Badminton — sport or fun?

History

The history of badminton dates back to the 19th century, when British military officers serving in India became fascinated with the ancient Indian game of pune, which in many ways resembles the modern game of badminton. Soon the game appeared in England, where it quickly gained great popularity. The modern name of the game comes from the old manor Badminton House, the owner of which, the famous popularizer, author and publisher of books about various sports, the Duke of Beaufort, in 1873 was the first to build a badminton court. Soon the association of badminton of England appears and in 1893 the first regulation of the official rules of the game is issued.

In 1934, the World Badminton Federation was founded. Since 1947, the largest team competition among men (actually the world championship) has been held — the Thomas Cup, and in 1955 a similar competition among women has been held for the first time — the Uber Cup. Badminton has been an Olympic sport since 1992.

badminton game

The meaning of the game of badminton is to use a racket to throw a shuttlecock over the net to the opponent’s half. Note that these rules are obligatory only for professionals, and when it comes to the game of amateurs, the presence of a net and a platform is not at all necessary, and the game itself comes down to keeping the shuttlecock in the air for as long as possible.

Rules of the game

But let’s get back to the rules. Badminton can be played either in pairs, against each other, or in pairs. The game takes place on a court (13.4 by 5.18 meters in size), divided by a grid (located at a height of 1.55 meters), on both sides of which opponents are located. The task of each of the players is to throw the shuttle over the net so that it touches the ground within the half of the opponent and, in turn, prevent the ball from falling on their side. The game is played up to 21 points; with a score of 20:20, the game continues until the superiority of one of the opponents by 2 points or up to 30 (the player who scores 30 points first wins). The game is played in two sets, and in the event of a tie, a third set is played.

Many people call badminton its “little brother” for its similarity to tennis, although in terms of physical activity, everything is quite the opposite. Even though the average duration of a game of tennis is 3 hours and 18 minutes, and for a game of badminton this time is only 1 hour and 16 minutes, the average distance covered by an athlete per game is 6 km in badminton and only 3 km when playing tennis. A similar situation with hits on the ball / shuttlecock — in badminton their frequency is 2 times higher.

Equipment

badminton rackets

All models of rackets are conditionally divided into two groups: professional and amateur. The main difference between them is in quality and naturally in price. Professional rackets have the best playing qualities, are much stronger and at the same time lighter, and their prices are correspondingly higher.

The playing qualities, strength and weight of a racket directly depend on the materials from which it is made and on the production technology itself. Most professional racquets are made from different types of graphite using composite materials, while amateur racquets are more often made either from carbon (but of lower quality) or from metal (steel, aluminum). The weight of the racket ranges from 80 to 150 grams, with professional rackets having approximately the same weight (about 90 — 95 grams), while amateur rackets can have a wider range of values.

Steering wheel

Shuttlecocks for playing badminton, depending on the material from which they are made. There are two types: plastic and feather. All professional players train and play exclusively with feather flounces, while plastic ones are the lot of amateurs.

The modern feather shuttle consists of 16 carefully selected natural goose feathers inserted into . in a cork covered with a husky. During the game, the feathers must be wet, otherwise they will quickly break. The weight of the feather shuttle should be within 4.7 — 5.2 grams, since the flight duration strongly depends on it (every extra 0.1 gram of the shuttle weight increases the flight duration by 10 cm). Compared to synthetic ones, feather shuttles have a more predictable and accurate flight path, but they are less durable and more expensive.

Plastic shuttlecocks differ in speed and colors. The speed of a shuttlecock can be determined by the color of the edging tape on the head of the shuttlecock. Green corresponds to a slow shuttlecock, blue corresponds to a medium one, and red corresponds to a fast one. Most often, shuttlecocks are produced in white and yellow colors. Yellow shuttlecocks are used in rooms with insufficient or poor lighting, as they are better visible.

It is interesting

Badminton is considered one of the three most physically demanding game sports. Some professional badminton players can play with heart rates in excess of 200 beats per minute.

After being hit by a professional athlete, a shuttlecock can reach a speed of 414 km/h, which is an absolute record for the speed of a game projectile.

The world’s largest shuttlecock is in the Kansas City Museum (Missouri, USA). It has impressive dimensions: more than 5 meters in height and weighs about 2 tons.

Author: Alexander Kuznetsov

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