What are some of the craziest things you've heard about the sport?
How do you overcome these things?
It may not be a large issue in the east, but badminton players in the western world get no respect at all, no matter how good you are.

"It's a girls sport"

"Badminton players are pansies!"


etc etc.... there is no excuse.

yaa,

they stop saying that once you smash it right in their face.



I accidentally hit it to my mom's eye once, she had to get eye drops

"it's such an easy sport"

ironically, no one who has said this to me has beaten me....

"cuz u take lessons"

but i thought it was easy.... i don't understand...


haha.... actually, i'm sure the people who watched the school based badminton tournament (the final anyway), doesn't think it's an easy game..... me and my partner vs. a national champion and her partner.... (fortunately, her partner was not nearly as good as my partner or me) so my partner and i came up on top...

i think those ppl are finding for a fight then.....:mad:

ill be the 1st to hit em ....

"eazy sport ....just hit the shuttle and its done "

= wait till i smash you

"sissy sport"

=i feel whacking him right away even with my racquet.....

"like i can't get your slow smash..."

=wait till you see em , pure newbie

you can say the same thing about frisbee throwing... and most people don't take that more seriosuly than badminton.

but im dissapointed with ppl who don't understand the fun of badminton :(

Originally posted by bigredlemon
you can say the same thing about frisbee throwing... and most people don't take that more seriosuly than badminton.

actually, i don't care what it is, it takes skill and hard work to be good at anything.....

That badminton isn't fast enough for some people! I should tell em to watch a final match of a doubles match and lets see if they say that again!

my friend who plays table tennis said this" i dun get why ppl would smash so hard, i can juss put my racquet there n reflect the shot rit back wifout using ne power since the smash is so hard..."

he obviously never thought about maybe ppl dun smash directly at ur racquet or not everyone can block a smash like it was nuffin...

When my daughter started high school, she didn't want to play on the team because she said badminton was for "geeks and nerds"--you know, kids who are great academically but who are small, skinny, and have little athletic ability and low social status. Then a tall, good looking, popular, athletic boy--who was actually very good at badminton--joined the team, and he broke the stereotype. It actually changed the image some kids had of badminton players and opened the way for some to feel OK with trying out for the team.

V. good story, Californian! I think the most outrageous comment I've ever heard from someone is, "Badminton is not a sport! You don't even work up a sweat!"

Originally posted by Bombshell
V. good story, Californian! I think the most outrageous comment I've ever heard from someone is, "Badminton is not a sport! You don't even work up a sweat!"

heh..:mad: now i feel pissed

I like this one:

"Yeah I've played badminton, when I was rehabbing after hurting myself in some real sports"

Originally posted by Bombshell
V. good story, Californian! I think the most outrageous comment I've ever heard from someone is, "Badminton is not a sport! You don't even work up a sweat!"
Originally posted by smashharder88
I like this one:

"Yeah I've played badminton, when I was rehabbing after hurting myself in some real sports"
Actually those comments reek of ignorance. At high levels, badminton is
one of the sports with the most incidences of injuries. I've seen and
heard of ex-toplevel players who wrecked their knees, ankles, shoulder
and other joints, also their back. There are those who suffered a sudden
heart-attack too. For a non-contact sport, that's pretty brutal. Guys,
I suggest you take those fellas to the courts and give them a
complimentary tour to "familiarize" them with every inch of the playing
area.

Not to mention how a sport with such light equipment can cause such
injuries...

Originally posted by Bombshell
V. good story, Californian! I think the most outrageous comment I've ever heard from someone is, "Badminton is not a sport! You don't even work up a sweat!"


Maybe those ppl are right. At least, they were talking about their expereince.
:o

When they play, they can't hit the bird, don't know where and how to move, maybe even can't see the bird when opponent smash. Therefore, quit playing in 3 min, of course, no sweaty... :D

Hmm... therefore since I either can't play or suck at soccer, ice hockey,
American Football, etc, etc, all of those are NOT sports! ;)

here at my school badminton is accepted by all who have tried it. however there is the few that, after you beat them, say "who cares, its a wuss sport anyway".


funny thing is, there is more people taunting basketball than badminton, especially the hockey kids.

Basketball?!? Basketball's such a big sport at our school it isn't even funny! The basketball players get all the attention! I guess each school is very different... x:confused:

Yeah, over at my school, the main sports are hockey, soccer and basketball. Table tennis, and volleyball get more attention when it comes to the team. I wonder if the fact that badminton is not considered a "team" sport contributes to our lack of respect. Volleyball, a sport that is similar badminton, in terms of rules and objective, will recieve more credit as it is seen as a "team" effort

Originally posted by Kariya
Yeah, over at my school, the main sports are hockey, soccer and basketball. Table tennis, and volleyball get more attention when it comes to the team. I wonder if the fact that badminton is not considered a "team" sport contributes to our lack of respect. Volleyball, a sport that is similar badminton, in terms of rules and objective, will recieve more credit as it is seen as a "team" effort

I suppose. People generally think that volleyball is more exciting because there are more players... and I guess they just can't imagine how batting a little bundle of feathers around with some skinny tennis racquets constitutes a 'real' sport.

Here is another hilarious one I heard:


"Look mom, they are playing Indian Tennis"

ironically, the hockey team gets the most attention at my skewl (they get all the funding, and all this other stuff..) and the badminton team does better than the hockey team....

it kinda pisses me off how they get a huge 10 minute announcement about "how they played like champions" even though they lost.... and we get a 2 second announcement about a member of the skewl team winning nationals or ofsaa....

It's so good to see viewpoints and constructive statement about the stereotypes we have out there. I say, it's their lost. Everyone thinks that they are good in their individual sport.

I for one think badminton is a very interesting game providng that you are playing in a level which is above the amature range.

Stamina, skills, Precision shots, Power, Speed, Control, Mind games, and Sportmanship is what make this sport one of the best.

I will also say to those who feels that badminton is a sissy sport for geeks to not let one bad experience turn them around because if you do feel that way, you shouldn't be playing sports at all because you have absolutely no understanding of what sportmanship is.

Let me just say this...

I don't know if any serious study has been done on this, but IMO, badminton uses more different muscle groups than any other sport. At its higher levels, it requires stamina, flexibility, superior co-ordination, body control, quick reflexes and body movement, strength, a multitude of developed skills, a disciplined mind and will, and the ability to make quick decisions, not to mention all the other mental elements that are part of direct competition. It's the most COMPLETE sports activity I can think of. Anybody who plays badminton seriously is not afraid of facing a diversity of challenges.

You said it man!!

"ironically, the hockey team gets the most attention at my skewl (they get all the funding, and all this other stuff..) and the badminton team does better than the hockey team...."

Same here in my school, badminton almost never gets proper funding. i mean, the hockey and basketball teams, sometimes even get chartered buses. While we are forced to car pool with other students. What the school doesn't realize is that badminton can cost loads of money (uniforms, nets, birds- and we all know how expensive those can be) Compared to basketball (uniforms and basketballs, and maybe nets) badminton costs more.

Hey Sharkboy are you in Junior High or High School? Like what school do you go to?

Since you guys are talking about schools my school is pretty popular when it comes to badminton. They haven't lost the title for something like 10 or more years and it does have a lot of attention, but what is sad is that since last year I think it actually decreased in attention. The club started later it hasn't been on the announcements and even the amount of player that went to the club decreased and no nobody who attended last year was in their last year of school, so I don't really see what happened.

I'm in Junior high, and I go to John Ware in Calgary

Originally posted by Kariya

What the school doesn't realize is that badminton can cost loads of money (uniforms, nets, birds- and we all know how expensive those can be) Compared to basketball (uniforms and basketballs, and maybe nets) badminton costs more.

Heheheheheh.... maybe that's why they don't want to suppor the badminton team - too much $$$. A basketball can hold to let 10 ppl play for months, but a bird can only let 2 ppl play say 5-10 minutes intense game.

BTW, u forgot about racket and re-string (if they have expensive rackets).

agreed, that might be why badminton is unattractive in the financial department... but honestly, it's not that we get little funding, it's that we get NO funding... the head coach had to get her own birds, the nets have holes in them etc....

The amount of funding at my junior high school is...almost none. I'm still in junior high, but I play with one of the high school teams in my city. My junior high has nets, poles, cheap shuttles and the deformed shcool rackets.

The last 2 years when I was the only one from my school to advance to Provincals, (hopefully 3rd time this year) I automatically travelled with the high school team. My school wouldn't pay for anything...gas, the rental van, the hotel, etc. Plus, the junior high coach doesn't know anything about badminton. He stays for 10 minutes at the tournament, if it is in town, if it's oustide of the city then he won't go at all. (literally 10 minutes, i'm not exagerrating) then he leaves. He won't register anyone from our school properly(he doesn't understand the system even with the numerous faxes sent explaining it to him by the high school coaches) he says "let them figure it out when you get there." This means that some people end up not being able to play at all due to his ignorance.

And yet the hockey team and basketball teams at my school get a lot of funding. I mean, the baskteball team got tracksuits, warm-up clothes, jerseys, kit bags, all brand new! And the badminton team has never once(out of the 6 years that our school has been open) had a single jersey made up for my school.

It's riduclous

scary...

our school is pretty much like that, but our head coach is commited to our team, our school have been pretty good at badminton in the past years, so our coach buys us the stuff we need. (need, not jerseys or anything)

We have deformed racquets too, but anyone who made the team have their own, and all the nets and stuff we get at school price anyway. and at the junior high level (here anyway), the birds aren't hit that hard, nobody here plays that intense. (weird eh?, how did our school do good)???:confused:

Funding????????

Our school has only had a badminton team for about a year. It isn't even run by the school. The teams that our school concentrate most on are the football (soccer) teams.

By the way, on the subject of stereotypes the worst one i've heard is 'Badminton is boring' i think this is totally wrong.

Originally posted by Nanashi
the nets have holes in them etc....

Which nets have no holes??? :D

Ok, sorry, got ur point. ;)

Originally posted by RJCMGP
The amount of funding at my junior high school is...almost none. I'm still in junior high, but I play with one of the high school teams in my city. My junior high has nets, poles, cheap shuttles and the deformed shcool rackets.



Well, at least seems students from CAN have something related with badminton in school, most important, a team or a club around.

While in NYC, the public schools just don't have no funding for anything. My high school (well, 10 yrs ago, cough *** cough ***) was just lucky enough to run a swimming team (borrow nearby college's pool), and a competitive basketball team (NY is a hoops town). Badminton? What was that? Many ppl even don't know how to spell it, or just looking at you like, "hey, grow up, why u still playing with 5 yrs old kids out there?"

In NY, only some high schools from rich neighborhood have badminton teams. They form a little league. I was dreaming about to participate, but too bad, parents can afford all the cost I will ask for.

After getting into college, some kids were showing off in club, like they were blah blah blah ex high school team badminton team members. I tried to play with them, well, some are good, most the others, needless to say... Sometimes, I think I was just a little bit jealous, kinda hate those ppl who kinda "waste" their oppotunities. But, hey, ppl are different, if I like something, can't force everyone else to be up to certain lvl as the same.

If you're parents are rich and wealthy, you probably have more opportunities than you can take advantage of. Take a look a Bush... i'd love to be the CEO of a billion dollar company... and he turned it down for a bigger house!

I think at the end even though you get no funding what you need is a commited coach, that way he'll even go into his own account to get good equipment

(Like the coach at my school:D )

Originally posted by sharkboy
I think at the end even though you get no funding what you need is a commited coach, that way he'll even go into his own account to get good equipment

(Like the coach at my school:D )

Hmmm.... coach does not come for free... Another $$$ issue...

coach, teacher, whatever

Originally posted by sharkboy
I think at the end even though you get no funding what you need is a commited coach, that way he'll even go into his own account to get good equipment

(Like the coach at my school:D )

Also, most of gym teachers here want to be in charge of tennis, swimming, basketball, baseball coaches. These teams/clubs can easily bring up trophies for them, and "fund raisinng" is much easier.

Not many of them even want to touch badminton, which have $0 to start with, and they have no idea about after no more being a 6 yrs old.

it is important to have a coach/teacher that actually gives a damn... unfortunately, this years doesn't.... last years didn't care that much, but she gave more of a damn... and at least she was an actual gym teacher, so she had an idea of how to improve fitness, how to warm up, things like that...

wow,

After hearing the horror at the other schools I'm pretty lucky to have a teacher that cares (We love you Evans!!!)

but our school only has badminton, basketball, volleyball, and track.

basketball gets most funds, volleyball and badminton are tied, and track hasn't started yet, so I don't know.

But our school is right beside the southland leisure center (a sports place)
so we usually go there to play, and they got lots of equipment too.

The most common badminton stereotype I've experienced is that badminton is an outdoor picnic game played with racquets, gently lobbing a plastic shuttlecock back and forth over a net anywhere between 5'-8' in height. All purchased in a "badminton set" for $15 at your local hardware-sporting goods store :D. This is exactly what I envisioned when I was first introduced to badminton (as we know it). That's what badminton was for me when I played it with my mother at a picnic at a park when I was a child. Of course as an adult, my memory and image of badminton quickly changed when a friend blasted a smash right by me on the day of my proper introduction to the sport :D.

everyone at my school seems to think that badminton is some wussy sport.....especially the soccer, basketball, and hockey players. They don't realize how hard the sport is and many ppl at my school think it's just a game of lobbing the birdy back and forth. We have great players at my school, the doubles and singles consistently come in 1st and yet other students aren't aware of how talented our badminton team is. What a pitty, what a pitty :(

Well my local newspaper thinks it's a sport for seniors... as in retired,
elderly, etc... Believe it or not, there's the rare mention of local seniors'
tournaments and I think it actually mentioned one of Lees' girls once.

yeah, the newspaper has done articles on joycelyn ko and cynthia cheng.... not sure if they've done any others....

Well, I think you overlook one steretype. Many see it as an asian sport, ironically this is coming from a taiwanese person, but there are non-asian people on the badminton team too.

Originally posted by lilayzunboi
Well, I think you overlook one steretype. Many see it as an asian sport, ironically this is coming from a taiwanese person, but there are non-asian people on the badminton team too.

In the Vancouver area it's more than a stereotype... it's a fact! :D ;) :p
Sometimes I forget I'm living in Canada here... :eek: :o :rolleyes:

Originally posted by timeless
In the Vancouver area it's more than a stereotype... it's a fact! :D ;) :p
Sometimes I forget I'm living in Canada here... :eek: :o :rolleyes:
At where I play... i'd say it's 95% asian. But lots of different types of asians--afterall most of the world population is asian! It doesn't matter anyways does it?