Badminton Facts: 53 Interesting Facts about Badminton

The world is full of amazing, unexpected, surprising, and unconventional, badminton facts.

And in this post, we have collected a list of 53 facts about it.

Let’s dive in.

  1. Name changes – badminton was played in India in the 18th century, but under a different name – Poona.
  2. British officers took Poona to Great Britain from India, where they renamed it “badminton”. That’s the name we know today.
  3. The game of badminton has evolved a lot since its beginnings. Rules were changed many times, equipment too.
  4. The Country estate of Badminton, Gloucestershire, England. Remember the name. The game of badminton was first played there. It was also the seat of the dukes of Beaufort.
  5. First shuttlecocks were made of wool. Well, this enables playing in wet and windy conditions. Nowadays competitions take place indoors but you’ll still see wool products in some parts of the world.
  6. Feathers of the shuttle are made of the left-wing of the goose. Now you know the secret of the fastest smashes in the world. It takes 16 feathers to make a shuttlecock.
  7. Shuttlecock weighs between 4.4 and 5.5 grams. It is lightweight, but its average speed is 320+ kph.
  8. Mixing left and right-wing feathers are not recommended – it affects flying properties negatively. Aerodynamics specialists claim that shuttlecock spins clockwise after a hard smash.
  9. Longest match – The battle until the last dying breath lasted 25 hours, 25 minutes, and 44 seconds. It took place in Reutte, Austria, on 26-27 November 2016. Mario Langmann played versus Thomas Paulweber (both players are from Austria).  
  10. Longest rally – Naoko Fukuman/Kurumi Yonao played versus Poon Lok Yan/Tse Ying Suet. The rally ended after 256 shots, it lasted 4.5 minutes (270 seconds).
  11. Extreme popularity – badminton very little played in Africa and some part of Europe/South America but it is estimated that 220 million people around the world play badminton regularly.
  12. Asia is the leading continent when it comes to the number of players. Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and China usually win the most prestigious tournaments.
  13. Shortest badminton match – The Uber Cup in Hong Kong brought a battle between Ra Kyung-Min (South Korea) and Julia Mann (England) 11-2, 11-1, which lasted 6 minutes! The Korean competitor destroyed her opponent.
  14. Longest international badminton match – International badminton matches usually finish within one hour. Yet, Badminton Asian Championships brought an impressive battle between Kurumi Yanao and Naoko Fukuman Greysia from Japan and Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheshwari from Indonesia. It lasted for 2 hours and 41 minutes (161 minutes).
  15. Largest shuttlecock in the world – Would you believe that the largest shuttlecock on the planet Earth weighs 2,500kg? You can find it on the lawn of a Kansas City Museum, and it is 48 times heavier than a normal one. It was made in July 1994.
  16. There is badminton played with the feet – Chinese game Ti Zian Ji is the forerunner of badminton, it still exists in China and India. Players hit the shuttlecock with their feet instead of a racket.
  17. BWF winners are mostly from Asia. We see a name from Denmark or other Scandinavian states from time to time, but it doesn’t happen too often.
  18. The legs of badminton players are stronger than their upper bodies – the majority of athletes have more muscles in their legs compared to arms, chest, and trunk. Especially singles’ players.
  19. Mixed match – When males and females play a doubles match, it is called “mixed doubles” in tennis. Yet, diehard badminton fans stick to the “mixed match” phrase.
  20. Why shuttlecock? It got its original name thanks to back and forth motion (“shuttle”) in badminton. Sixteen feathers resemble chicken (“cock”).
  21. Bird (birdie)? – In badminton, this phrase refers to “a shuttlecock”.
  22. The first official club – no, it was not in Asia. The first one was created in Bath, United Kingdom. The year was 1877. The name was “The Bath Badminton Club”.
  23. The court differences for singles/doubles – The singles’ court is a bit narrower.  The dimensions of the rectangular court are 44 feet x 17 feet. Doubles’ pitch is 20 feet wide, while the length remains the same.
  24. Badminton and the Olympic Games – It was played as a demonstration sport back in 1972 in Munich, then as an exhibition sport in Seoul, 1988. We’ve seen it officially for the first time in Barcelona 1992 (singles and doubles), while a mixed match was introduced in Atlanta, 1996.
  25. An insane number of viewers – Can you believe that the first Olympic badminton match was watched by an impressive 1.1 billion viewers?! Nobody could’ve expected that what a result!
  26. Gutting string length – The string used to gut a racket for badminton is 10 meters long.
  27. Badminton court lines – They are 40mm thick, painted white or yellow, so players don’t have a hard time identifying them during the match. Other colors are not allowed in official matches.
  28. Fastest smash in the official competition (just add internal link fastest badminton smashes in both) – It happened in 2017, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Danish player Mads Pieler Kolding jumped high and slammed the shuttlecock, the speed was 426 kph.
  29. Fastest smash overall – The Malaysian Tan Boon Heong took part in the Yonex tryout session in 2013 and achieved a speed of 493 kph.
  30. The oldest badminton tournament – The oldest one is The All England Open Badminton Championship, which was first held in 1898.
  31. Is badminton a national game? Yes, but only in Indonesia.
  32. Climatic conditions affect the game – The shuttlecock flies slower when it’s cold, faster when it’s hot. It is slower when the tournament is played at high altitude (there aren’t many tournaments in Tibet, right?). Oh, it moves a bit faster when the air conditioner is on.
  33. No many outdoor competitions. Badminton is played indoors because windy weather creates big problems for players. Even a slight breeze could lead to match suspension.
  34. You can affect the speed of the shuttlecock by tipping the feathers. If you tip the feathers inward, it will increase the speed of the shuttlecock, while tipping it outward does the opposite.
  35. No warm welcome in the USA – Badminton was introduced in America back in the 1890s, but it was very unpopular until the 1950s. Unfortunately, the game’s popularity in the United States of America is still – questionable.
  36. Underarm Service – You are only allowed to serve from below the waist level.  
  37. No second chance – If you miss the service once, you lost the point. In tennis, there is the second serve, but badminton is very strict.
  38. Winning point – The first player to get 21 points wins the game, but when it is 20-20, you need 2 point differential over your opponent.
  39. You can’t go above 30. The first guy to score thirty points wins the game (30-29 is as far as you can go).
  40. Match winner – You need to earn three sets to win the match.
  41. Tennis matches last longer, but badminton games are way more intense. Rallies last longer, plus smashes are more often and faster.
  42. It is hard to watch the match. Spectators will have a hard time following the shuttlecock, especially if the battle lasts longer. Necks will hurt, strikes are so fast. J  
  43. Badminton rackets’ strings were created by the lining of a cat’s stomach earlier. Today, it is made out of synthetic materials.
  44. Modern rackets are made of boron, graphite, steel, or aluminum. The weight is around 85-90 grams, but not more than 100. The racket mustn’t be longer than 68 cm and wider than 23 cm.
  45. U/G meaning. U refers to the racket’s weight – 1U (95-99 grams) is the heaviest, while 5U is the lightest (75-80 grams). G means racket’s length. You’ll mostly see G3, G4, and G5 etiquettes.
  46. You mustn’t touch the net. If your racket touches it, your opponent scores the point. Pay attention during sacrificing shots!
  47. Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen were the first European pair that edged out Asian players. They won China Open Doubles and World Badminton Championships in the same year.
  48. Around ten shuttlecocks are used in an average top-notch level international match. Every shuttle is hit 400+ times.
  49. Thomas Cup was founded in 1949, but only five national teams were winners. China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Denmark, and Japan.
  50. International Badminton Federation counts over 150 registered nations. Yet, China and Indonesia win over 70% of top-notch competitions all around the globe. Yet, you can see wunderkinder in other states from time to time.
  51. Richest badminton player. Lin Dan holds number one on this list, as his net worth is estimated to an impressive 41 million dollars. Interestingly, despite he and Lee Chong Wei were big rivals until a few years ago, they are huge friends in real life. Plus he donated a lot of money to the charity.
  52. Gum sole shoe is your best friend for top-notch badminton performance. You mustn’t slip and slide too much during the professional match, and you have to recover quickly. Normal shoes would be a problem, but a gum sole offers far better grip than regular ones.
  53. Shots per second. A lot of hard hits are seen in a very short time, especially in doubles’ matches. You might look at 40-50 hits within 20 seconds, which makes badminton the fastest racket sport in the world.

I’m sure there are more badminton facts to be listed, but this is what we got from the internet, research, and / or experience.

Is there any fact in the list you never heard of? Of have we missed out any facts? Leave us a comment below and let us know.

Some of the sources we found online:

  1. https://badmintonisgreat.com/badminton-facts/
  2. https://blog.playo.co/we-bet-you-didnt-know-these-facts-about-badminton/
  3. https://sportycious.com/facts-about-badminton-91053
  4. https://www.sportskeeda.com/badminton/10-facts-about-badminton-that-will-blow-your-mind
  5. https://thefactfile.org/badminton-facts/
  6. http://tonsoffacts.com/30-fun-and-fascinating-facts-about-badminton/
  7. https://www.sportswebsites.org/everything-must-know-badminton-rackets/
  8. https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/longest-badminton-match-record
  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cup