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I played a crazy game today. My roommate invited me, and I'm told that it's essentially a made-up game by the people here at St. Petersburg State University. So it's badminton, but without a racquet. Instead you attach foam pads to the backs of your hands and the tops of your feet. To seve, you have to kick the shuttlecock, but thereafter you can use your hands. Unfortunately, since the padding is on the back of your hand, it makes for some awkaward arm movements. I haven't quite figured out a good way to do it, so I basically punched the birdie. It seems to me it would be easier if the padding was on the palm. But I wasn't there when they invented it, so I don't have a say.
I did well on my first day. There were about twelve people and only room for eight people to play. We all divided up into pairs, and had a doubles tournament. Two teams played at a time. We were only beat by one team, and the score was 14-15. What's worse, the guy we were playing against cheated. He's one of the two most experienced, so he's good, and there's no need to cheat, but he did anyways. The volleying is like volleyball, your team is allowed three hits to get it over the net, but they have to alternate between people. This kid hit twice in a row himself. My teammate didn't see it, and I just assumed that it was legal. Then, later on, when she did it, he called it out. Additionally, he hit the net once, and play continued. I hit it, and it's an out. Just a little bitter, that's all. I've met plenty of people like this, and I can never stand 'em. Especially if you're good enough that you can win without cheating.
I was there with my roommate, and the coach asked us both back on Friday. Also, there might be some sort of tournament this weekend. Crazy. Who knew I'd go from being treated like a rag doll by Caucasians to actually being semi-coordinated in a random game.
Posted by Owen at March 17, 2004 12:14 AM | TrackBack