The Badminton Racket

Badminton Rackets used to have a wooden frame, but they desired a more light-weight racket in order to be able to move around the court quicker. After the wooden frames, they changed to aluminium, then later decided to use carbon fibre materials to have the lightest racket they could possibly make. The shape of the frame has usually been in a tear-shape. The earliest strings in badminton rackets were made using the gut of natural animals. They then changed to using synthetic materials, the most popular being nylon in order to increase the speed of the game and improve string tension, also they are cheaper and provide the same quality as natural strings. Graphite fibre, titanium and kevlar are also used to make badminton rackets today. Synthetic materials have also been used to produce the grip on badminton rackets, one example is polyurethane. A lot of attention is put into the grip on a badminton racket as it stops the player from losing a hold they might have as well as making the handle a larger diameter, making the racket more comfortable to hold. The grip had to be evolved as when wooden rackets were used, the grip would cause the players to acquire cuts on their hands.

Badminton Players

The best badminton athletes in the world come from mainly China, only Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia, Denmark, Thailand, Taiwan and Spain. Many of the top badminton athletes come from Asia and this is because badminton is a sport that Asian countries focus on whereas Canada would focus on ice hockey and Ireland would focus on Rugby. Because badminton in Asia is so popular, there is a lot of support behind it.   But China dominates in badminton and one of the reasons behind this statement is because the badminton program's are supported by China's government, this means that the government takes care of their meals, housing and training.   China is also very good at badminton because they have such a large following of badminton players that they can choose from, roughly around 100 million of China's 1.3 billion population play badminton. What it takes to become a top badminton athlete are amazing tactical, technical, psychological and physical traits.