Good News for Badminton

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by jbchiong, Feb 12, 2007.

  1. jbchiong

    jbchiong Regular Member

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    SOURCE: nwi.com

    IUN hosts American Badminton League tournament
    From Sunday, February 11, 2007 12:08 AM CSTBY BOB MOULESONG
    Times Correspondent


    GARY | First of all, it's not called a birdie. It's called a shuttle.

    That's just one of the many misconceptions about the sport of badminton that coaches and players talked about during the American Badminton League Great Lakes College Regional hosted at Indiana Northwest on Saturday afternoon.

    Lew Wallace tennis coach and IUN badminton coach Donn Gobbie was the tournament director.

    "Competitive badminton is very different than what people play in their backyard during a barbecue," Gobbie said. "It is actually a very competitive sport that demands an incredible amount of energy and stamina."

    Competitive badminton is about speed; players play the game with no timeouts or breaks. It makes the pace extremely quick, and players need to be in good shape to keep up with the demand.

    "In the average tennis match, the ball is in play for 18 minutes," Gobbie said. "In the average competitive badminton match, the shuttle is in play for 37 minutes. That significantly increases the level of intensity."

    In addition, competitive badminton is played indoors on a basketball court.

    Players were on hand from five different colleges -- Northwestern, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (two teams), Eastern Illinois University, University of Chicago and IUN. The six teams played a five-round format, earning up to nine points each round. The most points at the end of the five rounds would be the winner. Eastern Illinois won with a 4-0 record; IUN was 0-4.

    Lucretia Jenkins is an IUN senior who currently resides in Gary. She played basketball in high school and for one semester for the RedHawks before switching to badminton.

    "This is such an incredible workout," Jenkins said. "The shuttle can travel up to 160 miles per hour, so you have very little time to move and even less margin for error. You would not believe how much energy is spent on the court."

    Badminton became an Olympic sport in 1996 in Atlanta. In 2005, American Howard Bach became the first and only U.S. world gold medalist.

    In 1998, the ABL was created in an attempt to make the sport more popular in the U.S. The plan has had success at the college level, where as many as 15 different colleges in the Midwest have participated, including Purdue and Valparaiso.

    Gobbie said plans are in place to expand to a professional league in California next year.

    Several cities out west such as San Diego and Los Angeles have been very interested in the startup plan," Gobbie said. "We still have a lot of details to work out, but so far it's looking pretty good."
     
  2. chris-ccc

    chris-ccc Regular Member

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    American Badminton League: Starting in USA West soon ???

    Hi jbchiong,

    Thank you for your article. :)

    From reading the Forum@Badminton Central, I believe that in the USA, the Midwest and the West would be the regions to really trigger off Badminton in USA.

    Although I believe that to get more players to play/participate in Badminton is more important(that is, just to get them to participate in Badminton recreationally at the start), the proposed Professional League in California is a good means of demonstrating how higher quality Badminton can be played.

    Congratulations, USA (ABL) !!! :):):)

    Cheers... chris@ccc
     
    #2 chris-ccc, Feb 12, 2007
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2007
  3. ctjcad

    ctjcad Regular Member

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    #3 ctjcad, Feb 12, 2007
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2007
  4. jbchiong

    jbchiong Regular Member

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    your welcome chris@ccc
     
  5. adrian.sutikna

    adrian.sutikna Regular Member

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    am waiting for the badminton to be very popular...because In my opinion it's one of the best sport in the world...
    Badminton movement is as beautiful as ballet...
    Badmintons tricks is fancier than any other sport ...
    Badmintons Smash is very exciting ...
    Net play is an art ...
    It's a very beautiful game ....
    Badminton ... the world must like it ... or else ... they're blind
     
  6. asphyxiate

    asphyxiate Regular Member

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    Ooer! Nice article there.. though I'm not entirely sure what they were trying to get at when they said that competitive badminton is played indoors on a 'basketball court'.

    I do hope the sport continues to gain momentum in the US.. because that means surely Canada will follow! :p:p
     

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