Badminton is a racquet sport played using
racquets
to hit a
shuttlecock
across a
net
.
Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are
"singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players per side). Badminton
is often played as a casual outdoor activity in a yard or on a beach; formal games are
played on a rectangular indoor court. Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with
the racquet and landing it within the opposing side's half of the court.
Each side may only strike the shuttlecock once before it passes over the net. Play ends
once the shuttlecock has struck the floor or if a fault has been called by the umpire,
service judge, or (in their absence) the opposing side.
[1]
The shuttlecock is a feathered or (in informal matches) plastic projectile which flies
differently from the balls used in many other sports. In particular, the feathers create
much higher
drag
, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly. Shuttlecocks also
have a high top speed compared to the balls in other racquet sports.
The game developed in
British India
from the earlier game of
battledore and
shuttlecock
. European play came to be dominated by
Denmark
but the game has
become very popular in Asia, with recent competition dominated by
China
. Since 1992,
badminton has been a
Summer Olympic sport
with
five events
: men's singles, women's
singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles. At high levels of play, the
sport demands excellent fitness: players require
aerobic stamina
,
agility
, strength,
speed, and precision. It is also a technical sport, requiring good
motor coordination
and
the development of sophisticated racquet movements.
Games employing
shuttlecocks
have been played for centuries across
Eurasia
[a]
but the
modern game of badminton developed in the mid-19th century among the
British
as a
variant of the earlier game of
battledore and shuttlecock
. ("Battledore" was an older
term for "racquet".)
[3]
Its exact origin remains obscure. The name derives from the
Duke
of Beaufort
's
Badminton House
in
Gloucestershire
,
[4]
but why or when remains unclear.
As early as 1860, a London toy dealer named
Isaac Spratt
published a booklet
titled Badminton Battledore—A New Game but unfortunately no copy has survived.
[5]
An
1863 article in The Cornhill Magazine describes badminton as "battledore and
shuttlecock played with sides, across a string suspended some five feet from the
ground".
[6]
The game may have originally developed among expatriate officers in
British India
,
[7]
where it was very popular by the 1870s.
[5]
Ball badminton
, a form of the game played
with a wool ball instead of a shuttlecock, was being played in
Thanjavur
as early as the
1850s
[8]
and was at first played interchangeably with badminton by the British, the
woollen ball being preferred in windy or wet weather.
