As I am nearing the end of grade 11, the time for my service is also coming to an end. This is my final reflection on my service ‘Special Olympics Badminton’. To start this off, I would first like to say that this has been a memorable experience because of the unique way this service is carried out in, this unique way is through the nature of the sport. Badminton not only allowed us to play our part as individuals providing service in our community but also give us the opportunity to stay active and healthy. Another unique factor of the service is we were able to easily socialize with everyone, the athletes, and their parents as well as our fellow peers. The athletes came from a large age range from as small as 10-12 years old to 40 years old, some had a more severe case of mental disability while others did not have too severe. So one thing I have learned from being a part of this service is that it’s not always easy to communicate with the athletes, and in order to know this, it’s very important to learn more about each of their conditions. Although a lot of the interactions with our athletes were cut short due to the global pandemic situation, I realized the more you know about the athlete and what it is the disability they have the better it is. Since we are assigned to partners, my partner’s name is Joshua and he is on the autism spectrum, with this useful information I was able to develop methods as to how to interact with him as it is different with each athlete. I came to learn that gestures and demonstration are the key factors for helping him learn, he was able to pick up different badminton techniques and strategies. With that being said, it’s extremely delightful seeing the energy within each and everyone one of the athletes. One really impactful thing about our service is we would often have conference room sessions to plan out and improve from the previous session, this included planning out warmup drills and exercises to increase efficiency which would ultimately give us more time to play the games. In terms of the most memorable or rather fun thing, I must say is when we gather in a circle to do the warm-up with someone leading it, this is the best time to socialize with everyone and it truly does make the service memorable. This service has allowed me to have a sense of purpose and has kept me mentally stimulated because of the positive impact I am able to provide. In terms of obstacles in the service, particularly in the beginning at times I did feel it was hard to communicate with my athlete and I was struggling to find ways to teach him the badminton skills, but through my planning sessions, it helped me communicate my ideas and thoughts better to Joshua. Overall, I think this service is amazing and its something one in the UWC community should look out for.
