My badminton group used to have Mr. Huang who worked at the premise – one of the churches in town. He would set up the net on the night that we have game (used to be two nights a week, then reduced to one night ..), and waiting patiently for us to arrive. There’s only one court. Most of the time, we would have about 10 or so regulars who showed up for work religiously and took turn to play. But there were couple of times during his tenure (he had since left, and the church canceled the badminton night, well, since non of us converted..) the crowds was very thin, as just the two of us. Then we would play games after long warming up.
I dreaded it.
Because he’s far better player, so the point would end very quickly.
How quickly?
One and two.
When it’s my serve, he would return it, and the point was over.
When he served, on a luck I could return it (most time I couldn’t ..) then he would kill it next.
We ended up spending most time picking up the birdie. I absolutely have no qualm of losing fairly in a competition but felt he could and should make the game more enjoyable by giving in a little. Just like I don’t enjoy beating a kid – there isn’t any enjoyment out of it. There was bit anger after the set point as I was wondering how much joy he’d get by beating a weaker player for it’s a friendly game.
In general, I’m a firm believer that one shouldn’t serve a bagel and I reminded my team of this too. (Few have retorted .. that they would) I thought to myself .. maybe just me thinking this way, cause I’m a loser. At last weekend playoffs, one of seasoned players on my team shared his feeling of bageling:
Don’t do it.
We’re only recreational players and there isn’t any need to embarrass some one we may see/play often.
Hmmmm … apparently the pros feel the same way: Reto Schmidli, the guy who double bageled Roger Federer when he was 10 felt he should have done differently.
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