If you are asking this question(is badminton a sport?) you are more likely to be living in a continent other than Asia as it is less popular in other parts of the world. This article will clear all about why is badminton a sport and what makes it so popular in Asian countries.
Most of the people answer this question by telling you what Google defines as a sport(an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment) but we are here to dive deeper in this topic
Why people think badminton is not a sport
I think the reason why many people think badminton as a non Sporting activity because they have a perception that it is easy to play and it can be played anywhere with anyone, even an 80-year-old guy can play which is true, BWF also organizes tournament for the veteran player even a world championship.
There is a saying in this sport “It is easy to learn but hard to master” and this is what makes it such a great sport.
So I mentioned the earlier reason why most people have not considered it a sport because it is easy to play, so to change your perception I will be telling you why is it hard to play badminton.
Use of full body
Badminton is a movement sport where an average singles rally is 25 shots in international circuits and the highest ever recorded in an international match was over 100 shots.
You are using every bit of a muscle while playing badminton from toes to fingers.
The number of calories burned depending upon the intensity of the play.
For social badminton, a player who weighs 150 pounds will burn approximately 272 calories for an hour.
In competitive badminton, the same person will burn approximately 500 calories in one hour.
More technique involved than you realize
Badminton is all about rhythm in your body, how you move your body is gonna decide whether you are going to be successful in this sport.
At first, it might seem that players are just running around and you might be thinking I can also do that all they are doing is running, but to reach every single corner in a court there is proper footwork being followed.
Basically there are six corners where most of the shuttle will land
- Two in frontcourt area
- Two mid corners
- And two in the backcourt
But this is just an overview where most of the time a beginner places his shuttle but for an advance player, these can be further divided into many parts that players use to exploit there opponent’s weakness.
This is just for the movement of legs you have also following a particular pronation technique for your swing, there are five types of shots each having different techniques.
The reason why most beginners injured their shoulder because they don’t have proper technique, you will not be needing much power to hit shuttle backcourt if you’d technique is correct.
Less than a second to react
Badminton is one of the fastest racquet sport where the speed of shuttle can reach of 490 km/h and now imagine you have to also defend that shuttle which is coming at you at such a tremendous speed.
In advance level matches a player get less than a second to react, now you might be thinking that an average person reaction time is 200 millisecond so it is not a big deal.
In Badminton you are not just reacting to the shuttle there are more things happening at the same time like we have to maintain accuracy of the shot, reach the shuttle with the proper footwork while maintaining balance also player has to decide where he is going to hit the shuttlecock based on his opponent position you have to decide all this thing in less than a second.
That is why it takes time to master badminton because of the technique involved in it.
Accuracy with a light object
A shuttlecock weighs around 4.75 to 5.50 g (0.168 to 0.194 oz) now you have to maintain accuracy with this light object which is so light that it can change its path if the wind blows.
This is the reason why badminton is played indoor but this does not mean that it completely eliminates this problem, there is a term used in badminton called drift which is referred to as light year air circulating in-stadium due to different reason like AC, opening-closing of entrance Gate, a large gathering of people, etc.
Sometimes these drifts are so strong that you can clearly see that the shuttle is changing its path in the middle of the air means that it is going to the right side or left side of its primary path.
Now imagine controlling a light object whose flight is being affected by drifts.
Less time to recover
Imagine that you have just played a rally of 40 shot during a match and you ask the umpire to have the court mopped or ask him whether you can use your towel so that you can get some time to recover but that umpire tells you to be quickly back on the court without agreeing to any of your requests how much will it frustrate you.
Many times in badminton this type of situation has arisen look at this video to get more clarification.
If you compare it to other sport like in tennis there is a person standing behind the court holding Towel for players and asking them after points Whether they want to use it.
Using Tactics
Now as we talked about it earlier that you get less than a second in badminton to react but still, it does not mean that you are getting shut down in the last 3 without any thought there are certain Tech tips which are followed in badminton depending on your opponent.
These are the type of three-player which you might encounter while playing badminton
Fast, tall, short, attacking, defensive, defensive, deceptive and many more, independent about this your strategy will vary.
But just to give you a glimpse of but a Badminton strategy look like here it is “for fast players you have to play against there nature try to play a basic game just drop and clear, to frustrate your opponent and forcing him to make an error. Another strategy that you can use against him is, Fast players, utilize there energy more quickly so by playing long patient rally you can put pressure on them”
Olympic sport
What more proof you need then a sport being in the Olympics,
The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich saw the inaugural staging of badminton, as a demonstration sport.
Two decades later the sport debuted in competition at the Barcelona1992 Summer Olympics where 4 events were held, with singles and doubles events for both men and women.
Four medals were awarded in each event, including two bronzes.
The next Olympics, Atlanta 1996, had 5 events with the addition of mixed doubles.
There was also now a playoff between the two semifinal losers to determine the sole winner of the bronze medal.
This format has continued until 2016.
Just enjoy the beauty of this sport its of looking for a reason to tell your friends that why is badminton a sport
Thank you for reading…..
0 Comments