From: eddie@castle.ed.ac.uk (Eddie Corns)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.misc
Subject: Re: Badminton
Date: 12 Jan 93 19:32:51 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

ram@erc-sparc (Robert Malkin) writes:

>: >Are there any people interested in badminton and willing to talk
>: >about this subject here?

>I've been watching this group for about 2 years.  There have only
>been about 10 posts about Badminton in that period.  That's probably
>not enough to justify a separate group ... but I'm willing to talk about
>it. One thing that has been useful in the past is the posting of local
>tournaments. 

Well some people find it difficult to stop me talking about badminton (not
that I know much about it - but that never stops me anyway).  Not quite sure
though what you could talk about on the net, after all we all know exactly
*how* to play the game even if sometimes observers can't quite see this :^)

There's always equipment, Carlton powerflo racquets are the best - well that's
that topic dealt with!  How about shoes? does anyone else have problems with
tender feet after playing? I've tried all sorts of shoes with air filled soles
etc. but nothing seems to work.  Perhaps I shouldn't jump around so much.

Anyone have any idea how to convince the rest of the committe members in a
club to play with proper speed of shuttles? other than move to a club where
they know about such things.

Training programmes - there's a thing that's of general interest.  Anyone got
any good/new/interesting ideas for practice (and how to make it appeal to
others who generally resist the notion)?  How much time do others devote to
actually practicing shots/tactics?  Personally I do very little (and it shows)
but want to start doing more.  The only thing that I sometimes try to do is
get people to play games without scoring so that they can think more about
what they're doing rather than getting into that trying too hard because
you're losing syndrome.

Here's a quick mini-review to start things rolling: I just bought a new
Carlton powerflo open racquet.  Haven't quite got used to it yet but I reckon
it's going to be even better than my previous racquet (a powerflo plus, which
I disintegrated on the floor in a fit of temper - I lose more racquets that
way...).  It has a nice feel and balance and can deliver a good bit of power.
Mind you, I'm not sure that the uneven string spacing is strictly legal (see
later) but I don't suppose anyone will notice at the level I play.  For anyone
else out there who is tough on racquets, I find the one piece ones are a bit
stronger! (usually).

I could go on but I think I better go back to work now.

(later)

Some time ago on this group I mentioned that I could make available the
rules of badminton.  I got a couple of responses and I typed the rules in but
then got held up trying to draw the diagrams, on reflection I suppose most of
us just have to play on the courts we get anyway so the diagrams are possibly
of limited use (except where they show service areas etc. but most of us know
these I guess??).  So anyway I have the rules in a plain ascii file.  The file
is ~22k I guess that's too much to post but I can mail it to anyone (I will do
it this time) the rules are for Scotland but they can't be very different
anywhere else.  If enough people are actually ineterested I will also finish
the postscript versions of the court layout/dimensions.

Is that enough for now?

Remember badminton players everywhere - the power comes from the forearm - not
the wrist,arm or shoulders.


Eddie