Badminton
- It is played with a racquet and a shuttlecock.
- Played by two opposing player (singles) or
- Two opposing pairs (doubles)
- Players take positions at two halves, of the court, separated by net.
- Badminton was a demonstration event in the 1972 and 1988 Summer Olympics. It became an official Summer Olympic sport at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
Badminton court:
- Badminton court is rectangular in shape divided into two equal halves by a net.
- 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 (6 ft 6 inch) from the net.
- Standard length of court is 13.4 meters (44 feet), extended on each side with 42-centimetre alleys for doubles (making the doubles court 13.4m x 6.1m)
- Standard width of the badminton court is 6.1meters (20 feet)
- The double Court is wider than the single court but usually courts are marked for both singles and doubles events, which are lawfully not permitted.
- At the edges standard height of the net is 1.55 meters (5feet 1 inch) and at the centre it is1.52 meters (5 feet)
- The net posts are placed over the doubles sidelines, even when singles is played.
Badminton Racquets:
- Made up of durable and light weight materials like carbon fibre, aluminium, and steel (wooden racquets are avoided these days because of the high cost and excessive weight)
- The standard badminton should not exceed 680 millimetre in length and 230 millimetres in width.
- Standard weight lies between 79 grams to 91 grams
- Strings must be approximately 0.65 to 0.73 millimetres thick.
- Grip choice is a matter of personal preference. Players may choose between varieties of grip material.
There are two main types of grip: replacement grips and overgrips.
- Replacement grips are thicker, and are often used to increase the size of the handle.
- Overgrips are thinner (less than 1 mm), and are often used as the final layer.
Shuttlecocks:
- The shuttle consists of a rounded cork base covered in a thin layer of leather
- It is a high-drag projectile, with an open conical shape: the cone is formed from sixteen overlapping feathers embedded into a rounded cork base.
- The length of the shuttle may vary between 64 to 70 millimetres, provided that all feathers are equal length.
- Each shuttle should weigh between 4.74 and 5.5 grams.
Rules and style of the game:
- It is played by two players (singles) couple of players both sides(double and mixed) Only the serving side can score a point, while the receiving side is trying to win the right to serve the following point.
- In doubles and singles, the first side to score 15 points wins the game.
- A coin toss decides who is to serve first and which side of the net a player will initially defend.
- The shuttle must be hit below the server’s waist with the racquet head below the server’s hand, and the server must have part of both feet stationary in contact with the ground. The shuttle then must fall within the receiver’s service court to be deemed legal.
- Once the shuttle is in play, the point continues with players attempting to hit the shuttle back and forth across the net. A side wins the rally by hitting the shuttle to the floor on the opponent’s side.
- The shuttle is declared out of play if it fails to cross the net, lands out of the court or hits the ceiling of the venue.
- A rally is also lost if a fault is committed.
- A fault is called if a player touches the net during play with either body or racquet, hits the shuttle before it comes across the net or is hit by the shuttle.
- An interval of 90 seconds is allowed between each game.
Tournaments and competitions:
- The BWF organizes several international competitions. Here are few important one’s:
- Thomas Cup, the premier men’s international team event first held in 1948–1949,
- The Uber Cup, the women’s equivalent first held in 1956–1957. The competitions take place once every two years.
- The Sudirman Cup, a gender-mixed international team event held once every two years, began in 1989.
- The Olympics (1992)
- The BWF world
*These above all are categorised as level one tournaments.
The level two tournament series, a tour for the world’s elite players, stages twelve open tournaments around the world with 32 players (half the previous limit). The players collect points that determine whether they can play in Super Series Final held at the year end.
Level three tournaments consist of Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix event.
The level four tournaments, known as International Challenge, International Series and Future Series, encourage participation by junior players.
Governing bodies:
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the internationally recognized governing body of the sport. Five regional confederations are associated with the BWF:
Asia: Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC)
Africa: Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA)
Americas: Badminton Pan Am (North America and South America belong to the same confederation; BPA)
Europe: Badminton Europe (BE)
Oceania: Badminton Oceania (BO)
