The real badminton has nothing to do with the delicate swings and volleys of backyard fun. A club at USF plays it fast, furious and even a little dangerous.
By EMILY NIPPS, Times Staff Writer
Published July 15, 2005
UNIVERSITY AREA - Members of the badminton club at the University of South Florida have gotten used to the smirks and the raised eyebrows, the occasional jock who wants to barge in and challenge them on the courts.
Sometimes, a couple of college guys will walk into the campus' rec center gym and begin a rowdy game of one-on-one basketball, oblivious to the delicate strategy they've just disturbed nearby.
"It's not only the sound that bothers us," 19-year-old Sunita Goel said. "Sometimes we'll get their ball rolling over into our court, and that can be dangerous. We have to tell them to leave."
More often than not, though, the USF Badminton Club welcomes curious gymgoers to take one of their feather-light rackets and join them on one of the three courts they occupy on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
It's not as easy, as simple or as dainty as people think.
"I think some people, mainly Americans, played it when they were younger in their back garden or on holiday," said club president and USF grad student Chris Mann, who is from England. "There's a lot of misunderstanding about badminton."
Most Americans haven't seen the violently sharp smashes, the cunning backhand flicks and the exhaustingly long rallies in Olympic badminton events, which rarely air in this country. They haven't seen the twists, the dives, the drama and the speed. Olympic shuttlecocks have been clocked at up to 200 mph, faster than the speed of most NASCAR drivers.
Most Americans didn't watch last year's Olympic men's singles final in Athens, when unseeded Indonesian Taufik Hidayat upset seventh-seeded Shon Seung-mo of South Korea, 15-8, 15-7. The 23-year-old Hidayat, spurred by a large and raucous Indonesian crowd, smashed the ball at Shon's feet on match point. He doubled over and buried his face in his hands, and he didn't stop sobbing until after the medal ceremony.
Granted, the competition among the 30 or so active members of USF's badminton club isn't quite so intense. But it's no backyard barbecue game either.
Most of USF's players are from China, England or India, but a handful of Americans show up faithfully every week. Some players take their game on the road to get better competition, which is tough to find in Florida.
Goel, who has played since she was 7 years old and living in Saudi Arabia, recently won gold medals in the juniors singles and open mixed doubles at the Florida Sunshine State Games in Tamarac (near Fort Lauderdale). She also won gold in the juniors mixed doubles, which she competed in with her 20-year-old brother, Soney. Her parents, Ram and Asha, won gold medals in the 50-and-older mixed doubles.
"It's nice because we have four people who can always play together," said Ram Goel, who is a facility director at USF. "We come early (to club practices) and make our own competition."
Like others in the club, the Goels were thrilled to learn there was somewhere nearby that would allow them to congregate with other badminton enthusiasts, and it wasn't too far from their New Tampa home. Brandon resident Paul Stran, one of the original members of the 15-year-old club, drives a little further.
"I used to have to go to Bradenton to play," the 51-year-old property manager said. "You kind of have to seek out badminton in this area."
It's worth it for Stran, who prefers the lighter racket and the shorter breaks in the action as compared to tennis. There's also this:
"When I played tennis, I was spending more time chasing after the ball than playing," he said. "With badminton, the birdie drops right in front of you. You just pick it up and get right back in the action."
Of course, this isn't to say badminton is for the meek or the lazy. Any sport that involves an object flying 100 (or more) mph through the air can't be taken lightly, even if that object is made of paper-thin goose feathers.
"A lot of people think it's a wimpy sport because of the feathery shuttle and the cork end," Sunita Goel said.
Try telling that to Shon, Hidayat's opponent in last year's Olympic championship match, who had a cornea transplant as a teenager after his eye was crushed by a shuttlecock. Or to Choong Tan Fook, one of Malaysia's top doubles players who was struck and nearly blinded by a shuttle during practice in 1998.
Soney Goel once had to forfeit a tournament match after slipping on the court and dislocating his shoulder, and Sunita has gotten pegged by darting shuttles, which can be painful.
Hardcore badminton players might open a new can of shuttles, steam them in hot water and then freeze them to make them faster.
"We would do that in Saudi," Sunita Goel said, "but not here."
A real badminton enthusiast can take his or her love for the game to the extreme, visiting the 18-foot, 4,500-pound shuttlecock sculptures at a Kansas City museum or buying a tiny badminton set for Barbie. There are Internet discussion forums devoted to Danish doubles player Jonas Rasmussen and a video game called Super Naked Badminton that can be downloaded by online gamers.
Consider the members of the USF Badminton Club to be purists, because for them, it's all about playing the game. They know the rules, they follow a practice regimen and they appreciate the finer aspects of the game.
They show up at the USF rec center, toting their Yonex rackets and wearing their special shoes. They walk past the front desk, past the Stairmasters and the loud music, and set up their nets on the end of one of the reserved gyms.
And when they're done warming up, they concentrate on the basics: clean serves, well-placed drops and well-timed smashes. They seek out their opponents' weaknesses, mix up their footwork and attempt to control the tempo of the game.
Only the occasional broken string or snapped goose feather can halt their most intense games.
