With finals in less than a week and students bustling to study for exams, finish their essays and calculate the scores needed on the finals to get their desired grades, it’s difficult to imagine spending even a few hours on anything else. However, a few members of the Badminton Club continue to set aside time from stressing over school to do something they all enjoy doing: playing some badminton open gym.

Infographic by Karen Ma.

For years, open gyms for players at MVHS have been a weekly, occasionally semi-weekly, activity organized by the players themselves. The club hosts an open gym every Friday throughout the school year, one exception being the Mini-Tourney on Halloween’s Eve, as well as an occasional one on Saturday at the Bintang Badminton Academy in Campbell — anyone is welcome.

Sophomore and avid open gym player Patrick Kan explains that many new players attend the open gyms at school hoping to try out the sport, whereas more experienced players organize times and form groups of usually five to seven people to play at Bintang.

The tradition began with former JV and varsity badminton coach Charley Situ. The field house would be available once a week for players of all levels to play singles, doubles and mixed doubles games against one another. And from the start of last year, when former coach Eric Liu and current coach Evan Blomquist took Situ’s position, the open gyms extended to local badminton venues, encouraging players to plan events themselves by organizing groups and spreading the word through a Facebook group.

“You get to practice, you get to learn more and you can meet new people,” junior Chi Lao said. “Especially at school open gyms, varsities might play with the beginners, and [they]  can just teach them.”

On the other hand, Kan also feels that players feel the need to host these open gyms to compensate for the mild indifference from the school towards the sport. The lack of resources and opportunities provided by the school inspires the athletes to propose new ways of improving and reaching out to the rest of the school.

Despite this, the continually growing club (and team) is filled with newcomers every year, though many aren’t newcomers to the sport, such as freshman Carl Rosenthal.

“I started going to open gyms because — it’s kind of for two reasons,” Rosenthal said. “One, it helps get my mind off the stress of school, and two, I get to play with my friends and improve my game.”

Since badminton is a spring sport, the players take full advantage of the time before the season starts by arranging occasions for playing open gym to familiarize themselves with their peers and, as Rosenthal puts it, “finesse their game”.

“Some benefits of open gyms are seeing your competition because the team is pretty competitive, and also just playing against people in general,” Kan said. “I chose to start going because I just started badminton in the sixth grade. I really liked the sport, so I just thought, ‘Why not play with my fellow classmates?’”

No matter how busy these dedicated players are, even if it’s right before finals, they will always make time to dust off their badminton shoes and round up their friends to play some open gym — whether it’s to relieve stress, hone their technique or simply meet new people.

“It’s fun, you can play and improve with friends,” Lao said. “And you don’t have to do schoolwork.”