History

Badminton is widely believed to have originated in ancient Greece about 2000 years ago. From there it spread via the Indo-Greek kingdoms to Indian and then further east to China and Siam (now Thailand).

In England since medieval times a children's game called Battledore and Shuttlecock was popular. Children would use paddles (Battledores) and work together to keep the Shuttlecock up in the air and prevent it from reaching the ground. It was popular enough to be a nuisance on the street of London in 1854 when the magazine Punch published a cartoon depicting it.

In the 1860s, British Army officers in Pune, India, began playing the game of Battledore and Shuttlecock, but they added a competitive element by including a net. As the city of Pune was formerly known as Poona, the game was known as Poona at that time.

About this same time, the Duke of Beaufort was entertaining soldiers at his estate called "Badminton House", where the soldiers played Poona. The Duke of Beaufort’s non-military guests began referring to the game as "the badminton game", and thus the game became known as "badminton".

In 1877, the first badminton club in the world, Bath Badminton Club, transcribed the rules of badminton for the first time. However, in 1893, the Badminton Association of England published the first proper set of rules, similar to that of today, and officially launched badminton in a house called 'Dunbar' at 6 Waverley Grove, Portsmouth, England on September 13 of that year. They also started the All England Open Badminton Championships, the first badminton competition in the world, in 1899.

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) was established in 1934 with Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales as its founding members. India joined as an affiliate in 1936. The IBF now governs international badminton and develops the sport globally.

Scoring

In the traditional scoring system, games were played to 15 points, except for women's singles which was played up to 11. A match was decided by the best of three games. Only the serving players were able to score a point. In doubles, both players of a pair would serve before the service returned to the other side: in order to regain the service, the receiving pair had to win two rallies (not necessarily consecutively).

In 1992, the IBF introduced new rules: setting at 13-all and 14-all. This meant that if the players were tied at 13-13 or 14-14 (9-9 or 10-10 for women's singles), the player who had first reached that score could decide elect to set and play to 17 (or to 13 for women's singles).

In 2002 the IBF, concerned with the unpredictable and often lengthy time required for matches, decided to experiment with a different scoring system to improve the commercial and especially the broadcasting appeal of the sport. The new scoring system shortened games to 7 points and decided matches by the best of 5 games. When the score reached 6-6, the player who first reached 6 could elect to set to 8 points.

Yet the match time remained an issue, since the playing time for the two scoring systems was similar. This experiment was abandoned and replaced by a modified version of the traditional scoring system. The 2002 Commonwealth Games is the last event used this scoring system.

In December 2005 the IBF experimented again with the scoring system, intending both to regulate the playing time and to simplify the system for television viewers. The main change from the traditional system was to adopt rally point scoring, in which the winner of a rally scores a point regardless of who served; games were lengthened to 21 points. However, the new scoring system makes the game duration significantly shorter. The experiment ended in May 2006, and the IBF ruled that the new scoring system would be adopted from August 2006 onwards. This scoring system is described in full in Scoring system and service, below.

Playing Court Dimensions

Badminton court, isometric viewThe court is rectangular and divided into halves by a net. Courts are almost always marked for both singles and doubles play, although the laws permit a court to be marked for singles only. The doubles court is wider than the singles court, but the doubles service court is shorter than the singles service court.

The full width of the court is 6.1 metres, and in singles this width is reduced to 5.18 metres. The full length of the court is 13.4 metres. The service courts are marked by a centre line dividing the width of the court, by a short service line at a distance of 1.98 metres from the net, and by the outer side and back boundaries. In doubles, the service court is also marked by a long service line, which is 0.78 metres from the back boundary.

The net is 1.55 metres (5 ft 1 inch) high at the edges and 1.524 metres (5 ft) high in the centre. The net posts are placed over the doubles side lines, even when singles is played.

Surprisingly, there is no mention in the Laws of a minimum height for the ceiling above the court. Nonetheless, a badminton court will not be suitable if the ceiling is likely to be hit on a high serve.

Equipment

Racquet: A racquet is a vital piece of equipment in badminton. Traditionally racquets were made of wood. Later on, aluminium or other light metals became the material of choice. Badminton racquets are composed of carbon fiber composite (graphite reinforced plastic), with titanium composites (nanocarbon) added as extra ingredients. Carbon fiber has an excellent strength to weight ratio, is stiff, and gives excellent kinetic energy transfer. They are two types of racquet: isometric (square) and oval. Racquets normally weigh between 80-95 g but weight differs between manufacturers, as it can affect how fast the racquet can swing.

Grip: Grip is the interface between the player's hand and the racquet. Type, size and thickness are three characteristics that affect the choice of grip. There are two types of grips: synthetic and towel. Synthetic grips are less messy and provide excellent friction. Towel grips are usually preferred as they are usually more comfortable and absorbent of sweat. Both have disadvantages as synthetic grips can deteriorate if too much sweat is absorbed and towel grips need to be changed often.

String: Perhaps one of the most overlooked areas of badminton equipment is the string. Different types of string have different response properties. Durability generally varies with performance. Most strings are 21 gauge in thickness and strung at 18 to 30 lbf (80 to 130 newtons) of tension. Racquets strung at lower tensions (18 to 21 lbf or 80 to 95 N) generate greater power while racquets strung at higher tensions provide greater control (21 lbf, over 95 N). Simply, a higher tension rewards hard hitting, while it robs power from a light hitter. Conversely, a lower tensioned string helps light hitter with a better timed trampoline effect.

Shuttlecock: A shuttlecock has an open conical shape, with a rounded head at the apex of the cone, they are made of cork and overlapped by sixteen goose feathers. There are different speeds and weights, but for easy classification, 75 is regarded as slow and 79 is the fastest shuttlecock.[12] The feather shuttle is fairly brittle and thus for economical reasons this has been replaced by the use of a plastic (usually nylon) or rubber head and a plastic (usually nylon) skirt for practice use.

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Badminton. (2006, November 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:43, November 29, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Badminton&oldid=90703997