Grassroots
The fastest racquet sport in the world has more than 3.5 million occasional players in the UK – and the figure is growing each year
SMASHING IT! AMANDA ELLISON, SPEED COMMUNICATIONS B
adminton – the art of rallying a shuttlecock to and fro across a net – is one of the world’s oldest sports and thought to have originated in ancient
Egypt. Variations of the game have since been recorded dating back to 5th century China but it wasn’t recognised on English shores until the 1860s, when British army officers stationed in Poona, India, brought the game back to Badminton House in Gloucestershire. The Duke of Beaufort hosted a lawn
party and the game of badminton was born. The Badminton Association of England (BAofE) was formed in 1893. Badminton is still one of the country's most popular ‘garden pursuits', although it's debatable whether that helps or hinders the image of the sport.
SPEEDY SHUTTLECOCKS Badminton is the fastest racquet sport in the world. Clocking a top smash speed of 206mph, it quite literally smacks squash (172mph) and tennis (164mph) out of the park. It's also the most widely played racquet sport, with 3.5 million occasional players in the UK, 615,000 weekly players and more than 1 million regular monthly players – and the numbers are rising. Badminton is a steadily growing sport, and since 2009-10, the number of adults, aged 16+ playing weekly has risen by 26,500. In 2014, Badminton England reported an increase of 66,500 in the 14-25 age group, particularly among women.
GENDER DIVIDE One of the biggest advantages of badminton is that it is gender neutral.
From a young age, boys and girls play alongside each other and our most celebrated badminton heroes, Gail Ems and Nathan Robertson, stood side by side when claiming their silver medals in Athens 2004. Thirtyseven per cent of weekly players are female, rising to 41 per cent on a monthly basis. For 14 to 15-year- olds the female numbers are slightly higher, with 44 per cent of weekly players and 47 per cent monthly. Badminton is the fifth most popular individual or team sport for women (after swimming, cycling, athletics and equestrian) and those who do play are upping their game, with 44 per cent of female badminton players doing more activity this year. In a climate where the pressure is on NGBs to get more women physically active, it seems badminton is in a very strong place.
PICK UP A RACQUET Badminton England is committed to increasing grassroots participation, with a whole sport plan for 2013-17 which includes programmes designed to attract and grow the game at all levels. The National School Championships
Badminton is popular among girls - 47 per cent of young players in the UK are female 54
currently attracts more than 30,000 participants across 1,600 schools and in total badminton is offered at more
sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 4 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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