Volleyball head coach Tim Mosser can usually be found in Memorial Auditorium with an energizing presence on the sidelines during home games. You may also have seen him a time or two in Olsen Forum, standing across from a smaller net, “hitting the bird,” as he would say, and working up a sweat.
Mosser taught badminton at Concordia in the mid-1990s. Today, he plays it a couple times a week to get a good mental and physical workout.
“Badminton is one of the best workouts I’ve ever had,” Mosser said. “Especially when you’re up against a good opponent and the rallies get really long.”
His mentor, Dave Lester, once played at the national level in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Mosser said in the early stages of his learning he never scored a point against Lester. Eventually, though, their games got to a point of competitiveness, and Mosser began to rack up a few wins.
“We started from square one,” Mosser said. “He’s a very good teacher.”
Mosser said badminton is an amazing workout full of quick thinking, strategy, and finesse.
“It’s a mixture of smashing the ball one time and then delicately dropping it the next,” Mosser said.
The most difficult part of learning to play badminton, according to Mosser, is learning to control the bird.
“If you can’t hit the bird deep or delicately when you need to, you’re dead,” Mosser said.
Mosser said it took him four to five years of playing before he felt he could be competitive.
“It’s a hard thing to learn to do well,” he said.
Mosser and Lester have done demonstrations in the past for physical education classes at Moorhead Senior High School.
“(Playing) badminton relieves a lot of stress, and the camaraderie of a sport like that is really fun,” Mosser said.
Mosser said he thinks that in the heat of the game, badminton becomes an art.
“(Badminton) is all about constructing a point and seeing where you have the best advantage to gain a point,” Mosser said.
He said that badminton can teach good life lessons too.
“It’s constantly making you think about what you can do differently to gain the advantage,” Mosser said.
