As badminton season is starting to make its approach, sophomore Rin Le is entering the full swing of his excitement. As of now, the team as a whole has been working on their footwork, often spending up to an hour an a half on just foot work alone. These drills include skipping, hopping, and side shuffling. For some on the team, some drills appear to be tiring and pointless but for Le, practicing and repeating these drills are essential for improving.

“Usually when you start to lose, you’ll start to use the footwork,” Le said. “That’s how it was for me last year.”

Last season, Le was recruited by his basketball coach Hyung Nyugen towards the end of the season to play badminton. Le didn’t take much convincing, claiming to be interested in playing the moment Nyugen had mentioned it. He instantly felt passionate about the sport. Le describes the sport as “easy in the beginning,” but as his season progressed he realized that wasn’t necessarily the case. As Le began to learn more and more about the technicalities about badminton, he realized just how complex the sport really is.

“Learning the different techniques really changed my ways of how I looked at badminton.”

Le attributes his skills to his teammates. He regards them as hard workers, and says that they can all go far in the sport if they wanted to. This season most of Le’s teammates are newbies, according to Le, but even so he sees a lot of potential in them.

Last year Le played JV singles in the number one position. Although that was his position for the most part, he did play as a doubles team a few times. Le describes the different positions as having their weaknesses and strengths.

“For doubles I had a hard time in communication,” Le said. “Singles is easier, but I still have some trouble in the footwork aspect.”

As of now, the badminton team is progressing well in their conditioning. And as for Le, he is looking forward to seeing what this season will have in store for him.