Mikayla Kaliski
After finishing second in the Central Coast Section playoffs in the 2018 season, the Aragon badminton team (5-5 overall) is working for another CCS run, aiming to take the championship title this season.
“Last year we took second place, and this year we’re hoping to finish first, but we’ve got a lot of work. There are a lot of good teams in the league in this year,” said head coach Linda Brown.
One major challenge posed to the badminton team was the success of the boys basketball team, as their post league play occupied the gym and led to a delay in the beginning of badminton training.
“It’s taken us a while to get into the gym because of basketball,” Brown said, “but everybody’s been working really hard on swinging and, like last year, we’re at the top of our league.”
Without access to the gym, the badminton team focused on intensifying conditioning.
“Initially there’s more conditioning, and then as the school year goes on we adjust our training based on our opponents strategies,” said junior Kai Xu.
However, Brown recognizes that not everything can be done outside the gym.
“Badminton is a very technical game, [it] involves a lot of strategy,” Brown said. “When you’re not in the gym, you don’t have a lot of opportunities to actually work on rotating and working with a doubles partner.”
The initial emphasis on conditioning led to a change in focus for the Dons this season.
“We’ve been doing a lot more strategy work because we already knew we were strong physically,” said senior Samantha Wen. “We’re trying to work on more of the strict strategy aspect of badminton, and that’s been helping us win games.”
This season, a large emphasis has been placed on the doubles aspect of the game.
“Doubles is game where you have to communicate with your teammates, sometimes nonverbally,” Xu said. “You’ve got to make sure that you have a sense of where your partner’s at and try to move around the court based on where the birdie’s hit or if they’re going to smash.”
With doubles, Brown has implemented new drills to focus on hitting.
“We just give them lots and lots and lots of attempts so that they can really try and work on certain shots that they have to have,” Brown said. “For example, in a player that plays mixed doubles, their strategy for hitting is a lot different than a singles player.”
However, with badminton, the size of the team has been an issue in providing individualized coaching for each athlete.
“That’s where the challenge for me comes,” Brown said. “We have 25 people with singles, boys and girls, doubles and mixed players. They all have different things that they have to work on … and I’m just a single coach, so that really forces me in having to really focus.”
The Dons are looking to achieve a winning record in their game against Capuchino on April 18.
