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 of competitive badminton, let alone gone to see a match. As a player myself, I can assure you that the common misconception that badminton is merely a backyard sport 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. Eventually a net was added and the game became a competitive sport called “poona.” In the 1860’s it was adopted by British army officers stationed in India and was brought back to England during the early 1870’s. Played at a lawn party given by badminton, sport, first, competitive, club, game, founded, player, olympic, called, became, backyard, association, years, world, usba, until, training, sports, since, shuttlecock, play, olympics, now, national, name, myself, members, india, full, evolved, ever, estate, england, early, despite, children, championship, bird, become, battledore, american, america, aba, gerrard, york, yields, written, way, watch