Badminton- General, History, and The Easiest Step: Handling a Racket.

General
"Badminton is one of the most popular sports in the world." (page ix, first paragraph, first sentence). It can be played by all age groups: from a 5- year old kid to a 70- year old person. In could be played indoor or outdoor. It requires a minimum of 2 people with a racket for each person, and a shuttlecock. The shuttlecock has to be played in the air, if it bounce, you lose. "Badminton is a sport using rackets- of course with stroking techniques that vary from relatively slow to quick and deceptive movements" (Grice page ix). Badminton helps to to improve your speed, reflexive skills, and thinking skills.

History
According to some sources, badminton was to be found in England but the exact origin is unknown. "Records describes a game with wooden paddles and a shuttlecock being played in ancient China, on a royal court of England in the 12th century, in Poland in the early 18th century and India later in the 19th century" (Grice page ix, Badminton History, first paragraph). It was called battledore and shuttlecock at first. So why this sport was the name "badminton"? Well, here is the answer. "Battledore and shuttlecock was played in a great hall called Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England, during the 1860s, and the name "badminton" was soon substituted for battledore and shuttlecock" (Grice, page ix, Badminton History, second paragraph). Badminton used to be play on an hourglass- shape court. In 1901, the courts have been changed to odd shape in order to keep the rally going longer. The basic rules was standardized in 1887. There were two modifications after that in 1895 and 1905. The rules that we are using right now have been effective since January 2007.

Handling a Racket
First, let me introduce to you parts of the racket. There are 4 major parts: racket head, string, shaft, and handle (picture 1.1).

Picture 1.1: Parts of a badminton racket

Handle is the part that I want to target in this instruction. The ways that players handle the racket are called the grips. There are 4 major grips: basic, panhandle, thumb, and bevel. Basic grip is the easiest and the most common grip in badminton. It can be used in multiple types of strokes. Here is the complete instruction for a correct basic grip.

Step 1: Offering a handshake to your racket

Step 2: Put a racket on your hand like the image below

Step 3: Keep the racket with 4 fingers (image below)

Step 4: Close your thumb

Here are what the basic grip looks like

When you handle the racket correctly, your strokes will be better, and it will prevent you from wrist pains. This is the beginning step of badminton so for the upcoming posts, I will instruct you how to play badminton. Thank you for reading.

Quoc Tran.

Question: Have you ever played badminton?

Citation
Grice, Tony. Badminton: Steps to Success. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1996. Print.