As a person with poor vision, I marvel at how top badminton players are able to adapt to the varied court lighting conditions they encounter around the world. Along with air currents (drift) and acoustics, it seems that visibility would be the main concern. I have played on courts where banks of fluorescent lights blind you if the flight of the shuttlecock happens to fly in that direction. I have also played on courts in sports halls where the intense halogen lights are mounted high in the ceiling. I wonder how often players at the top level lose points because they have been temporary blinded by the lights and how they are able to cope. For myself, an evenly lit court with little glare, dark floor and dark background works best. It really doesn't matter how bright it is, just so long as it is evenly lit. In pushing for such conditions, am I asking too much?
I doubt any high level (international) tournaments that pros play will be in a mult. purpose gyms like most of us used. Therefore, even though the lighting might be different from place to place, but they should be all well build for badminton need. Therefore, adjust from best to better to acceptable (or the other way around) is much easier than going from heaven to hell.
Another reason for colored shuttles....I like a court with no bright spots...even lighting is best...You would think that for the Professional tournaments they could come up with Professional lighting...
the amount of lighting required for a profesional tournament is the same anywhere. It is determined by the Cibse lighting guide and I believe it is between 500 - 700lux, but I will need to check. You also need to achieve a uniformity rating of 0.7. if at any stage lighting seems to vary it is not due to the illumination level within the area, it is down to the reflectance values of the surfaces within the area giving the impression that is darker than it actually is.
maybe it is that they're really behind the bird before hitting it like we're supposed to do, instead of sometimes being under the bird, and looking straight into the light , but point taken. i've had that happen to me many a time, and i've lost tournament matches that way
Thanks, Term for the illuminating info.. I guess the courts where I play best may not qualify for a professional tournament because they are so underlit with only 2 x 10' fluorescent tubes at each side of the court 26' high. Yet visibily there is great because the deep blue walls allow one to follow the shuttlecock with no difficulty. Uniformity and contrast, for me, is more important than brightness. It's good to know, though that there are standards for professional playing conditions. And yes, xXazn, the bird does get overhead too much, partly because I have trouble seeing it to begin with. By the time I do, it's usually too late.
As long as the shuttlecock remains WHITE we will all have trouble at times seeing the shuttle...Colored shuttlecock would help a lot but even still would not eliminate the problem as the high bright lights will always be a problem...
Colored shuttlecocks can certainly be helpful in many cases. Optic yellow synthetic shuttles are sometimes preferred to white feather (or synthetic) shuttles in some gyms around here that are visually hostile to badminton. Unfortunately, yellow feathered shuttles are mediocre at best -- the coloring seems to make the feathers a bit too heavy. How about developing a white feather shuttle with a cork (covering) that is optic orange, optic yellow or some other highly visible color? Tennis rules allow for either white or yellow balls (most balls are actually a greenish yellow). Table tennis also has two official colors - white or (optic) orange. Why not have badminton shuttles available in 2 or 3 different cork colors? This option could improve the quality of competition for many players -- both recreational and competitive players. Altho' they are not legal for competition, I used optic orange balls for tennis several times. I have found this color to be easier to track in a variety of lighting and background situations. The real plus is when these orange balls are hit into bright lights (I play a lot of night tennis). I have great difficulty tracking the standard yellow ball in the lights -- in an attempt to follow the ball, I find that I am often blinded for several seconds. With the orange ball, I find that I can still pick up the ball trajectory without staring directly at the lights -- I believe that I can partially use my peripheral vision to track the ball in this case. I'm willing to bet that a shuttle with a orange-colored cork might have the same advantage. So who out there has some influence with a shuttle manufacturer to implement this idea?
Colored shuttlecock Whichever method used to color the feathers or the cork would work fine... The problem remains with the IBF and getting them off their old fashioned butts and into the modern world...I think the only way we will accomplish this is to continue discussions in all the badminton forums and hope the info will sink in to IBF....If anyone has an "in" with the IBF please post suggestions here......An optic orange or maybe blue, green etc would be such a help...I see absolutely no reason not to make the change....
Or start introducing colored birdies in our own play. The more widespread the practice, the more manufacturers and officials will notice (no pun intended). I'll bet manufacturers would offer them if they thought they would sell.
o the joys of highschool highschool badminton... gets a little tough to have to keep adjusting to different schools terrible lighting.... haha. you just do what u gotta do.
Yes, but adjusting to other schools' gyms is only part of the fun. And of course we have home games so it all evens out.
Adjusting might be fun for you, but for us older players it sucks big time...as you get older your reaction time decreases and the poor lighting accentuates the problem further....
I'll second that. It's not just a slower reaction time but visual abilities naturally deteriorate as well. There is a huge difference in the level of my play in a gym with a poor lighting or hostile background environment than one that is more vision-friendly. While it bother the younger players to some extent, it is much more detrimental to older players.
