Badminton is our longest standing, always growing, wellness initiative. We spoke to Saman Bandara, School of Applied Business Lecturer, to celebrate his success of making it into Auckland Masters Badminton team, and he wants to encourage YOU to come along to Badminton Mondays at YMCA. If you can walk, he says, you can play this too!
Saman: My whole life I never stepped foot on indoor sports court. And then when I saw Badminton advertised back in 2019, as part of Unitec’s wellness programme, I decided to join and have gone every week since.
Big credit goes to Hung for how far I’ve come since. And it’s not just me. There were quite few players in our team that started from the level zero (i.e. also not knowing how to hold the racket) and now they are playing very well.
Maja: Ok so zero skill is no problem. How about level of fitness required to get started?
Saman: If you can walk (and move your arms), you can do this. Hung knows how to take people step by step, help them develop both their skill and fitness level. Each week, depending on who’s confirmed for that day, he will match up people that are at the same level. And there will always be one court for beginners where he gives individual lessons.
Hung is an amazing guy, his commitment and dedication to us and the game should be the focus of this story.
Badminton sessions are well organised, we get emails every week to tell us who’s playing next week. And he regularly sends videos to help us improve our techniques. He makes us feel encouraged throughout.
Maja: Oh we will most certainly do a story on Hung too. Tell me though – what kept you going all those years, never missing a session?
Saman: Oh because I find these badminton weekly sessions very helpful. They really do reduce my stress, especially on the days I spend my whole day behind the computer screen or with students.
Maja: So is that your advice to other staff, to go for it especially on their busy days? That they might appreciate it even more then?
Saman: Correct. Even when you are busy, go, play with others, have a good time. It will relax you AND give you energy. It’s counterintuitive – we think we are tired and can’t go. But it’s other way around actually. If you are feeling tired, you really do need to go to refresh your brain.
Maja: So how did you go from playing these social games to now being in a competitive team?
Saman: Again, I have Hung to thank for that. When we don’t have badminton at Unitec, I sometimes went to play or watch Hung play at his warm up games for Auckland Masters. He gave me so many opportunities to practice the basics as well as more advanced skills.
And now I’ve made it into Team 5 for the Auckland Masters. It was a challenge getting into that team. It’s quite competitive. We went through two-day trial, each day playing five to six games. It’s two hours of continuous running around.
We already had our first game. We lost but Hung reminded me to focus more on the fact it was my first ever competition in life and that I just went for it and played.