Lighting Quick Badminton

I just finished some chocolate ice cream compliments of my boss. I won't lie: being so hot, it really hit the spot. On to reporting about my badminton tourney yesterday; it ended as expected: Played some good badminton but eventually lost. The second match (after which the picture to the left was taken) was the only match we won two straight. We heavily leveraged our shots against the clearly less skilled player for which I feel bad but can honestly say, considering the speed of the game, it was by no conscious choice on my part, just instinctive reaction. We lost the 1st and 3rd matches for a number of reasons. Not that I need consoling; the scores were very very close. We brought both matches to the final set and then went to deuces. The second match might have produced some great highlights on my part but the other 2 matches were real slogs. A lot of winning when teams are so even comes down to getting some good breaks, which I don't mind because we definitely made them earned it and I I played some good badminton in the process. My only goal was to play hard and not make a fool of myself. In the 3rd match the opposing team really hammered my partner, which was a mistake on their part considering how poor my backhand is. In any case, my partner, Uda-san, was really hurting after that. The other story of the day was the heat. It was a very hot day in Hokkaido yesterday making the gym, where over 200 players were located, very stuffy. I actually delt with it quite well; one might almost say I'm use to it but that would not be the compete truth as it was a highly uncomfortable experience. Just watching others play while waiting for your games caused one to sweat. Play then was sweat-drenching. The sweat I've gotten past in my athletic career but it made areas on the court deadly slippery. I brought towels and extra jerseys and socks to switch into through the day and managed fine. My only complaint has to do with the new fangled scoring system introduced a couple of years ago. Rally point scoring really penalizes errors. I will admit here that the lose in both games was due to the shuttle hitting the rim of my racket. Curse that sound forever! Losing - and winning - by an error is greatly unsatisfying. Previously the double serve style mitigated errors and focused the game on kill shots. What really bugs me about the change, however, is that the rally point system was said to be brought in to the make the game more exciting for spectators, but, like most sports, the majority of badminton played globally at any one time has no spectators. It's being enjoyed by the simple folk of the world. Finally, I would like to give credit to the organizes for making the divisions so balanced which made playing enjoyable and rewarding for all.