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We at BadmintonBites obviously think badminton is the best sport out there – that’s why we made this website! But how about you and your friends? Need a little more convincing? It seems pretty obvious to us…but it’s understandable if you couldn’t quite put your finger on why you keep coming back to badminton. Let’s get to it!
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1. Inclusive – Great for All Ages and Friendly to Disabilities
Badminton is one of the few sports that is great for all ages since it is a non-contact sport and has very light equipment. This makes it easy to pick up a racket and birdie and just start playing! (Don’t mistake this easy-to-get-started property of badminton as being easy-to-master though, since it certainly isn’t). Since badminton is a non-contact sport, you don’t have to worry about players tackling or pushing each other. This makes badminton ideal for a family activity or a social gathering among friends, even with minimal knowledge of what badminton even is. Just make sure to warm up and avoid/prevent common badminton injuries! Oh, and also please don’t run into each other on court or even worse – walking on other people’s courts, that’s a big no-no.
What’s even more impressive is that badminton is also inclusive of disabled people. In fact, BWF (Badminton World Federation) even has a dedicated league called para-badminton that features athletes with disabilities. There are several different categories depending on the player’s capabilities such as if they require a wheelchair or not. If you are or know someone who is disabled and is looking for an amazing sport to join, badminton is perfect! For inspiration, just check out these amazing para-badminton players.
2. Fast Paced and Intense
Badminton is the fastest racket sport in the world. Faster than ping pong, faster than tennis, and faster than squash. In fact, it’s even faster than golf (the ball speed, not just the gameplay!). This makes badminton not only exciting to play, but also incredibly exciting to watch. It keeps players engaged with the game because everyone on court needs to stay aware and ready for the next shot.
The fast pace of badminton is complemented with a high intensity, which we define as the percent of time played in a rally (rather than when you’re at rest in-between points). In other words, the gameplay time percentage. To give you a benchmark as to how badminton compares with tennis, a study called A Comparison of Heart Rate Responses in Racquet Games by Dr. Docherty found that tennis players were in rallies for 5 minutes of every 30 minutes of gameplay while badminton players were in rallies for 10 minutes of ever 30 minutes of gameplay – twice as long!
The fast pace and high intensity of badminton alone keep players craving for more. There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush you get from blocking blazing fast smashes or attacking with a flurry of rapid drives. Try it out and you might just get addicted (in a good way!). Check out this compilation of the fastest badminton smashes to get you pumped!
3. Healthy and Effective for Weight Loss
Badminton, perhaps contrary to popular belief, is a great sport to keep you healthy and fit and will even help you lose weight. It is intense, burns fat, and builds muscle through its constant engagement of your aerobic and anaerobic systems. Badminton is approximately 60-70% aerobic and 30-40% anaerobic, giving you the benefits of both. The benefits of aerobic exercises include increased stamina, a strengthened heart, and even a longer life. Anaerobic exercises on the other hand help strengthen bones, burn fat, build muscle, and maintain muscle mass. You get the best of both worlds!
If you’re looking to lose weight, badminton is a fun and effective choice. We did some calculations, and we found that you could easily lose 10 pounds in a year just by playing 3 hours a week at a medium intensity! That’s pretty much just a single session a week, and it won’t even feel like a chore. Just imagine how much weight you can lose if you played more. Oh wait, we calculated that out for you already. The catch though? You can only eat back half the calories that you burned (in addition to your normal calorie needs). That’s the hard part – the eating. We can certainly sympathize because we love to eat, but sacrifices must be made and we know you can do it. You got it!
4. Great Way to Meet People
Badminton brings people together as it is a highly interactive activity with a passionate community behind it. Players tend to attend badminton sessions frequently as part of their weekly schedules and you’ll likely become good friends with many of the players. We at BadmintonBites certainly have – in fact, we probably met most of our best friends through badminton!
It goes without saying that players you meet will have at least a common interest in badminton with you and you can often take the time in-between games to get to know players better or ask for tips and tricks to help improve your own gameplay. Furthermore, players love to eat together (but be careful not to over eat if you’re looking to lose weight!) after an intense session of badminton which makes for another great opportunity to connect more with people. Who knows, perhaps you’ll find great job connections, life-long friends, a significant other, or all of the above – we’ve certainly seen them all.
5. Dynamic
Badminton is an incredibly rich and dynamic sport that will always make you want to come back for more. Every situation on court, while usually familiar to an experienced player, has tiny differences which can make or break a point. Even professional badminton players who have trained their whole lives rarely play rallies that are the same. This makes it so players usually end up thinking on their toes at critical moments rather than going by a script, making for a fun and unique experience every time.
Moreover, badminton play styles span a wide range, making for lots of variety when you play against different players. Perhaps the reason why this is the case is because badminton frequently gives players many viable options for them to choose from in most situations. Just take the following as an example when someone lifts to you.
Should you smash towards the line or to the center? Or maybe do a drop instead? Or should you push your opponent to the back of the court and follow up to the front of the court?
The options are endless, which really encourages players to make their own style. We put together a sample of what type of shots are in badminton, but it really is just the tip of the iceberg. Every basic shot can have its own spin (perhaps literally!) to it and you can make it your own. That’s the beauty of badminton, you create your own style, your own strategies, and ultimately, your own player.
6. Many Skill Levels
Badminton has many, many, MANY skill levels to it. And by that, I mean that there is pretty much always a way to improve your gameplay – whether it be physically or technically. And there will always be better players for you to challenge and learn from, unless you’re perhaps one of the Greatest Badminton Players of All Time.
Just take a moment and think about all the players that you’ve played with. You can put each player into different tiers – or rankings – dependent on overall skill level, physical ability, and game sense. A tier list if you will. You would pretty much have an A tier, B tier, C tier, etc until you have enough to successfully categorize each person, with a certain tier containing players that are around the same level.
At this point, you probably already have a good number of tiers. Now, expand that to the players of the whole world. That’s a lot of tiers! Absolute beginners, casual players, players in training, state level players, national level players, international level players, the top international players, and of course the legends of badminton. These aren’t even finely tuned tiers – they can be broken down even more if you wanted to! Even among the pros, you’ll see massive differences in score lines if they are on different levels. Just look at how easy it is for a top 10 player in the world to dismantle a top 100 level player. Obviously, they’re both quite good at badminton, but the top 10 player is really at a different level.
This whole talk about badminton levels shouldn’t scare you away from playing badminton, but rather to get you excited about playing badminton. There’s so much room for improvement and seeing yourself continually get better throughout your badminton journey is so rewarding and fun. It’s something to look forward to and something to be proud of. The feeling of learning a new skill, improving your game sense, or even simply just hitting harder is one that will get you pumped up and wanting to improve even more.
7. Unique Play Styles
Every single person’s badminton play style is unique. While play styles may be similar and broadly categorized into something like “control”, “attack”, or “defense” oriented, players ultimately make up their own unique overall play style. This wide variety makes for interesting and fresh gameplay as you play badminton each time. Moreover, play styles don’t stay the same, but rather evolve over time, adding even more variety in the gameplay.
Although everyone ends up learning the same basic fundamental shots, each person does not end up playing like anyone else – why is that? The answer is not as simple as just “player A hits harder than player B, therefore they’re different”, but rather lies among the many aspects of badminton. In order to understand it a bit better, you can dissect badminton into many different layers. Some basic layers would be physical abilities, footwork, shot execution, shot toolkit (what shots you know how to do), and game sense. There really can be as many layers as you can care to think of, but you can use this as a basic structure to help you think a bit differently about badminton.
The development of every layer in badminton helps build your own unique play style. What you end up working on in each layer and what you prioritize ultimately makes you the player you will become. You may focus on lots of lower body strength to jump higher and learn how to smash really steeply or you may run a lot to increase your endurance. It truly is the ultimate “build-your-own-player” experience and the possibilities are endless.
To further our layers model, the layers that you can work on are not completely independent from each other. The aspects of badminton crossover between the different layers that further differentiate our own play styles from others. For example, if you were to strengthen your legs (i.e. physical ability) through something like squats, you may end up increasing your capability for better footwork or increase your capability for potential shot execution as you can now move into position easier. The interplay between the layers ends up further increases the possibilities of our play styles and makes badminton that much more interesting.
Lastly, your playing equipment can influence and complement your play style since equipment is typically designed with a specific purpose in mind. Take Yonex rackets for example – each series is catered to certain play styles.
We also recommend learning about other badminton equipment, which you can view in our Badminton Equipments page.
8. Fun!
Last, but certainly not least, badminton is fun, fun, fun! The social, technical, and strategic aspects of badminton make it so there’s something for each player to love even if players have very different styles and interests. It’s a game where you learn something new every time you play it and gives you an experience like no other.
Perhaps one of the most compelling and entertaining reasons why players around the world keep coming back to play badminton is because of the spectacular moments in badminton. These are the unpredictable moments where a player pulls off a crazy trick shot or an amazing save. You won’t know when or how these moments will happen but when they do, you’ll remember them forever. This is badminton at its best and is certainly the thing that makes us crave for more. Just check out some of these amazing rallies and crazy saves and you’ll know what we mean!
The combination of all of the above attributes of badminton make it our go to sport. It is social, it is deep, it is dynamic, it is healthy, and most of all it’s fun. We hope we convinced you about why badminton is the best sport out there – and if not, go watch the above videos again! Now go play!
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I love how this article talked about inclusivity and that Badminton is great for all ages and also friendly to Disabilities. This convinced me to try out badminton with my friends.