The physics of badminton: What gives Badminton rackets their power

[surajaya]

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Hahaha... To some, it's the racket used; to some, it's the string used; to some, it's the technique used; etc, etc, ......

To me, it's the technique used.

Just give any racket to Lee Chong Wei and/or Lin Dan and play against them.
I am sure that they won't say that they depend on their equipment(s) to defeat us.
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I believe thats not relevance. It's not about win or defeat, but energy transfer : Input = Output + % energy lost. The one that has minimal % lost is the best (no matter who use it).

[chris-ccc]

I believe thats not relevance. It's not about win or defeat, but energy transfer : Input = Output + % energy lost. The one that has minimal % lost is the best (no matter who use it).

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This I agree.

Each player has his/her favourite racket.

What I implied to our BCers was not to depend on our equipment. It's better to depend on our our skill.

Once we have good skills, we can still play well; even if we don't have the latest equipment.

Equipment will be better as we move on. Skills will too.

To me, playing Badminton is an ART. However, I need to correct the debate: The PHYSICS do help.

So, let's agree that: The ART plus the PHYSICS of Badminton will help us to play better.
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[Maklike Tier]

There are heaps of good players that play with 75 buck rackets and K-Mart shoes that wipe the floor with players with more 'advanced' rackets.

Like me, for example.

Rackets are mostly for fun, something to try out to experience the various nuances possible, and to keep the great wheels of the capitalist machine well oiled. There will be nothing that 'revolutionises' rackets in the next 20 years. A mid range model from any of the majors is all the racket 95% of the players out there will ever need (until they become one of the 5%, of course.)

And all this despite precocious teenagers 15 minutes of scientific experience! Who would've guessed!?

[na_twins]

It has to be the combination of both the player + racket

eg:-

Bunhon Tan + ARC-Z = 421 Kmph

[Maklike Tier]

Nobody believes those smash speed records. This was discussed ad infinitum when the Z was first released.

[venkatesh]

This is a very interesting thread. Your combined points will give the science of badminton rackets.

And others are also right that it's not just the racket but also the wielder.

I will try this tomorrow during my game. I will determine/compute for the mass, speed, distance, power, force, momentum, aerodynamics, tension, modulus, angle, inertia, weight distribution, etc. I just hope I'm done computing by the time the shuttle strikes my court.

[greblu]

If someone is interested in the rackets only behavior during a Smash should read the article " Dynamic Model af Badminton Stroke(P254)" in the book "The Engeneering of Sports 7"(Springer, by Margaret Estivalet & Pierre Brisson)
I think you can read it in every University for free, or download the ebook (google + rapidshare + The Engineering of Sports 7..."free"... you know what I mean). Also it would not improve your game; but interesting.

The racket exhibits an elastic deformation (reversible) during the acceleration of the stroke. The deformation swings back and may increase/decrease the impact velocity when the timing is correct/incorrect. The window for a perfect impact is very narrow ~20ms .
The main massage of this article is, that the right timing of the shuttle impact is important to get the "extra" power due to the elastic deflection. Stiffness, weight and balance point of the racket can influence the timing a lot.

[Sketchy]

I read that too
There are a few interesting articles in the series - eg. one about synthetic shuttle design, and one about making something to launch shuttles...
Also some good ones about skiing too, if anyone else is interested in that (might just be me).

[Done88]

Nice copy and paste... http://phy6inbadminton.blogspot.ca/p...badminton.html :P