What an intimidating game - badminton???

SOME THOUGHTS: I am not an expert, but I know a good thing when I see one. For the layman, badminton may seem a very slow sport, just because they have never witnessed the sport being played by seasoned athletes. If your impression of badminton is one of a sport that requires no special physical needs, then read on. Soon you will change your mind.

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT BADMINTON? Most people have seen badminton in one form or another and consequently think they know badminton. However badminton may not be quite what you imagine. Here are a few common questions and answers regarding badminton.

• IS BADMINTON THAT GAME WE ALL PLAY AT FAMILY PICKNICS AND IN THE BACKYARD?
  The backyard/picnic version of badminton is one type of badminton, but that is more like playing basketball in the driveway with a junior-sized ball and hoop. Badminton as a sport, the REAL BADMINTON, is played indoors with high-tech equipment. Modern racquets are complex alloys of carbon graphite, boron, ceramic, aluminium and steel in various proportions. These racquets are very light, less than 3.5 ounces and can be strung very tightly. Also the shuttlecock is made of feathers, not plastic, and weighs between 4.74 and 5.50 grams. Shuttles cost from US to US for a dozen and last about one game, at the most. The net is five feet high, not the height of a volleyball net.
• EVEN SO IT IS STIL PRETTY SLOW, ISN'T IT?
  To play competitive badminton you need explosiveness, lightning quick reflexes and rapid hand-eye coordination. Why you ask? Well the shuttlecock has been clocked in excess of 205 mph (NO this is not a misprint; Vic Braden who is very well-known for his coaching and research work on tennis did the measuring. Boy, was he surprised). That's faster than the fastest tennis serve, and occurs regularly during rallies at the top level. Add onto this the fact that in doubles games there are often 40 or 50 shots in 20 seconds you can see that the first sentence was no exaggeration.
• WHAT SORT OF ACTION DO YOU SEE IN BADMINTON?
  A badminton match consists of constant highly concentrated action; running, jumping, twisting, stretching, running backwards, throwing and striking. In a typical match the players cover every inch of the court and run more than one mile.
• YEAH, RIGHT. HOW ABOUT SOME STATISTICS?
  OK then. Lets compare a Wimbledon final to a world championship final in badminton. The Wimbledon final lasted 198 minutes, the badminton final 76 minutes. Doesn't look good for badminton right? WRONG! The actual amount of time the ball or shuttlecock were in play were 18 minutes and 37 minutes respectively. Breaking it down further to the number of shots played (1 004 to 1 972) and assuming 22 feet travelled per shot per player we find that the tennis player covered about 2 miles, and the badminton player 4 miles. So the badminton player ran TWICE as far in under half the time. This just goes to show how tough badminton is. Tennis is a great game and most people understand the athletic endeavours involved in playing at the top level. From this example we can see that badminton athletes need to be in world-class condition.
• GOT ANY MORE STATS?
  Most certainly have; according to scientific experts (Department of Physical Education at Baylor University) badminton is one of the finest conditioning game activities. During a typical 3 game match, lasting 45 minutes the shuttle will be in play for 20 minutes. In this time the player will make at least 350 90-degree changes of direction or more and strike the shuttle about 400 times. About 150 of these stokes will be full arm swings (with the racquet, of course). Major league pitchers frequently have less arm swings than this in a game. Pulse rate can increase from 72 to 125 for a person in normal condition.
• OK, I'M CONVINCED BADMINTON IS A TOUGH SPORT BUT ISN'T IT PRETTY UNPOPULAR?
  Not at all! Whilst badminton is a minority sport in some countries, it is widely played in Britain, Denmark, Sweden, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and several other countries. Britain alone has 4 million players, about 8% of the population. As a spectator sport it is very popular in the Far East. The badminton events at the Seoul Olympics were among the first to sell out, despite it only being a demonstration sport. The estimated audience for the 92 and 96 Olympic finals ran into the hundreds of millions, up to 1.1 BILLION in total.
  

Source: Cyprus Badminton Federation