General News and Latest Insights

Lin Dan returns to the badminton scene

Lin Dan

He’s back! Five-times Yonex All England Open champion Lin Dan has won his first Superseries title since his 2012 triumph in Birmingham.

The 30-year-old Chinese former world number one defeated Indonesia’s Singapore Open winner Simon Santoso 22-24 21-16 21-17 in a 75-minute duel to win the Australian Open. The win will push Lin Dan towards the world’s top eight sooner than the year-end goal that he set himself and the hints are that the Asian Games are his next target at the end of September, especially as he is unable to participate for the Li-Ning World Championships in Copenhagen in August despite being the 2013 champion.

Lin Dan was ranked as low as 104 after his latest “rest period” following his world title in Guangzhou last summer. He had played just a handful of tournaments between the Olympics in 2012 and the 2013 worlds. His latest comeback started with victories at the China Masters and the Badminton Asia Championships before playing in the Thomas Cup finals. Reaching the last eight of his first Super series event at the Japan Open earlier this month when he reached the quarter-finals. He was in position 22 after entering the Sydney tournament but now a return to the elite top 10 is within range. Lin Dan won his first All England title in 2004 when he beat Denmark’s Peter Gade in the final. However losing to team-mate Chen Hong in 2005, defeated Lee Hyun-ll of Korea and Chen Yu in 2006 and 2007, lost to Chen Jin in 2008 and defeated his all-time rival Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in 2009.

The Malaysian turned the tables in 2011 before Lin Dan defeated him in the 2012 final when Chong Wei retired through injury at a game and 6-2 down. Now that the man is back, wouldn’t All England fans love to see Lin Dan renew his enduring rivalry with this year’s champion Chong Wei one more time in 2015?A rematch between the two would be a perfect way to celebrate the first All England at the National Indoor Arena since its major facelift. So stay tuned!

All England champions named BWF Players of the Year

Reigning All England champion Lee Chong Wei joins 2012 winner Xuerui Li in being crowned 2013 Players of the year at a BWF Awards Ceremony. Although not participating in the 2013 All England Open final, Chong Wei Has won seven Super Series titles last year to claim Player of the Year for his fourth time. He topped the shortlist featuring 2013 All England champion Chen Long, fiver-time winner Lin Dan and reigning men’s doubles champions, Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan from Indonesia.

Japan stun China in Thomas Cup 2014

Japan’s men’s team defeating the defending champions of China 3-0 in the Thomas Cup Semi-Finals. Kenichi Tago started the win by taking down World number two Chen Long, 21-13 and 21-11. Followed by his teammates Kenichi Hayakawa and Hiroyuki Endo being victorious in the doubles event, beating Chai Biao and Hong wei, 22-20 and 21-19. Lastly, Kento Momota secured a place in the finals beating Du Peng Yu, 23-25, 21-18 and 21-14 win. With this, China’s Men’s team failed to reach their first Thomas Cup final for the first time since 2002.

Credits to: http://www.allenglandbadminton.com

BASIC EQUIPMENTS TO PLAY BADMINTON

Basic necessary equipment:

1. Badminton court (Preferably indoors) with a Badminton net
2. Badminton grips and strings
3. Badminton Racket
4. Shuttlecocks                   
5. Badminton Shoes

Badminton Court and Net

Official Badminton Court

The badminton court is rectangular and divided into halves by a badminton net. The width of the court is 6.1 meters and the length of the court is 13.4 meters. Divided into half, a net is tied to 2 posts that is 1.55 meters in height from the surface of the court but 1.524 meters high in the center of the court. The net is dark-colored and the thickness of the mesh must not be less than 15mm and more than 20mm. The net shall be 7.6cm in depth and at least 6.1 meters wide(since the width of the court is 6.1 meters.) . The top of the net is edged with a 75mm white cloth. The posts that the net is tied to must be placed outside of the court.

Badminton Rackets

Wilson Badminton Racket

There are many different brands of Badminton equipment like Yonex, Li-ning and Victor. Badminton rackets are light-weight and better quality rackets weigh between 70grams to 95grams not including the grips or strings. Badminton rackets nowadays are made from carbon fibers composite, solid steels, carbon nano tubes and fullerene in order to make better rackets. In the past, badminton rackets were made from light metals such as aluminium and even earlier, they were made from wood. Cheap rackets are often made from steel and it will feel heavier than better quality rackets. Wooden rackets are no longer manufactured in the market. There are a wide variety of badminton rackets designs that customers can choose from and different rackets have playing characteristics that appeal to different players.(For example. One of the newest racquet Voltric Z-Force ll is made for one of the best players in the world, Lee Chong Wei, and this racket is suitable for players that attack(smash) a lot when playing.) .

Shuttlecocks

Shuttlecocks

The badminton shuttlecocks are often called in short form, a shuttle or it can also be called a birdie. The birdie is an open conical shape; and each badminton shuttlecock is made up of 16 feathers overlapping one another and embedded into a round cork base. The cork is covered with a thin leather or synthetic material. There is also another type of shuttlecock that is made from nylon. It is constructed with either natural cork or synthetic foam base and a plastic skirt. The reason people uses nylon shuttlecocks is to save cost as feathered shuttlecocks breaks easily. The best shuttlecocks are made from the feathers from the left wing of a goose. The length of the shuttlecock is between 62mm and 70mm, weighing between 4.74grams and 5.50grams. Shuttlecocks are graded by their speed, and their speed will be affected by the weather, altitude and the temperature of surroundings. The birdie will fly faster in a hot environment, and slower in a cooler environment. A badminton tube(used to place the shuttlecocks), normally consists of 12 birdies, or more or less, depending on the size of the tube.

Badminton Shoes

Badminton shoe

Badminton shoes are light-weight with soles of rubber or similar high-grip, non-marking material. Badminton shoes have little lateral support as compared to general running shoes. The reason is because badminton players often play with explosive movements and a highly built-up lateral support won't be able to protect the foot while playing badminton and instead, it will encourage catastrophic collapse at the point the shoe's support fails and since the player's ankles are not ready for sudden loading, sprains may occur. Proper badminton shoes will have very thin sole, lower a person's center of gravity and thus resulting lesser injuries. So Badminton players are encouraged to choose a badminton shoes over a running shoes while playing badminton.

Badminton grips and strings

Ashaway Grips

Different type of badminton grip materials(towel and PU synthetic) and badminton strings.

There are two types of badminton grips, replacement grips and over grips. Replacement grips are often thicker and used to increase the size of badminton racket handles. Over grips are much thinner (less than 1mm), and are often used as a final layer. The two different materials of the grips are towel grips and PU synthetic grips. Choosing the grip material is a player's preference as often, sweat becomes a problem for players, thus, players would choose towel grips over PU synthetic ones. For players who does not mind the sweat would often use PU synthetic grip. Me personally would prefer to use the towel grips as I have sweaty palms and towel grips enable me to hold firmly to the handle without slipping it.

Badminton strings are thin, high-performing strings in the range of thickness between 0.62 to 0.73mm thick. Thicker strings are more durable than thinner ones. String tensions are normally in the range of between 18pounds to 36pounds. Similarly to the badminton grips, to choose the right string tension for a player, they must first try different tensions in order to find one that they think it is suitable for them. There are different kind of brands of badminton strings and the thickness of the strings will vary depending on the brand or the type. For example, the Yonex BG-66 string have a high-repulsion power and a medium feeling with thickness of 0.66mm but the Yonex BG-65 string is durable and have a soft feeling with thickness of 0.70mm.

Credits :

http://www.yonex.com/products/badminton/string/strings/bg65/
http://www.yonex.com/products/badminton/string/strings/bg66/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton
http://www.badminton-information.com/shuttlecock.html
http://www.badminton-information.com/badminton-court.html

Brief History of Badminton?

Dear fellow readers, i believed most of you took up badminton as a hobby and played it during your free time. But do you guys know about the 'Brief history of badminton'? Today I'll be discussing more about it.

Firstly, the origins of the game ‘Badminton’ was invented more than 2000 years ago in accident civilizations Greece, China, Japan, India and other parts of Asia. Back then the ancient game was known as ‘Battledore’ (bat or paddle) and ‘Shuttlecock’. In the 1600s “Battledore” and “Shuttlecock” was an upper class pastime peasant played in Medieval England and later on to many European countries where it was so well-received (popular) game played by both adults and children. The game simply involved two people hitting a shuttlecock (often refers to a ‘bird’) backward and forwards with a simple bat as many times as they could without allowing it to drop on the ground.

A picture shown how 'Battledore' were played

Secondly, the contemporary form of badminton was introduced in 1860s, a game entitled ‘Poona’ was played in India very much similar to ‘Battledore’ and ‘Shuttlecock’ but with an added equipment which is the net. Thereafter in the year 1870s the British Army officers learned about the game and brought it back to England and there was a party given in 1873 by the Duke of Beaufort at his country place, “Badminton” in Gloucestershire. During that time, the game had no name, but it was referred to as 'The Game of Badminton' and thereupon, 'Badminton' became its official name. 

Lastly, The International Badminton Federation (IBF) was formed in 1934 with 9 founding members.

• England
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Wales
• Denmark
• Holland
• Canada
• New Zealand
• France

Since then, major international tournaments like the Thomas Cup (Men) and Uber Cup (Women) were held. Badminton was officially granted Olympic status in the 1992 Barcelona Games. From 9 founding members, IBF now have over 150 member countries. The future of Badminton looks bright indeed.

References:
http://www.bwfbadminton.org/page.aspx?id=14887
http://www.badminton-information.com/history-of-badminton.html

For that, i have come to the end of the "Brief history of badminton". 
Stay tune for more updates!!! :)