- What is badminton?
- history of badminton
- Basic rules and field of play
- badminton equipment
- racket strokes
- badminton score
- Records and championships
We explain what badminton is, its basic rules, playing field and equipment. In addition, its history, records and main championships.
What is badminton?
badminton is a sport of racket played in a way individual or in pairs, in which each team stands on the opposite side of a net suspended in the air and makes a projectile called a shuttlecock, rooster or feather pass over it, without letting it touch the ground, hitting it in turns with their rackets . It is an Olympic sport (since 1992), widely practiced in Europe Y Asia, being this last continent the one that hosts the greatest 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 to pass the ball to the other side, with the exception that badminton is not played with a ball, but with a shuttlecock, which is a hemisphere surrounded by its base of plastic feathers.
The competitions Badminton tournaments are usually held in five categories: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles (that is, one male and one female athlete).
history of badminton
Badminton gets its name from the Duke of Beaufort's stay in Gloucestershire, England, called "Badminton House". There it was played for the first time in the way it is played today. Its roots, however, can be traced back to Greece, China and especially India, a country where it was called Poona and was passed on to British colonial forces during the 19th century.
It was the British who popularized the sport in Europe, organizing the first purely British badminton tournament in 1899. By the early 20th century, badminton was already popular in Western countries such as Denmark, the United States and Canada, and various national leagues such as the Badminton World Federation (originally the International Badminton Federation), whose first world championship was in 1977.
Badminton made its appearance in the Olympics in 1988, as an exhibition sport, and in 1992 as an Olympic sport, both in its individual category and for same-sex couples. Mixed competition was not allowed until 1996. Currently, Asian athletes (China, Indonesia and South Korea) hold the majority of titles and medals in this sport.
Basic rules and field of play
Badminton is played indoors, as the wind can affect the movements of the steering wheel The playing field is about 13.4 meters long by 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 outer lines on the side and the back, and in it there are two service areas at each end, that is, two per team.
Each player must handle his own racket, with which the shuttlecock must be hit to make it cross the net above. The serve is made diagonally, as in ping-pong, and the player receiving it must be at the other end of the same imaginary diagonal line. In addition, the serve must be performed below the waist. From there, the players must hit the shuttlecock in such a way as to hold it in the air and try to make it fall into the opponent's field.
badminton equipment
To play badminton it is essential to have:
- rackets.Unlike other sports rackets, badminton rackets are very light (between 70 and 100 grams without string), usually made of carbon fiber. Its head is oval and its handle is long, and the string is usually nylon, between 0.65 and 0.73 millimeters.
- Frills. The ruffles, roosters or feathers are made of synthetic materials and have an aerodynamic, pyramidal shape. This causes that when being hit, it always turns so that the semicircle (made of cork with leather cover) on the tip goes ahead, and can be hit again.
- Footwear. Badminton athletes use a particular shoe, light, with little lateral support, since in this sport lateral movements are powerful and common.
racket strokes
Badminton allows for a wide variety of basic shots, both forehand (forehand) as the other way around (back hand), except for the service that is performed only to the right. However, depending on the player's position on the court and the height of the shuttlecock in relation to the net, the following racket strokes can be distinguished:
- Bottom shots. When they are at the end of the playing court, the players always hit the shuttlecock above their heads, either to perform lifts (throw the shuttlecock to the back of the opponent's court), spikes (strong dive shots to direct the shuttlecock to the ground on the opposite court), clearances (over-the-shoulder shots that clear the shuttle from one's court) or touches (softer hits so that the shuttle lands close to the net on the opposite court).
- Half court shots. Normally, players in this position will always look for a spike (dive into the opposite court), either normal or jumping.
- defensive shots. These hits generally occur in the immediate vicinity of the net, and are intended to respond to a spike or bunt.In this case, the options are three: a block with the racket itself, a lift to prevent the shuttle from touching the ground, or a tense hit or drive.
badminton score
In badminton, a point is earned each time the opponent fails in his attempt to get the shuttlecock over the net, either because it hit the ground first, or because after being hit it hit the net or left the field of play. play. Each match consists of 3 sets of 21 points each, and the team that wins two of them will win the final victory.
In the event that a team wins the first two sets, it will not be necessary to play the third. And in case there is a tie at 20 points, it will be played until some team obtains an advantage of 2 points above. If 29 points are reached without this happening, the set will be decided by sudden death: whoever scores the next point will win.
When any of the competitors reaches 11 points, both teams will take a minute break.
Records and championships
Badminton is the fastest racket sport in the world, as the speed reached by the shuttlecock typically exceeds hundreds of kilometers per hour. In fact, the fastest shot in history was made by the Chinese athlete Fu Haifeng in 2005, reaching a speed of 332 kilometers per hour. Something very impressive, if you consider that modern measuring devices register a maximum of 350 km/h.
Regarding the championships, badminton is played internationally in two major instances: the International Olympic Games and the World Badminton 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 played by category: the Thomas Cup (male only) Uber Cup (female only) and Sudirman Cup (mixed).