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PE 3 Notes 1 - History of Badminton
PE 3 Notes 1 - History of Badminton
Badminton
History of Badminton
In the 5th century BC, the people in china then played a game called ti jian zi. A direct translation from this
word 'ti jian zi' is kicking the shuttle. As the name suggest, the objective of the game is to keep the shuttle from
hitting the ground without using hand. Whether this sport has anything to do with the History of Badminton is
up for debate. It was however the first game that uses a Shuttle.
About five centuries later, a game named Battledore and Shuttlecock was played in china, Japan, India and
Greece. This is a game where you use the Battledore (a paddle) to hit the Shuttlecock back and forth. By the
16th century, it has become a popular game among children in England. In Europe they knew this game as jeu
de volant. In the 1860s, a game named Poona was played in India. This game is much like the Battledore and
Shuttlecock but with an added net. The British army learned this game in India and took the equipments back to
England during the 1870s.
In 1873, the Duke of Beaufort held a lawn party in his country place, Badminton. A game of Poona was played
on that day and became popular among the British society's elite. The new party sport became known as "The
Badminton game". In 1877, the Bath Badminton Club was formed and developed the first official set of rules.
Badminton evolved from a Chinese game of the 5th century bc called ti jian zi that involved kicking the shuttle.
A later version of the sport was played in ancient Greece and India with rackets rather than with feet. A similar
game called shuttlecock, or jeu de volant, appeared in Europe during the 1600s.
British army officers brought a revised version of the game back to Britain from India in the mid-19th century.
In 1873 the duke of Beaufort introduced the game to royalty at his country estate, Badminton House, and the
sport became known as badminton. Four years later the Bath Badminton Club was founded. The version played
by its members forms the basis for today’s game.
Badminton has been played since ancient times; an early form of the sport was played in ancient Greece. In
Japan, the related game Hanetsuki was played as early as the 16th century. In the west, badminton came from a
game called battledore and shuttlecock, in which two or more players keep a feathered shuttlecock in the air
with small racquets.
The modern form of Badminton however can be traced to India, where British military officers stationed there
in the late 19th century became interested in a similar local game which was known to them as Poona (derived
from Pune, an Indian garrison town).This game was taken back to England where the rules of badminton were
set out. Another early version of the game was recorded in the 1850s in the southern Indian city of Tanjore,
called pooppanthu vilayattam (Tamil for flower-ball game) in which balls made of wool and cardboard were
used in the place of the modern-day shuttlecock.
Isaac Spratt, a London toy dealer, published a booklet, "Badminton Battledore - a new game" in 1860, but
unfortunately no copy has survived.
The new sport was definitively launched in 1873 at the Badminton House, Gloucestershire, owned by the Duke
of Beaufort. During that time, the game was referred to as "The Game of Badminton," and the game's official
name became Badminton.
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Until 1887, the sport was played in England under the rules that prevailed in India. The Bath Badminton Club
standardized the rules and made the game applicable to English ideas. The basic regulations were drawn up in
1887. In 1893, the Badminton Association of England published the first set of rules according to these
regulations, similar to today's rules, and officially launched badminton in a house called "Dunbar" at 6
Waverley Grove, Portsmouth, England on September 13 of that year. They also started the All England Open
Badminton Championships, the first badminton competition in the world, in 1899.
The International Badminton Federation (IBF) (now known as Badminton World Federation) was established in
1934 with Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales as
its founding members. India joined as an affiliate in 1936. The BWF now governs international badminton and
develops the sport globally.
While set-out in England, competitive badminton in Europe has traditionally been dominated by Denmark.
Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia are among the nations that have consistently produced world-class players
in the past few decades and dominated competitions on the international level, with China being the most
dominant in recent years.
Badminton Court