With apologies to folk singer Pete Seeger, a somber question hung in the historic air of the Hilo Armory over the weekend.
Where have all the badminton players gone?
“We really hoped we would have a better turnout,” said Dean Ishimoto, one of the organizers of the 45th annual Hilo Open competition that generated only 28 players this year. “We have averaged in the high 30s, and there have been times when we had as many as 60, but this is a surprise, kind of unfortunate, let’s hope it’s only temporary.”
Ishimoto and others speculated costly airfare between islands, the lava outbreak, the trouble visited upon us by hurricane Lane — or all of those issues — are probably behind the downturn in interest.
But they aren’t forecasting doom for this deceptively challenging sport that is wildly popular in Asian countries, a school sport in Indonesia and other locations because of its universal application.
The best men’s player on the Big Island is Kimo Keli’ipa’akaua, a traffic enforcement officer on the westside, who has playing earnestly for the last 21 years after being introduced to the game in his younger days through his parents, who grew up with the sport.
Here’s one of the biggest attractions to the sport for some, and perhaps explains why some don’t bother trying it — your size, your muscle strength, your gender is irrelevant.
This is a tight game that relies on instantaneous reactions in a very confined area.
“I played all the sports, I think,” Keli’ipa’akaua said. “Tennis, volleyball, basketball, surfing, you name it, but this game stuck with me. The catch is, it looks very simple — anyone can hit the shuttle (shuttlecock, or birdie for you non-badminton people), over the net — but if you want to be good at it? That’s not at all simple.”
Fast, but tricky. Unlike running, tennis, paddling, golf, actually most sports competitions, gender is no advantage one way or the other, according to several players at the Hilo Open. The biggest muscle builder isn’t going to propel the little shuttle any farther than your teenage daughter or son. Youth confers no particular advantage, as well, as Keli’ipa’akaua noticed in a tournament on Oahu when a 20-something player was matched against a 70 year-old veteran.
“It wasn’t close,” Keli’ipa’akaua said, “the older gentleman just destroyed him, start to finish.”
Nia Faulkner grew up in Indonesia where everyone played, but at 40, it has been just five years since she started taking the game more seriously.
“It’s so much fun and a lot of it is mental, thinking ahead quickly,” she said. “It’s not the kind of sport you need years to understand how to play, but it might take a while to be really good at it.
“It goes by fast,” Faulkner said, “and it’s a pretty good aerobic workout if you want to look at it that way.”
Saturday morning, Keli’ipa’akaua cruised through his opening match, winning 21-6, 21-6 in about 20 minutes. When he walked off the court toward the scorer’s bench, it looked like he had just taken a shower in his shorts and t-shirt.
He shrugged off the relatively easy win on his way to men’s championship, for a discussion the sport.
“You find the men here play more of a finesse game,” Keli’ipa’akaua said, “whereas if you watch the women? They play for blood, they just go for it. Any girl who picks this game up and starts should know she can be as good as any man who plays the sport, that might get them interested.”
And that’s not just a bait and switch tactic to dredge up interest. Keli’ipa’akaua said the optimal height for this game is “about 5-foot-6 or 7, that’s about it,” which makes it adaptable for a lot of women players.
There’s a “hairpin” tactic in the game, that involves a shuttle that loops just over the top of the net and is then returned by a soft shot, up and just barely over the net, falling to the floor out of reach. Taller players have much more difficulty making some shots like that.
“It’s always a challenge to play against the guys,” said Tina Nishioka of Hilo, who teamed with Kazuyo Omata to take second place in women’s doubles, “but you always want to do it because it’s so much fun to beat them.”
Keli’ipa’akaua’s wife, Shaye, just got started in the game a year ago after busying herself with being a homemaker, but seeing her husband’s enjoyment, she finally got involved and found the game to be a great stress reducer.
“I wish I had started earlier, because it has been so good,” Shaye Keli’ipa’akaua said. “I operate a day care center and for hours a day, it’s just chaos and mayhem and whatever, and after a long day with the kids, it’s such a relief to come here and get in some play.
“It is such a head game,” she said, “so many moves and tactics to consider really fast when you’re out there, it would be hard to think of anything else, so it really does just wash that mental stress away, almost immediately.”
And, for no extra charge, there’s an aerobic workout that goes with it.
The Hilo Badminton Club meets at the Hilo Armory three days a week for practice and instruction. For further information, call Dean Ishimoto, 938-8785.
Results
Men’s singles
1. Kimo Keliipaakaua (Hilo)
2. Joachim Reyes (Honolulu)
3. Kyle Higa (Honolulu)
Men’s doubles, upper division
1. Derek Uchima (Torrance, Ca)/Curtis Fortune (Honolulu)
2. Andy Lin/Biao “Bill” Lin (Hilo)
3. Kimo Keliipaakaua/Pongsan Suwanasanu (Hilo)
Men’ s doubles, lower division
1. Joon Paek/Kyle Higa (Honolulu)
2. Shaun Yugawa/James Kim (Hilo)
3. Ishakh Pulakkatu Thodi/Dean Ishimoto (Hilo)
Women’s doubles
1. Nia Faulkner (Hilo)/Ka Lau (Honolulu)
2. Kazuyo Omata/Tina Nishioka (Hilo)
3. Shaye Keliipaakaua/Yuko Uehana (Hilo)
Mixed doubles, upper division
1. Kimo Keliipaakaua/Shaye Keliipaakaua (Hilo)
2. Joon Paek/Ka Lau (Honolulu)
3. Joachim Reyes/Kaitlyn Cao (Honolulu)
Mixed doubles, lower division
1. Mark Taketa/ Nia Faulkner (Hilo)
2. Shaun Yugawa/Kazuyo Omata (Hilo)
3. Dean Ishimoto/Yuko Uehana (Hilo)