Patience

Tonight was badminton night. I'm happy to report that it wasn't a repeat of Monday's disaster. We play doubles most of the time. Some days, if I'm lucky, I get to play an occasional game of singles. I enjoy singles but my doubles game needs a lot of work.

The thing about doubles badminton is that you have to play in sync with your partner. That is hard at the best of times but if your partner plays a completely different style, well, lets just say things are not going to go too good for you.

Sometimes, I'm too fast for my own good. I'd play a speedy game like I see on TV and find my partner left all alone at the side of the courts watching me play. Then of course he gets caught unaware when the opposing team blocks or drop my smash in front of him.

It's almost always my fault. I tend to play a very selfish game if I'm faster than my partner. I am trying to break that habit. My partner is very smart at placing the shuttle and always has a cool head on his shoulders. That's more than I can say for myself.

Another of my failures is that I usually don't have the patience to play a long rally. That's what went wrong on Monday. I wanted to kill the bird at every opportunity and left my parter in a bad position with the speed I put on.

Tonight, I played at a slower speed to match my partner's playing style. I also played a more patient game. Saving my chancy put-away shots in favour of prolonging the rally. It helped my partner be more involved in the game and helped us win a set against our arch-rivals.

I'll try to have more patience from now.

Oh, and some good news, I'm returning to the squash courts starting tomorrow.