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Welcome badminton fans, to the Jump Smash Badminton Blog - your source of quality badminton articles and latest news! Enjoy! :)




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Monday 27 July 2009

Arcsaber Z Slash?




The upcoming addition to the Arcasber range, the Arcsaber 'Z Slash' has been covered it some mystery, as Yonex have tried to stay quiet about revealing any specific details about their latest racquet. Entering the Yonex Japan website and clicking on the 'Z-Slash' promotional banner, will just display the teaser screen shown above. There is yet to be an official release date for this upcoming and although we know very little about it, it seems Yonex could have pulled somethingvery special right out the bag with this new racquet.

Sunday 26 July 2009

Win a Yonex bag signed by Lee Chong Wei!


Interested in winning a Yonex racquet bag signed by badminton's world no.1 player Lee Chong Wei? Its a genuine Yonex Tournament Active 6 racquet bag , signed by the world's best player and it's free to enter! Why not? :P

http://www.winningbadminton.com/YonexLogo.jpg

Simply visit the Yonex website:
http://www.yonex.co.uk/Badminton/Page.aspx?ID=197&Type=Comp

You'll just have to enter a few of your details and you're done!

While you're at it, there's also an option which allows you to order a free Yonex badminton brochure. I did - it's always handy to browse the latest badminton gear from the sports no.1 brand! (which badminton player hasn't heard of Yonex?)





Friday 24 July 2009

Gail Emms awarded MBE in Queen's Honours

https://beijing.100percentme.co.uk/assets/Image/ambassadors/gailEmms/gailEmms-3.jpg

In my opinion, badminton is a very undervalued and under-rated sport and therefore badminton players' achievements are not fully recognized. Not everyone can name the badminton singles final champion in the Beijing Olympics. But at least the Queen it seems, shows some recognition for the great achievers in badminton.


Taken from the BBC Sport website:

Badminton star Emms, who retired from the sport following the Beijing Olympics, has also received her MBE for services to her sport.

She won Olympic silver in 2004 with Nathan Robertson in the mixed doubles, and bronze, silver and gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

She said: "This award isn't about me, it's about all the coaches and support staff who have been behind my success."



It's definitely refreshing to see a badminton player being awarded such a high honour and lets hope that many other badminton greats in the future can achieve such accolades! :D

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Badminton v Tennis

http://arsandy.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/7-yonex-badminton.jpghttp://www.ballgownsdirect.co.uk/Stuart/Wilson/federerjuniorkit.jpg

If you have read my earlier article (or have some knowledge of the sporting world in general), you will know that tennis is arguably a far more popular sport than badminton. However, this doesn't mean it is a better sport. Here are several factors which make badminton a much more exciting, skillful and unique game than tennis:

1. In tennis, the ball may bounce once before the player hits it; in badminton, the rally ends once the shuttlecock touches the floor.
  • Tennis players have the luxury of the tennis ball being allowed to bounce once before they hit it. This gives tennis players more time to make thir return hit. The rally in badminton ends as asoon as the shuttle hits the floor. As a result, badminton players have to be quicker in their feet so that they can retrieve the shuttle. Also, badminton players must have a good sense of court awareness, because they have to judge whether to shuttle is going to land in or outside the court.
http://www.brentwoodbadmintonclub.co.uk/shuttlecock2.jpg

2. In tennis, the serve is dominant to the extent that the server is expected to win most of his service games; a break of service, where the server loses the game, is of major importance in a match. In badminton, however, the serving side and receiving side have approximately equal opportunity to win the rally.

  • In tennis, if you serve, you have a bigger chance of winning the rally than your opponent. But in badminton, the serve is important, but the serve doesn't grant you a considerably larger chance of winning the rally compared to your opponent. This factor makes badminton a much more interesting and exciting game to watch, because it is much more unpredictable than tennis. If a tennis player serves in that rally, you assume that he or she is going to win that point, so the outcome isnt a surprise. On the other hand in badminton, the rallies are much more absorbing, because both players have a decent chance of winning the point and the result is more unexpected than in tennis.
http://www.tennisrackets.tv/wp-content/uploads/Image/tennisrackets/2008/tennis-serve1.jpg

3. In tennis, the server is allowed two attempts to make a correct serve; in badminton, the server is allowed only one attempt.

  • Again, tennis players have another luxury; the serve. In tennis, if you make a mistake on the first serve, you are handed a second serve. But there is no such safetly cushion in badminton. If you serve out or hit the shuttle into the net, that is one valuable point lost. Therefore badminton players have to be more skillful, accurate and deceptive with their serves.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42370000/jpg/_42370156_badminton_416.jpg

4. The fastest recorded tennis stroke is Andy Roddick's 153 mph (246 km/h) serve; the fastest recorded badminton stroke is Fu Haifeng's 206 mph (332 km/h) smash.

  • I believe that this factor makes badminton a more dynamic sport than tennis. The shuttle moves faster, and therefore badminton players have to have faster reaction times and also quicker footwork. I think it makes badminton a much more exciting and intense sport to watch - especially in doubles - where jump smashes are shot around the court like bullets. Evidence of this can even be seen on various Youtube videos. Search around for badminton doubles matches and see for yourself!
http://images.usatoday.com/sports/_photos/2006/08/28/roddick.jpg http://www.badmintongsfkruibeke.be/images/CaiFu001.jpg


I think that badminton is much more a skill based sport, while tennis requires more strength. A badminton shuttle is lighter than a tennis ball, so it takes less strength to hit it. Furthermore, it requires great skill and practice to be able to hit the shuttle in the desired location and with sufficient speed and deception. I have played tennis in the past, but I found that I couldn't match the strength of my opponents. Therefore, they forced weak returns out of me and was unable to win many points. However, once I tried my luck at badminton, I found a lot more success. Badminton required more agility, speed and skill - footwork plays a big part in badminton, just ask any coach! These traits were more suited to my abilities and it has become an important part of my life. This article is not here to demote tennis. It is just to prove that badminton has its own unique qualities. I am not a hater of tennis, I do enjoy watching and playing it, (when the weather is right!) but I believe that badminton is a much undervalued and misunderstood sport, and this should be seen as a tribute to badminton!

Badminton's Struggle For Popularity and Power

http://www.h4x3d.com/feat/themes/tennis.jpg http://www.topnews.in/sports/files/badminton.jpg

In many parts of the world, especially Europe and America, tennis is a more popular sport than badminton. But in some parts of Asia, badminton could be considered as the more dominant sport of the two. However, tennis is widely recognised as more popular than badminton. If you were to ask a person on the high street to name a tennis player, anyone at all, they probably could. Nearly everyone knows Roger Federer don't they? They could probably name a few; Roddick, Murray, Sharapova, the Williams Sisters....ect - many are household names. But if you were to ask a person on the high street to name a badminton player, they would probably be unable to answer. Out of your friends, who knows Lin Dan or Lee Chong Wei? Not even the world no.1 is a household name -at least not in most parts of the world. National tennis players are celebrities or even heroes in their own countries. I doubt badminton players will get the same level of reception

http://www.tennisrackets.tv/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/tennis-racquet.jpg http://janeheller.mlblogs.com/badminton_hitting.jpg

It's not just popularity where badminton falls behind the mighty sport of tennis. The amount of professional players in tennis far exceed those of who make a living out of badminton. The considerably smaller audience in badminton means that less money is funded into the sport and only a select few from a single country are likely to turn professional. Recently a Scotland No.1 ranked player complained that he had to fund his trips to several international badminton tournaments out of his own pocket, because the Badminton Scotland has withdrawn his funding - and he is the best badminton player in his country. You wouldn't see Andy Murray being told that he had to put his hand into his own pocket to travel to various grandslam tournaments.

http://paulandjenn.net/badminton.jpg http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41852000/jpg/_41852052_longdoub_getty416.jpg


An era where badminton becomes a major, mainstream sport seems far out of sight for the time being. Sponsorship in tennis is widespread, with companies like Wilson, Prince, Head, Babolat, Slazenger and Dunlop all wanting their slice of market share. In contrast, Yonex dominates the badminton market and its firm grip on tournament sponsorships and market share look to continue. Badminton tournaments aren't headline news either. News coverage of badminton events are minimal, if at all and live coverage of badminton events on television are scarce. Meanwhile tennis events such as Wimbledon is big news on the back pages of many national newspapers and practically every round is shown on national television - at least in the UK anyway. It remains for now, that tennis is is probably a more popular sport in terms of the amount of people playing it and also the amount of money pumped into the sport comapared to badminton. The total prize money for Wimbledon is £12.5 million, whereas the the total prize money for most badminton grand slam tournaments is £100,000 - thats 1% of the amount of prize money compared to tennis.

http://www.winningbadminton.com/YonexLogo.jpg

However, there have been improvements in the awareness of badminton in recent years. The stereotypical image of badminton being a garden sport is changing. If several companies were to successfully attempt to dethrone Yonex as the king of badminton manufacturers or at least attempt to give them a run for their money, more money could circulate into the sport. If a company were to mass market badminton and advertise it to a national audience, it may attract popularity and gain increased exposure. But again, at this moment in time, this remains a big "if".