A Little Birdie Told Me: Talking About Equipment

The three kinds of rackets used by the Adelphi Badminton Club, as well
as their box of plastic practice birdies. (Photo by me)

While the Adelphi badminton team is preparing for its tournament against the College of William and Mary next weekend, it's a good time to roll out the first of a three-part series on this blog which will be discussing technical aspects of badminton. This post will be focus equipment, the next will discuss different strokes and the last will talk about differences in singles and doubles play and strategy.

The key equipment needed in badminton (as defined by the Olympic Movement) is as follows:
- court: the area of play, as defined by the outer boundary lines
- net: made of fine cord, dark in color and of even thickness, with a mesh.
- posts: used to hold the net in place
- racket: the instrument used by players to hit the shuttlecock
- shuttlecock (Olympic standard): a piece of cork covered in goat skin with 16 goose feathers attached to one end, made from natural or synthetic materials.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international governing body of badminton and is responsible for approving all equipment used in competition. All statistics and information used in this post are found in the Laws of Badminton, which can be downloaded from the BWF here. All measurements in the rules use the metric system, but these can be easily converted to feet and inches.

The Court

Diagram of a regulation badminton court, found in the Laws of Badminton, Section 1B.

A competition sized badminton court is a rectangle with boundary lines that measure 40 mm (approx. 1.57 inches) wide. From doubles sideline to doubles sideline, the court measures 6.1 meters (20 ft), while the singles court measures 5.18 meters (17 ft), as shown in the picture above. From endline to endline, the court is 13.4 meters long (44 ft).

The net is 1.55 meters (5 ft 1 inch) high at the edges and 1.524 meters (5 ft) high in the centre. The net posts, which hold the net in place, are always placed over the doubles sidelines.

The Racket

A diagram of a standard badminton racket, found
in Section 1B, Subsection 4.

According to BWF regulations, a badminton racket must not exceed 680 mm (26.77 inches) in length or 230 mm (9.055 inches) in width. 

Rackets comes in different weights. The weight of the racket is important, because it determines how fast the player can swing. A lighter racket is more maneuverable than a heavy one.

The Adelphi team uses three different kinds of rackets for players who choose not to use their own personal racket. Each racket differs in weight, string tension and maneuverability.

The Shuttlecock

A regulation badminton shuttlecock, known informally as the 'birdie,' can be made from synthetic or natural materials. 

Typical feather shuttlecocks.
(Photo credit: Chris Eason via Flickr)

The feathered shuttle is required to have 16 feathers fixed at the base with "thread or other suitable material." These feathers should "have a uniform length between 62 mm to 70 mm" (2.44 to 2.76 inches) and shall "lie on circle with a diameter of 58 mm to 68 mm" (2.28 to 2.68 inches).

Below is a pretty cool video from RSL, a professional badminton equipment supplier founded in England in 1928, that shows how they make their feather birdies. For more information on RSL and their badminton equipment, visit their official site.