Badminton (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what badminton is, its basic rules, playing field and equipment. Also, its history, records and main championships.

badminton records — Badminton is a racket sport played individually or in pairs.

What is badminton?

Badminton is a racket sport played individually or in pairs, in which Each team is located on an opposite side of a net suspended in the air and makes a projectile called a shuttle fly over it rooster or feather, without letting it touch the ground, hitting it in turns with their rackets. It is an Olympic sport (since 1992), widely practiced in Europe and Asia, the latter continent being the one that hosts the largest world champions.

Badminton can be understood as a sport similar to tennis and volleyball, sports in which a point is scored when the opponent fails in his attempt to pass the ball to the other side, with the exception that badminton is not played with a ball, but with a shuttlecock, which It is a semisphere surrounded at its base by plastic feathers.

Badminton competitions are usually held in five modalities: women's and men's singles, women's and men's doubles, and mixed doubles (that is, one male and one female athlete).

history of badminton

badminton It takes its name from the Duke of Beaufort's stay in Gloucestershire, England, called “Badminton House.”. There it was played for the first time the way it is played today. Its roots, however, can be traced to Greece, China and especially India, a country where it received the name poona and was transmitted to the British colonial forces during the 19th century.

It was the British who popularized the sport in Europe, after organizing the first purely British badminton tournament in 1899. At the beginning of the 20th century, badminton was already popular in Western countries such as Denmark, the United States and Canada, and various national leagues had already been created such as the Badminton World Federation (originally the International Badminton Federation), whose first world championship was in 1977.

Basic rules and playing field

badminton it is played on an indoor court since the wind can affect the movements of the steering wheel. The playing field is about 13.4 meters long and 5.18 meters wide (a little larger if it is a game in pairs) and a net in the middle, about 1.55 meters high. The court is delimited by the exterior lines on the side and back, and there are two service areas at each end, that is, two per team.

Each player must handle their own racket, with which they must hit the shuttlecock to make it cross the net. The serve is done diagonally as in ping-pong, and the player who receives it must be at the other end of the same imaginary diagonal line. Additionally, the service must be performed below the waist. From there, Players must hit the shuttlecock in such a way as to keep it in the air and try to make it land on the opponent's court.

badminton equipment

badminton team — Unlike rackets in other sports, badminton rackets are very light.

To play badminton it is essential to have:

rackets. Unlike rackets for other sports, badminton rackets are very light (between 70 and 100 grams unstrung), generally made of carbon fiber. Its head is oval and its handle is long, and the string is usually made of nylon, between 0.65 and 0.73 millimeters.
Frills. The ruffles, cocks or feathers are made of synthetic materials and have an aerodynamic, pyramidal shape. This means that when hit, it always rotates so that the semicircle (made of cork with a leather cover) at the tip goes first, allowing it to be hit again.
Footwear. Badminton athletes use particular, lightweight footwear with little lateral support, since in this sport lateral movements are powerful and common.

You may be interested: Subliminal Message

racket hits

Badminton allows a great diversity of basic shots, both forehand (forehand) as the other way around (backhand), except for the service that is carried out only on the right. However, depending on the player's location on the court and the height of the shuttlecock relative to the net, the following racket shots can be distinguished:

Groundstrokes. When they are at the end of the playing court, the players always hit the shuttlecock above their heads, either to perform lifts (throwing the shuttlecock to the back of the opponent's court), spikes (strong diving hits to direct the shuttlecock to the ground in the opponent's court), clearances (over-the-shoulder hits that clear the shuttlecock from their own court) or touches (softer hits so that the shuttlecock lands near the net in the opponent's court).
Half-court hits. Normally, players in this position will always look for a shot (diving shot towards the opponent's court), whether normal or jumping.
defensive hits. These hits generally occur in the vicinity of the net, and are intended to respond to a spike or touch. In this case, there are three options: a block with the racket itself, a lift to prevent the shuttlecock from touching the ground, or a tense blow or drive.

badminton scoring

in badminton A point is earned each time the opponent fails to get the shuttlecock over the net either because it touched the ground first, or because after being hit it hit the net or left the field of play. Each match consists of 3 sets of 21 points each and the team that wins two of them will obtain the definitive victory.

Records and championships

Badminton is the fastest racket sport in the world, since the speed reached by the shuttlecock normally exceeds hundreds of kilometers per hour. In fact, The fastest shot in history was performed by the Chinese athlete Fu Haifeng in 2005, reaching a speed of 332 kilometers per hour. Something very impressive, if you think that modern measuring devices register a maximum of 350 km/h.

Regarding the championships, badminton It is contested internationally in two major events: the International Olympic Games and the Badminton World Championship. In addition to these major competitions, there is a prestigious British championship held since 1899 in Birmingham, England, known as the All England. In addition, there are three other important international cups contested by category: the Thomas Cup (male only), Uber Cup (female only) and Sudirman Cup (mixed).

Continue with: Handball