KO'd in badminton

In front of Kansas City’s shuttlecock sculpture in 2004, about as close as I’ve ever gotten to badminton since I stopped taking PE.

I started substitute teaching again this week.

Thursday I was a PE teacher. I hated PE throughout school. I was almost always the slowest, clumsiest student and nearly always the last one chosen for any game requiring physical skill. Math was not my strong suit academically, but at least academic issues could often be hidden. Failures in PE were public. Very public.

I could empathize with those students who hung back and did not want to participate. I certainly didn’t when I was in their shoes.

As they attempted to play tennis, I thought of an incident during my school years.

My best friend Jean had about the same physical skill level that I did. We were usually partners for friendship’s sake, but also because we didn’t embarrass each other with our lack of athletic prowess.

We paired as a doubles team during a badminton unit and actually did reasonably well, climbing to the middle of our class tournament’s chart. I usually played in the forecourt while she took the back court.

Did I mention that I’m accident prone, that things happen to me?

During one match, a high serve came over the net. I leaped to make an overhead smash. When I connected on these (a hit-or-miss proposition), I usually scored. This time, Jean had much the same idea. I didn’t usually call for the shot because I was never sure I’d actually hit it.

Well, I did hit it. And she hit me right below the crown of my head. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor with my partner and the teacher standing over me.

I have never met anyone else who was KO’d by a badminton racket.