I worked collaboratively, not only with Mr. De Silva and Mo, but with everybody else, informing what’s coming up next, what they should be doing etc.

Although we lost all the boys matches, I was fully committed to encourage the others as well as myself not to give up. After finishing all the matches, I felt that we have to show perseverance when playing matches with other schools (and when we lose), but at the same time, also be fully committed. This is our first badminton team at OSC and although we faced lots of difficulties, we had well undertaken the challenge with perseverance and commitment and we will continue to do so.

I hope that our team continues to develop as we practice more and play matches with other schools, the parents and the community.

Team photo

Boys Doubles

Boys Doubles 2

Boys Doubles 3

Season 4: Badminton Team Training

This year, we have our first badminton team in the school and I’ve been elected one of the leaders of this activity along with Mo. This will be one of my major Action in this semester.

The activity has started on the 15th of February and this will go on until the 26th of March. The plan is to practice the fundamental strokes and techniques badminton until the end of February, and have matches with other school in Colombo in March.

The members of this badminton team are;

Coach

• Mr. De Silva

Boys

• Uthpala
• Karl
• Rasmus
• Devansh
• Kwabena
•  Sam
• Myself

Girls

• Mo
• Tanya
• Keiko
• Vera
• Georgia
• Yuko

The schedule at training sessions will be divided into the following order:

• Physical training
• Practice of strokes play
• Match practice (singles and doubles)

The training sessions will be held at the following times:

• Tuesday 2:40 p.m to 4:15 p.m
• Friday 2:40 p.m to 4:15 p.m
• Saturday 10 a.m to 11:30 a.m

Goals:

As I’m the leader of this badminton team, I’d like to set some goals which I hope to achieve throughout the 6 weeks of training.

• Undertake new challenge as a leader
• Increase the awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth
• Plan and initiate activities
• Work collaboratively with others, especially with Mr. De Silva and Mo
• Show perseverance and commitment
• Develop new skills

Since 2 weeks have passed, I feel that I’m achieving most of these goals. First of all, I’m undertaking new challenge as one of the leaders of the first badminton team at OSC. Since I was and am also the student leader of the after school badminton, that has been helping me quite a lot. I believe that this challenge is the extension to leading the after school badminton.

As I’ve been practicing for the past 2 weeks, I feel that my strengths and areas for growth has become evident. In my opinion, my strengths are taking leadership in the team and making decisions. In terms of badminton, I believe that my strengths are the net play and serving. My areas for growth are to tell everybody clearly what to do, and to make everybody do what Mr. De Silva tells them to do, as some people aren’t following the instructions. In terms of badminton, I believe that my areas for growth are dropping and backhand strokes.

As for planning and initiating activity,  this is going well and by working collaboratively with Mr. De Silva and Mo, we haven’t faced big problems so far. I hope that this will continue throughout the team training.

I believe that I’ve already shown perseverance and commitment in this team training. I’ve been attending every session on time and taking responsibilities as a leader, such as clearing the rackets that people have left on the court and collecting the shuttles etc.

As for developing new skills, it’s not something that can be done within few practices (in terms of badminton and other things) and I hope to be able to develop various skills as we have more practices.