Physics of Badminton
The Physics of Badminton
Gerard Ramos
Physics 4A
Prof. Scott Hildreth
I would like to start off with a light introduction to the sport of Badminton. Badminton is a sport that isn’t too popular in the United States; some people would even say that it shouldn’t even be called a “sport”. The majority see badminton from a “back-yard sport” point of view, part of this is due to the lack of actual badminton court facilities in America, also because it’s a bit expensive to play. Badminton is not like basketball or football, in terms of being able to just pick up a ball and go outside and throw a ball around or go to a court in the park, a real game of badminton can’t even be played outside because of the wind. On top of needing to pay to be able to play inside an actual facility, for badminton you would have to pay for “shuttlecocks” as well, the shuttlecock or “birdie” is what you hit back and forth over the net. If you want to be able to play more “comfortably” you would have to consider even more expenses, because you would have to invest in a good badminton racket, which can range from $100 - $250 depending how light/flexible/etc. you would want your racket to be.
Badminton has its similarities and differences from other sports such as soccer, football, baseball, etc. All sports require some type of correct “form”, such as the right way to shoot a ball into the net or to throw a ball into one of the receiver’s hands. In order to excel in badminton however, the most important thing to learn early on is the proper “form”. At tournaments or even just playing at a regular badminton facility it wouldn’t be too surprising to see a 110 pound girl hitting the birdie farther and faster than a grown man who obviously has more upper body strength and would be able to put my force into his swing.
There are three main reasons that someone would want to learn the “proper hitting form”, that would be to maximize the upper arm internal rotation, the forearm internal
Gerard Ramos
Physics 4A
Prof. Scott Hildreth
I would like to start off with a light introduction to the sport of Badminton. Badminton is a sport that isn’t too popular in the United States; some people would even say that it shouldn’t even be called a “sport”. The majority see badminton from a “back-yard sport” point of view, part of this is due to the lack of actual badminton court facilities in America, also because it’s a bit expensive to play. Badminton is not like basketball or football, in terms of being able to just pick up a ball and go outside and throw a ball around or go to a court in the park, a real game of badminton can’t even be played outside because of the wind. On top of needing to pay to be able to play inside an actual facility, for badminton you would have to pay for “shuttlecocks” as well, the shuttlecock or “birdie” is what you hit back and forth over the net. If you want to be able to play more “comfortably” you would have to consider even more expenses, because you would have to invest in a good badminton racket, which can range from $100 - $250 depending how light/flexible/etc. you would want your racket to be.
Badminton has its similarities and differences from other sports such as soccer, football, baseball, etc. All sports require some type of correct “form”, such as the right way to shoot a ball into the net or to throw a ball into one of the receiver’s hands. In order to excel in badminton however, the most important thing to learn early on is the proper “form”. At tournaments or even just playing at a regular badminton facility it wouldn’t be too surprising to see a 110 pound girl hitting the birdie farther and faster than a grown man who obviously has more upper body strength and would be able to put my force into his swing.
There are three main reasons that someone would want to learn the “proper hitting form”, that would be to maximize the upper arm internal rotation, the forearm internal
Bibliography: Xian Liu, Wangdo Kim, John Tan “An Analysis of the Biomechanics of Arm movement during a badminton smash” October 1, 2002 July 31, 2005 Kathleen M. McCreary “A study of the motion of a free falling shuttlecock” May 5, 2005