Badminton player John Bullard shines at Polk Senior Games

When you visit John Bullard’s Lakeland home to discuss badminton, the first thing he does is excitedly wave you over to the nearest computer monitor.

Once there, he pulls up a minute-long YouTube clip of a particularly thrilling, fast and furious badminton volley that features one of the players returning several shots after losing his footing and falling to his knees.

“I always tell people that badminton is faster than tennis and a lot of other sports,” says Bullard, an Illinois-based snowbird who spends the winter months at Highland Fairways in Lakeland. “They always laugh, but then I go to YouTube and I show them.”

Throughout the last 15 years, Bullard, 80, has been a consistent presence on the badminton court during the Polk Senior Games. In that span, he has earned ribbons — which are presented to first-, second-, and third-place finishers — for singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles competition.

Badminton incorporates elements of tennis and volleyball as players use a racquet to strike a shuttlecock — a lightweight object more commonly known as a “birdie” due to the feathers that form its cone shape — back and forth over a net. Each side can strike the birdie only once before it passes over the net, and play ends once it hits the ground or a fault has been called.

“I like racquet sports,” says Bullard, who has played tennis regularly since 1976. He also plans to compete in tennis matches during the upcoming Polk Senior Games, but considers badminton an enjoyable, more leisurely alternative. “At my age, getting out of bed and getting out of a chair is hard work. Tying my shoes is hard work.

“Once I get on the court, I get loosened up and it feels good.”

Bullard was first exposed to badminton while he was a student at North Boone High School in Poplar Grove, Ill.

“I had a good high school gym teacher who made us do a variety of things,” he says. “One day, he introduced us to badminton and had us do a co-ed mixed doubles tournament, which I won.”

Despite enjoying the game — and the taste of victory — Bullard picked up a badminton racquet only once, during a freshman year intramural tournament at Northern Illinois University, before returning to the court in his 50s to take part in Senior Games competition in Iowa.

Except for one year he had to skip due to knee surgery, Bullard has been a consistent presence on the Senior Games badminton court. It’s also just about the only place you can catch him playing the game.

“It really is the only time I play badminton, once a year” Bullard says. “No one here really plays. Other countries are much stronger in badminton.”

The badminton competition at this year’s Polk Senior Games is slated to take place March 10 at the Kelly Recreation Center in Lakeland.

Stephen Novak, recreation supervisor at the Kelly complex, concurs the sport’s popularity has waned in recent years.

“There’s a solid core of badminton players, but I wouldn’t say it’s a growing sport,” Novak says. “Participation is pretty stagnant, and I think what has happened is a lot of people who were playing badminton have made the switch to pickleball.”

That being said, Novak believes badminton can be enjoyed by almost anyone.

“It appeals to all ages and activity levels,” Novak says. “It is easy for anyone to play, but it is tough to master.”

As the next Senior Games draw closer, Bullard isn’t training too hard for a sport he has consistently enjoyed for the better part of his senior years.

“It’s good exercise and it’s fun,” says Bullard, a self-proclaimed retired jack of all trades who, among other jobs, previously taught high school art in Illinois and California before moving on to teach instructional technology at the University of Iowa. He has been married to wife Kathy for five years, has four children from a previous relationship and three grandchildren. “I like that there’s nothing dangerous about it.

“When you get old, you fall hard, and you’re more likely to break something.”