Badminton

Badminton      

                                                                                                                                                             

                                     Many Americans play baseball, basketball, soccer, or tennis. Many of them watch these sports on TV, and many buy tickets to their games and matches. But the average American has never even heard competieion , let alone gone to see a match. As a player myself, I can assure you that the common misconception that badminton is merely a  ports  couldn’t be farther from the truth. Badminton began as a leisurely backyard sport and evolved to competitive sport ranging to Olympic levels.Badminton originated thousands of years ago in India, before many of the other sports were commercialized. It is believed to have evolved from a children’s game known as battledore and shuttlecock, the battledore being a paddle and the shuttlecock a small-feathered cork, now called a “bird” or “birdie.” The objective was simply to keep the bird in the air for as long as possible.

The first Badminton Club in America was The Badminton Club of New York, BCNY, was formed in 1878, but it was primarily a social club. Badminton requires intensive training and conditioning, and in the most competitive countries children are often started as early as 4-5 years old. When explaining the game to their friends, the guests referred to it as "the Badminton game"? for the name of his estate and the name stuck. Badminton was staged as a demonstration sport at the 1972 Olympics, and premiered as a full medal Olympic sport in 1992 at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and has continued to be such ever since. The competitive nature of badminton is demonstrated by the determination of the player to do such feats as hitting birdies clocked up to 200 miles an hour at the most advanced levels. In 1893 the Badminton Association of England was founded as the first national governing body and the first All-England championship was held in 1899. Despite the efforts, badminton did not become popularuntil the 1930"tms.