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    Badminton
    Badminton
    Badminton
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    Badminton

    By George Thomas

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    About this ebook

    “Badminton” is a vintage guide to the game of badminton written by Sir George Thomas, All England Champion 1921, 1922, and 1923. It has chapters on everything from preliminary practice and exercises to mastering advanced techniques, as well as information on history and rules; making this volume perfect for those looking for an introduction to the sport. Contents include: “History of the Game”, “General Principles of Stroke Play”, “Individual Strokes”, “Service and Return of Service”, “Singles”, “Doubles”, and “The Laws of Badminton”. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on the history of the badminton.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9781473356948
    Badminton
    Author

    George Thomas

    George Thomas was born in 1922, in the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.Called into the armed services when Japan started the war in the East, he was caught in the mountains of the island of Java and consequently interned in Japanese concentration camps for four years. He ended up working on the railway the Japanese were building through the island of Sumatra from Pakanbaru. This until the end of the war.After the war he went back to Holland and received an interest free loan from the Government, enrolled in the Academy of Arts and started studies in Interior Architecture and Design, a five year full time course.The fourth year, being a practical year, was completed in Sweden.Whilst in Sweden he was offered a scholarship to finish his studies in the final year of the Swedish Design Institution in Gothenburg, which led to his first job at the age of 26.He then married, started a family with the birth of a son and migrated to Australia in 1964 where 2 more sons were born into the family.He soon had a job designing school furniture for the New South Wales Department of Education, which he held until he retired.After retirement, he settled in Dunbogan New South Wales until moving into a retirement village at Avalon Beach at the age of 89, where he completed this book.

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      Book preview

      Badminton - George Thomas

      ONE

      HISTORY OF THE GAME

      TO a rainy day, and a house-party seeking some new diversion, belongs the honour of evolving Badminton from the ancient child’s pastime of battledore and shuttlecock. One of the party (whose name unfortunately remains shrouded in obscurity), struck by a bright idea, stretched a cord across the hall, commandeered the children’s toys—and Badminton, in its most primitive form, came into being. So much did it prove to the taste of the party that it became an established amusement of that particular house and so derived its name—from Badminton, the famous country seat in Gloucestershire. That at any rate is generally believed to be the origin of the game; and the date some sixty-five to seventy years ago.

      From this starting-point the game, though as yet without any very definite rules, found its way to other places—among them India. And there the first attempts to frame a regular code were made. These were printed in 1877 at Karachi, where it is known the game had already been played for half a dozen years or so; though for lack of anything in the nature of a governing body, such a code could have only local authority. It became, however, the basis of the rules adopted when an Association was eventually formed, and was responsible for a very peculiar feature which survived for many years. The hall in which the game was played at Karachi was not much wider than the court itself, and had doors opening inwards at the centre. To allow for these, the side-lines were bent inwards between the short service-lines and the net, the width at the net being thus several feet less than that of the greater part of the court. This curious formation—known as the ‘hour-glass’ court—became an integral point of the game, and was not abolished until 1901.

      While India certainly played the chief part in the early development of the game, it had already gained a footing in other quarters of the globe. The New York club, for example, celebrated its jubilee several years ago. But the dimensions of the court were a matter of local convenience, and varied greatly. Every sort of implement, too, was used. Vellum-covered rackets held the field in India for many years; and I remember, as a small boy, seeing the game played in a large room in our house in Constantinople with tennis rackets and enormous shuttlecocks at least four times the bulk of the present-day article.

      Uniformity in essentials became practical politics in 1893, with the formation in England of the Badminton Association. The prime movers were players returned from India, which explains the adoption of the ‘hour-glass’ court; but from that date England took, and has ever since held, the lead in the development of the game. At its inception, the Association comprised only about a dozen clubs; and progress for the first few years was slow. The All England Championships were not instituted until 1899, and the first meeting was a very small affair, played through in one day! But it certainly gave the game a considerable fillip, and from that date headway was made much more rapidly. The Irish Badminton Union was the next important organization to come into being, and started its own championships in 1902, Scotland following suit in 1907. During the previous year or two there had been a marked development of tournament play throughout England, many of the most important tournaments in the country dating from that period.

      The annual matches between England and Ireland were started in 1903. Scotland entered the arena in 1910—when its series of matches against Ireland was initiated—but did not play England until 1922. Wales started against Ireland and Scotland in 1929, and against England in 1932, so there is now a complete list of annual fixtures between the four home countries.

      Very important events in the International development of the game were the visits of a team from England to Canada in 1925 and 1930. The game has to-day a tremendous following in Canada, which seems likely to provide the strongest opposition to our home players during the next few years. There is also a very large and flourishing Association in Australia. Nearer home, Denmark and Holland have taken up the game very keenly, and other continental nations show signs of following suit, though the movement there is still in its infancy.

      Few people not directly concerned realize the extent to which Badminton is played at home to-day. In England alone there are nearly a thousand affiliated clubs, and six hundred in Ireland, Scotland and Wales; in addition, there are a legion of small clubs not yet affiliated.

      An International Federation has been formed which comprises Canada, Denmark, England, France, Holland, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.

      CHAPTER TWO

      GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF STROKE PLAY

      [Note.—In this and the chapter on individual strokes I deal with the actions of a right-handed player. In the case of a left-handed player, the position of the feet, and so forth, must of course be reversed.]

      BEFORE considering in detail the various strokes at a player’s command, it is as well to point out certain general principles which should govern all his actions. These principles should be kept continually in mind when particular strokes are being considered in the next chapter. It is true that they have a more important bearing on some strokes—those especially which require a good deal of force for their proper execution—than on others. But they are of value all the time; fundamentals without which no

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