badminton in US history

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by icantdrive, Nov 7, 2007.

  1. icantdrive

    icantdrive Regular Member

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    I have to do an essay in my US history class and i decided that I wanted to write about badminton. problem is, I can't think of anything about badminton that relates to history in the US, and I have to do 7 pages on it. anyone know any good books or sites I could use? magazines would work too. Thank you!
     
  2. chrishin

    chrishin Regular Member

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    simplest solution: change topic.

    badminton's not big in us so not much information will be found
     
  3. toddster

    toddster Regular Member

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    Yah, I have to agree.

    Change Topic. Unless you have some access to some of the players from the 80's, and exposure to some of their experiences, don't even bother.

    Sorry to sound depressing.

    Toddster
     
  4. taneepak

    taneepak Regular Member

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    Why don't you write to the Badminton Federation of America. The US was a power in badminton in the 1950s. An American even won the Denmark Open singles.
     
  5. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    but that is only 2 sentences. He needed 7 pages:p
     
  6. SystemicAnomaly

    SystemicAnomaly Regular Member

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    Perhaps you could write about the rise & fall of badminton in the USA. The sport was very popular in the US in the 1930s thru the late 1960s. Two of the most dominant players in the sport have been Americans -- Dave Freeman and Judy Devlin (Hashman). For some history check the following:

    USA Badminton History


    As I see it there are several compelling reasons for the downfall of badminton in the US -- money, a great diversity of sports in the US, TV coverage and outdoor volleyball-badminton sets. Big business money went into other sports in the '60s and early '70s -- baseball, basketball, American football, tennis & a few others. Badminton got left behind since talented athletes usually follow the money.

    badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=545779

    Athletes in the US have a plethora of other sports to chose from. Countries such as Denmark, China & other Asian countries focus their energies on just a few sports. These are the countries that have come to dominance since the mid-20th century.

    TV coverage plays a large part in the popularity of a sport. Badminton has never received much TV coverage in the US. In contrast, the sports that I mentioned above, as well as a number of others, have received considerable TV coverage in the US since the 1950s.

    It was probably in the 1950s or '60s that SportCraft (I think) made the combination volleyball-badminton outdoor popular. Since competitive badminton was not televised, Americans came to think of badminton as a low-skill backyard or BBQ game rather than a real athletic endeavor. This stigma (the image problem) persists today for most Americans.

    In the 1960s, the last of international male champions from the US was James (Jim) Poole. I recall reading an excerpt of paper written by Jim Poole in the 1960s about badminton biomechanics. This paper was way ahead of its time -- his assertion that forearm rotation (pronation & supination) was considerably more important that wrist action for power production in badminton strokes was a very novel idea. Badminton & tennis coaches of the time (and well into the 1970s & '80s) emphasized wrist-action or wrist snap as a primary power generator.

    badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=556298


    Since the days of Poole (late 60s) and Devlin (early '70s), it wasn't until 2005 that a US athlete won a major international badminton title. That was the year that Howard Bach with Tony Gunawan won the men's doubles title at the 2005 World Championships.

    Interesting footnote: Badminton mixed doubles was added as a medal Olympic event at the Atlanta Games in 1996.

    Other links for the USA's golden era of badminton:

    Another Dave Freeman article
    Mini-bio of Judy Devlin
    Margaret Varner
    Joe Alston
    Lois Alston

    US Badminton Hall of Fame
    US Badminton Walk of Fame


    Hope these links give you some ideas for your paper.
     
  7. icantdrive

    icantdrive Regular Member

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    thank you sooooo~ much! this is actually really helpful
     
  8. maryanne

    maryanne Regular Member

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    That was very informative, even for me. That should be good material for you, and I am glad that you do not have to dump the topic. Any discussions on badminton to non afficionados will always help the sport. Hope you get good grades for it!
     
  9. cards_pro

    cards_pro Regular Member

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    Don't forget to post you essay here after you have finished it. :D
     
  10. icantdrive

    icantdrive Regular Member

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    yeah, I really don't want to drop this topic. and ill be sure to post it later, it'll be pretty long though. lol. ill still need more info (I have untill mid December to finish this), so please post if you know anything. thankyou!
     
  11. mmnoor

    mmnoor Regular Member

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    I didn't know that Jim Poole won the Malaysian Singles Title in 1961!!
     

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