Badminton is a very popular game and can be played both indoors and outdoors. It is a highly competitive sport and is very popular in China, Malaysia and Indonesia. National and international competitions are played indoors and it is played outdoors as a recreation. Badminton uses a shuttlecock which is a half round shaped piece of cork with white feathers stuck along the edges of the flat side of the cork. The feathers on the shuttlecock slow down its speed. A badminton court is 44 ft in length and the width is 20 ft. The width is reduced to 17 feet if there are just two players playing. The width of the court is divided into two equal sides by a dividing line and another line which is 6 ½ feet from the net divides the court into four serving halves. There is a net in the middle of the court which is placed at a height of 5 feet and is held up by two badminton poles which are placed outside the edge of the court. Two or four players can play badminton. Each player or team stands on opposite sides of the net within the court and one player will ‘serve’. That is he or she will stand in one of the serving halves and hit the shuttlecock diagonally to the player who is standing on the opposite side in the receiving half. The rules of badminton are that a point is scored by a player or a team when the opposition cannot return the shuttlecock or the shuttlecock is hit into the net or out of the court. Whoever scores 21 points wins the game and 3 games make a set. The winner has to win 2 of the three sets.
The earliest recorded history of badminton says that it was played in Japan however history records that this game was brought to England from India by the British in 1860 and it became a popular sport in England. Currently badminton is a regular Olympic Sport and there are five events; men’s singles, men’s doubles women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles that are played. The modern day badminton racquet is made of carbon fiber composites which maybe reinforced with metal. Carbon fiber has an excellent weight to strength ratio and that is why it is so popular in tennis and badminton racquets. The size of the racquet head and its length is defined in the badminton racquets rules and all manufacturers follow these rules. The string of the racquet can be heavy or light and it depends on the choice of the player. Players have to wear rubber soled shoes as some badminton courts may have wooden boards as the floor of the court.
The art of badminton is to make the opposition either hit the shuttlecock out of the playing area or miss a shot or hit it into the net. There a number of badminton shots that players use some of the common ones are the lob, the smash, the block shot and the drop shot. Each player develops their own playing techniques and plays the shots as they feel comfortable. As it is a very fast game some players may have only time to react to an opponents shot. Badminton techniques are taught by coaches in badminton clubs and badminton caching Stafford in England is a well renowned badminton coaching club. Wolver Hampton is known for its badminton clubs and coaching facilities.
All sports goods suppliers have badminton equipment and one can easily purchase badminton equipment and play it in the backyard. Everyone has their own particular choice for the badminton racquet and one can get the feather shuttles or there is a plastic version also available which is more durable as the feather shuttles break quite easily in a game. Some players like to smooth the feathers to make them faster and some may rub sweat on the feathers to disturb the balance of a shuttlecock.
Badminton is a good healthy sport that can be played easily in one’s own backyard.
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