The game is one of the oldest sports in the world. In the city of Pune in India, different drawings have been found from over 2000 years ago, depicting a flying object that consists of a weight or fruit with feathers attached to it (which looks a lot like the shuttle that we use nowadays when playing badminton. Back then they were using their hands and feet to let the shuttle go back and forth. In China they were using coins to attach feathers to, to use as a shuttle. In America they have also found objects with feathers. Throughout time the game is spread to many European countries and is often only played by rich people. English officers introduced the sport, which they got familiar with in India. Around 1873 the game was played on an English estate which was called Badminton and therefore the game is now called the same. Throughout the years, badminton has been continuously developed and is played with a racquet through which the game is not only played with your hand and feet and a shuttle with feathers or of plastic.
When playing badminton you of course have a certain striking technique and from there a difference is made between a rotation strike and an extension strike. The difference is that with a rotation strike you make a rotating movement from your underarm and with an extension strike you staighten and a pushing movement is made to give the attacking shuttle direction. The six most well known shots: smash, drive, dropshot, netdrop, clear en lob, are often used for an offense or defense. A smash is a high and quick offensive shot, a drive is a sideway attack and a dropshot is a high shuttle from the back that is just played over the net. A netdrop is a shot from close up to the net, that is played just over the net with a little boogje. A clear is a high shot to the back of the field of the opponent and is in principle a defensive shot, just like a lob in which a low strike is played back high to the oponent. These techniques can be well applied to a badminton game.
Nowadays, badminton is played in a hall where the wind can be of no effect to the game. The field is split in half with a net of 1,55 meter high in the middle. The playing field is 13,4 meters long and 6,1 meters wide. Before the game begins, a toss is done to decide who can start to serve. The shuttle is hit into the air and when this reaches the ground, they will look into which direction the ball is pointing at, at whom the ball is pointing at is the one who can decide who will serve first.
Serving is underhand, and with an even score there will be served to the right side and with an uneven score on the left side. The score count of a set is until 21 points, with a minimum difference of 2 points. When the score in sets is 1 – 1, then a deciding third set has to be played. You score a point or you get one when the shuttle falls on the ground within the playing field on your opponents side. The same goes for when the shuttle is played by the opponent into the net, against the wall or ceiling. When your opponent plays the shuttle twice, when the shuttle is played in the wrong field when serving or when the shuttle is hit before it goes over the net, you again gain a point. You can play single (one versus one) and double (two versus two). With the double, one is standing in the front and the other is diagonally behind, where the boy has to stand in the back and the girl in the front.
First of all you need racquet of which the hitting area is tightened with strings made of nylon. The racquet should adhire to certain regulations to be able to use in a game. The hitting area can not be longer than 28 centimeters and higher than 22 centimeters. The two most well known brands of a badminton racquet are Yonex and Carlton. You have the choice of a feathered and plastic shuttle. The feathered shuttle is often only used with games and a platic shuttle is used for the training. A feathered shuttle has about 16 feathers in a circle and stuck into a kind of cork and tightened with a rope so that they don’t fall out that easily.
In the past you had to wear white clothing when playing badminton, but nowadays you can wear different clothing and colors. Often badminton teams will have their own shirt that distinguishes the players from others. It is also handy to have shoes with a circle on the sole which will make it easier to rotate.
Nowadays there are badminton clubs all over the world and you can sign up to them. By training a lot you can enter competitions through which you can get higher up. When you are part of a club you are responsible for your own racket. You can sign up for games and with your selected team you can play at home or somewhere else. Most often there is a captain that keeps the jar with shuttles and there is a list who needs to drive when the game is outside of home.
The weight of the shuttle is between 4,74 and 5,50 grams and the length of the feathers is on average between 62 and 70 mm. The fastest measured speed of a shuttle is 421 km/h and was hit by Malaysian Tan Boon Heong. A badminton player will sometimes travel a distance of more than 6 km during one game. The best shuttles are made of feathers from the left wing of a goose. There are about 200 countries that are a member of the International Badminton Federation. The first Olympic Games where badminton players were allowed to compete in, was held in Barcelona in 1992. The form of badminton that we know nowadays was developed in England. At games in Malesia and Indonesia, a crowd of 15.000 people is very normal. The shuttle is flying for about 20 minutes on average over a period of three sets. The speed of a smash can be about 320 km/h on average!
