badminton

on my way to sign out for lunch, our sportsfest team coordinator told me to sign up for badminton.
they needed more players.
i've already signed up for volleyball, i said.
(i wanted to sign up for bowling, but the slots were all filled up already.)
it's okay to sign up for badminton too, he said.
other teammates arrived and encouraged me to join, and to go with them to the badminton court next week to start practice.

to make the long story short i said
oh well, why not.
sure, sign me in.

there's just one small problem.

i don't know how to play badminton.

i almost never hit the whatdoyoucallit feathered thing.  i'll have a better chance with tennis because the hitting surface is closer to my hand.  still i would probably end up hitting the ball with my thumb, injuring myself.
i'm a klutz like that.

of all the sports i excelled in, it was basketball.  and i don't even watch games.  not even interested.
i played softball when i was in grade school and i did pretty well, but i hated batting because well, i was afraid i'd hit the ball with my thumb.  i think i did, once.  i would rather catch, which i did much better than when it was my turn at bat.

i can play volleyball.  i'm not very good at it; i'm just the basics kind of player.  there's only one kind of service i can do.  during our volleyball class in grade school p.e. the ball i was bouncing off the wall accidentally hit my teacher on the head.  i was so embarrassed.  now that i think about it, it was her fault for not paying attention.  i try my best in volleyball though.

i never got into the badminton craze when it got popular some years ago and 'everybody was doing it'.  the last time i did play i think i was thirteen and after a few tries i gave up.  because i couldn't really feel hitting the whatdoyoucallit feathered thing.

so i guess i never really learned.  it's a sport you can't play if you're all by yourself.  volleyball at least, and basketball you can practice on your own.
i don't know how to bowl properly either, but at least it involves throwing a ball around, which i seem to be good at.

anyway, back to badminton.  i repeatedly told my teammates i don't know how to play it.

"it's easy!"

"you play volleyball; you'll learn badminton easily!"

"it's your last hurrah, since you'll be resigning!"

"it'll make you slimmer!" but said in filipino it's closer to "it'll make you lose weight!"

okay.
you have been warned.

i'm really laughing at myself already.