Among a multitude of different sports in three sports seasons throughout the school year, there are always some that take the spotlight and others that are more underrated and operate almost anonymously.
One case in point: badminton. The bleachers at badminton games are typically empty, save for a few parents coming to cheer their kids on.
Badminton is a co-ed sport, meaning that there are both boys and girls on the team together, something that is different from a lot of other sports like basketball, volleyball or tennis, which split boys and girls into separate teams. There’s a total of 56 players on the team this year — one of the largest sports teams on campus.
If you ever go to a badminton game, the person you’re rooting for will most likely only play for less than an hour. The entire tournament takes a couple hours, since there are as many as 30 games that need to be played with a limited number of courts. Each game has at least two matches that are played within it, and the winner of that individual game is determined on a best out of three matches format.
If you are only planning to go watch the games for one of your friends, you probably won’t stay for the whole afternoon, let alone drive all the way to a different school when it’s not a home game to watch.
Badminton is incredibly fast-paced and fun to watch, and you won’t be able to tear your eyes away from the birdie flying back and forth at incredible speeds, with some highly skilled players hitting it more than 200 mph and average speeds coming in around 150 mph.
It also takes a lot of agility and skilled footwork to play the sport, as well as hand-eye coordination to be able to smash down on the birdie at the correct moment. Strategic thinking is needed as well, as players have to make quick decisions as to where to hit the bird or communicate with their partners in doubles.
With multiple different games going on at the same time in the gym, you can choose if you want to watch a doubles or a singles game, and within those if you want it to be girls, boys or mixed. There are a ton of options for you to choose what you want to watch, all in the span of a few hours as well.
Despite not being commonly considered as appealing as other sports that garner large crowds, badminton has a lot of excitement and fast-paced action that once people see for the first time will fall in love with. So if you have some time, come watch a home game once or twice. You won’t be disappointed.
