The leader Within

Chapter 11: The Badminton Club

My high school, Rick Hansen, provides students with the opportunity to participate in a variety of curricular and extracurricular activities including archery, volleyball, Hansen for Humanity, the Diversity club, student mentors, computer animation and robotics club. This is to help students reach their full potential and go above their academic requirements. The Badminton club is one of the most popular sports club within Rick Hansen. It is a good opportunity for students who are interested in playing Badminton or getting better at it. The students are required to pay a $15 fee for the club and are required to practice every morning on Thursdays for one hour.

Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players per side). Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with the racquet and landing it within the opposing side's half of the court. Each side may only strike the shuttlecock once before it passes over the net. Play ends once the shuttlecock has struck the floor or if a fault has been called by the umpire, service judge, or (in their absence) the opposing side. Students who excel in the club and show effective performance are selected by the teacher to compete with different schools on higher levels. In the club, I was partnered up with two more people which meant that there were three people on each side of the net. Every Thursday we were required to practice and demonstrate our development and learning of Badminton to the teacher.

The main goal of this game was to gain the most points, so we could get selected to compete with other schools and achieve awards for that. I had two other members in my team and to successfully attain our goal we had to set a clear plan before beginning of each game. Before the game, I would set clear directions for my team and explain our positions and stances to each member, so we won't clash with each other or miss the shuttlecock by being on the wrong positions. This required good communication to explain the whole plan and we needed to have a clear vision. Our team also had to collaborate with each other. For example, if one person missed the shuttlecock, the other person would try to hit it instead so the whole team won't lose. This taught me that having a clear vision for the whole team makes it easier to achieve a goal because each member is aware of what they are striving for. It also reduces confusions and miscommunication within the team which makes it easier for the work to flow smoothly. Also, this experience taught me that everyone's contributions in a team makes a difference. However, it is the leader's responsibility to make sure that everyone is incorporated in the team and is contributing something. If they are not, then the leader needs to clearly communicate with that team member and help them be included in the team. I know this because a member of another team would show up late everyday so only two people would start playing and when that third member arrived, he would not know the plan which would create a lot of confusions between them while playing. This made their whole team's performance suffer which was partially the leader's fault because he should've solved that conflict as soon as it arose. This made me realize that a good leader is someone who makes sure that everyone is giving their best in a team and the team is not suffering because of one person.