We have these players joining the social group I'm in. They really have bad BO - bad enough that the smell lingers after they've finished the game & left the court. The majority of the players in the club have been avoiding playing them, but they have thick skin and would jump & join games randomly. Any ideas of how to handle this? Is there any etiquette in badminton around this sensitive subject?
Haha. I'd say the same etiquette carries over into any place, whether it be someone's house, a party, or restaurant. I'm not sure if this helps or not, but years ago when I lived in Japan, I was a smoker. There was a smoking section that was a little far away from my office building and my fellow smoking coworkers and I decided to experiment and go up on the building roof for a couple of weeks. I guess the people on the top floor didn't like it, so they posted a piece of paper and taped it on the wall visible to people as soon as the elevator door opens that read "Thank you for not eating, drinking, and smoking on the roof." I really admired it because most Japanese are bad at English, but the sentence was constructed in a way that was subtle, yet the request was unmistakably clear that they wanted us to stop going up there, especially to smoke. So I guess if you, or whoever making the announcement doesn't want to sound like an a-hole, you'll have to get a little crafty with employing the new "rules" that gets these stinkers to realize that nobody else appreciates their lack of hygiene, yet be really nice about it with subtle undertones.
Lol... Perhaps make an announcement that your next group's tournament will be sponsored by a deodorant anti perspirant company and that they will give free samples to everyone... Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk
Thing is there's not much I could do. I'm just a player. The organiser is quite hands off as this is an open social & stinky money is still money What does everyone think of writing an anonymous polite letter and putting it on top of their bags/ racquets when they're out refilling their bottles?
If the organiser isn't willing to speak to them I think your idea is a great one. It's polite, and they shouldn't know who wrote it.
If I got a note like that, I'd probably be a bit taken aback, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, lol. But I suppose it's not much different from someone asking you "Hey, you want a mint?"
Yes, except bad breath doesn't linger on the court long after the player's gone. I do intend to be very polite about it as it is a touchy subject. If it fails, there's always Plan B: find another group to play with
Maybe if you told them then you wouldn't be the first person. You could say you have sensitive smell so then let somebody else jump in that doesn't mind or let them go with somebody else that doesn't mind. They can't really complain much if you make it about you having sensitive smell rather than then smelling. Anything else re them smelling is somewhat of an implication.