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Badminton, called the world’s fastest racket sport, is played with rackets and shuttlecocks on a court divided by a net. Initially a form of recreation, it is now an Olympic sport with a professional tour. It is a major sport in most countries of northern Europe and southeast Asia, and virtually the national sport in Indonesia and several other countries. Denmark, Sweden, England, Holland, and Germany lead the European nations in their interest. The International Badminton Federation lists approximately 1.4 million as registered with national badminton associations around the world, although the actual number of people who play badminton is estimated at 10 times that figure.

History

Evidence of games similar to badminton appears as early as the 1st century B.C.E. in China,where Ti Jian Zi, or shuttlecock kicking,became popular.The game of Ti Jian Zi involved hitting a shuttlecock with one’s feet or hands, or occasionally with a bat. The game also was popular in Japan, India, and Siam, and spread to Sumeria and Greece.

In 14th-century England, the game of battledore shuttlecock, involving a racket or paddle and a shuttlecock, was widely played. Using no nets or boundaries, this was primarily a means of testing players’ skill in keeping the shuttlecock in play as long as possible. By the late 16th century it had become a popular children’s game, the object still being to hit the shuttlecock to each other, or to oneself, as long as possible.

During the 17th century, the game’s social status rose as it became a pastime for British royalty and the leisured classes. Early English settlers in America also enjoyed the game at this time. In the 1800s, the seventh Duke of Beaufort and his family were avid players at his Gloucester estate, called Badminton House. At this estate, a “new game”of badminton battledore, involving a net and boundaries, evolved; thus, the name “badminton.”

By 1867, a formal game of badminton was being played in India by English officers and their families, who developed the first rules. During the following three decades, badminton evolved into a competitive indoor sport, and clubs were formed throughout the British Isles.Beginning in the 1920s, badminton spread to northern Europe and North America and from India throughout the rest of Asia.By 1979 the game had become truly professional; in1985 it became an Olympic sport (with a 1992 debut in Barcelona), and was included in the Pan American Games in 1995. The International Badminton Federation, formed in 1934, governs all international badminton competition and has more than 125 member nations. A year-round international grand prix circuit worth $2 million a year in prize money currently attracts the top players to touring careers.

Rules and Play

Badminton differs from other racket sports in its use of a shuttlecock that must not touch the ground. These factors make badminton a fast game requiring quick reflexes and strong conditioning; top athletes have recorded smashes of over 320 kilometers (200 miles) per hour.

All officially sanctioned competition around the world is played indoors (recreational badminton is played outside as well).The badminton court measures 17 feet by 44 feet (5.2 meters by 13.4 meters) for singles play and 20 feet (6.1 meters) by 44 feet for doubles play.

Competitive badminton is played in five events: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.A badminton game consists of 15 points, except for women’s singles in which a game is 11 points. The best of three games constitutes a match. Points can be scored only by the serving side.

A typical rally in badminton singles consists of a serve and repeated high deep shots hit to the baseline (clears), interspersed with dropshots. If and when a short clear or other type of “set-up” is forced, a smash wins the point.More often than not, an error (where the shuttlecock is hit out-of-bounds or into the net) brings an end to a rally rather than a positive winning play.A patient player who commits few or no errors often wins by simply waiting for the opponent to err. In doubles, there are fewer clears and more low serves, drives, and net play.Again, the smash often ends the point.

The traditional feathered shuttlecock is used in all major badminton competitions. The badminton net stands 5 feet (1.524 meters) high at the center of the court and 5 feet, 1 inch (1.550 meters) at each end post. Badminton rackets, made of wood until the 1950s, today are made of various blends of carbon, boron, aluminum, and steel, are very light, and can be strung very tightly with natural gut or synthetic string.

Major Events and Players

Major international badminton competitions include the Olympic Games, the Thomas Cup and the Uber Cup, the World Badminton Championships, and the Sudirman Cup. The World Badminton Championships were initiated in 1977 to provide individual championships that would complement other competitions. The World Championships are currently held every odd-numbered year. The Sudirman Cup is the World Mixed Team Championship, instituted in 1989. The record-holder for most individual world badminton titles and World Championships titles [1977–present]) is the legendary U.S. player Judy Devlin Hashman, with 17. By nation, players from Denmark have won more individual world titles (77) than any other country. Indonesia holds the most men’s team world titles (9), and China and Japan are tied for the most women’s team world titles (5).Currently, Indonesian players dominate international competition. China is also near the top in international badminton competition. Chinese players captured four medals at the 1996 Olympics; South Korea and Malaysia took four and two, respectively. Badminton’s diversity—as an uncomplicated and lively backyard game to a multimillion-dollar professional sport—suggests that it is likely to remain popular at several levels. Although growing more visible, it has yet to achieve the status or cachet of tennis, and whether it will ever do so remains an open question.

Aerobics is a system of exercises designed to promote the supply and use of oxygen in the body. These exercises include biking, running, dancing, rowing, skating, and walking (the term “aerobic”means “with oxygen,” or “living and working with oxygen”). The system originated and remains primarily a fitness activity, but has also developed into an intense competitive sport: “the toughest two minutes in sport.” Aerobic exercise increases cardiorespiratory fitness, the heart’s ability to pump blood and deliver oxygen throughout the body. The result is increased endurance, energy, weight control, and ability to manage stress, and decreased blood pressure, heart disease, and cholesterol levels.

History
The word “aerobics” is relatively new to sport and exercise. In 1968,Dr.Kenneth Cooper, a U.S.Air Force physician, published a book, Aerobics, based on his research on coronary artery disease. Cooper developed his aerobics exercise program as preventive medicine, to improve health and fitness.Aerobics developed a prescription for exercise. The book identified the quantity, kind, and frequency of desirable exercise. Cooper’s books have been translated into many languages, reflecting his belief that aerobics, exercise, and preventive medicine are universal. The Congress of International Military Sports adopted Cooper’s aerobics program for the countries of Sweden, Austria, Finland, Korea, and Brazil as well as the United States. The aerobics program spread to civilian populations worldwide. In Brazil, runners ask “Have you done your Cooper today?”when they want to know if you’ve run or jogged.

The same year that Cooper published Aerobics, Judy Sheppard Missett began an aerobic exercise program called “Jazzercise,” a highly choreographed group of exercises
set to music. The program incorporated muscle group work with new dance trends. In 1969, Jackie Sorenson started “Aerobic Dance,” also a choreographed set of dance patterns set to music intended to increase cardiovascular fitness. By the early 1970s, aerobics, aerobic dance, and dance exercise were used interchangeably to describe the combination of exercise and dance movements set to music.Most early participants were women.

In the late 1970s, the name “aerobic dancing” was shortened to “aerobics” to attract more men. Coeducational classes were offered, and the aerobics boom followed, soon becoming international. Aerobics classes were held in churches, community centers, schools,
and health clubs. Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons contributed to the tremendous growth of aerobics.U.S. instructors began to train new instructors in other countries. In the United States in 1978 an estimated 6 million people participated in aerobics, rising to 19 million by 1982, and 22 million in 1987. Forty-five percent of the aerobics participants were women aged
30–50 who used aerobics as their sole form of exercise. Ten percent of the participants were instructors. Today more than 25 million people participate in the aerobics industry and virtually every community offers aerobics classes. Televised aerobic dance classes are frequent, and aerobics videos are readily available. The social support and reinforcement of the group exercise situation also help account for its popularity.

Training and educational organizations emerged to guide this fast-growing industry, develop safe and effective programs, and promote aerobics internationally. In the United States, the International Dance Exercise Association (IDEA) and the Aerobic and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) developed into two of the largest in the world. In 1990 IDEA had over 23,000 instructor members in over 70 countries.

Rules and Play

Cooper’s original exercise plan has diversified in both content and style while retaining its original purpose. As a fitness activity, a well-designed aerobic dance class consists of five segments: the warm-up or prestretch (10 minutes), the aerobic segment (20–45 minutes), cool down (5–10 minutes), strength work (10–20 minutes), and the final stretch (5–10 minutes). The rhythmic movements also help to develop balance and coordination. Aerobic activity began as “high impact,”with both feet off the floor at any given time, characterized by running or jogging in place, jumping jacks, and small jumps or hops. This placed tremendous stress on the joints, and many participants developed impact-related injuries. Thus, “low impact” aerobics was developed: one foot is always on the floor; the routines are characterized by marching in place and traveling from one side of the room to the other. Next came variable impact aerobics, which combines the intensity of high impact moves with the safety of the low impact variety. Other types of aerobics include water aerobics, sculpting, strength, abdominal, sports conditioning, and circuit or interval classes. Step aerobics, developed by Gin Miller, took the aerobics industry by storm. This style involves stepping up and down from a platform 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) high while performing different step combinations.

Competition

Aerobics became a competitive sport in 1983, when Karen and Howard Schwartz created the National Aerobic Championship (NAC). Today its format and rules are the international standard for aerobic competition. In 1989, Howard Schwartz founded the International

Competitive Aerobics Federation (ICAF), which became the governing body of the sport and continues to develop new guidelines. The new sport’s growth has been impressive. The first World Aerobic Championship was held in 1990,with 16 countries represented. Thirty-five countries were represented in 1994. The World Aerobic Championships have been broadcast to over 150 nations each year since 1995.

Championship aerobics has been called the “toughest two minutes in sports.” It is a rigorous display of both compulsory and freestyle moves choreographed according to specific rules into a two-minute routine set to music. The performance showcases tremendous strength, flexibility, and endurance as well as creativity and dance. The eight categories of competition are: Novice Men’s Individual, Novice Women’s Individual, Masters DivisionM(over 35) men’s individual,Masters Division M women’s individual, Advanced Men’s Individual, Advanced Women’s Individual,Advanced Mixed Pair (male/female combination), and Advanced Teams (of three; any gender combination).

The novelty of aerobics has passed, and, arguably, its popularity has peaked. Nevertheless, as an activity that many people find a practical way to achieve fitness,

aerobics seems likely to retain its niche in the world of sports.

Acrobatics is the practice of performing physically unusual feats with one’s body. Principally the art of jumping, tumbling, and balancing, it often involves apparatus such as poles,one-wheel cycles, and flying trapezes. The somersault is the fundamental tumbling act of acrobatics. Acrobatics, with a long recorded history and many noted practitioners, has hovered on the fringes of dance and the theater and provided an aesthetic alternative to sport.

History

The history of acrobatics is the history of its constant marginalization—but also its constant presence. From the early Egyptians to the European Middle Ages, acrobatic feats (particularly somersaults) were an integral, if unofficial, element of funeral rites. Acrobatic stunts have always seemed morally as well as physically dangerous. The ambiguous status of acrobatics may derive from its forgotten symbolism.Whether walking a tightropeor performing a somersault, the acrobat is exposing himself to the possibility of serious injury and thus defying death. The acrobat who survives the danger to which he has willfully exposed himself embodies our belief that immortality is possible.

By definition, an acrobat is one who “walks [Greek bateo] on the extremity [Greek akra],” to mean on tiptoe, but that might also denote walking on one’s hands (ancient Greek statuettes depict acrobats doing so). Either way, an acrobat walks in an unnatural and inherently unbalanced manner.Subsequently, the term “acrobat” came to designate a gymnast who walked on ropes or otherwise performed while hanging from them.
“Acrobatics entered the modern languages only inthe limited sense of rope-walking. The subsequent popularity of the word and its extension to the range of physical activities traces largely to advances in the techniques and technology of rope gymnastics.The inventionof the flying trapeze (1859) and the exploits of Blondin and Farini, who in 1859 and 1860 walked on tightropes across the Niagara gorge, took acrobatics literally to new heights. The development of the great traveling circuses and the rise of the music hall gave acrobatics both a venue and a new respectability. Acrobatic feats were performed purely for spectacular and monetary purposes, offering the vicarious thrill of watching performers gratuitously risk their lives.

Acrobats and dancers performed on the same stage, and some acrobats rivaled dancers in celebrity, but acrobatics and dance were clearly distinct specialties.Acrobatics was also part of the commedia dell’arte, the traditional Italian theater that required actors to perform stunts viewed as more appropriate to the circus. But by the end of the 17th century the commedia dell’arte had been largely relegated to the fairground. In early modern times acrobatics was the prerogative of the Italians,who tended to valorize acrobatics by a combination of agility and equilibrium—the display of mind over matter. Later it came to be an Eastern European specialty characterized by exhibitions of greatstrength. The appearance in the West of the Peking (Beijing) Circus in the 1970s profoundly altered Western perceptions of acrobatics; the Chinese stress lightness more than strength. Chinese acrobats introduce humor into their acts, suggesting that acrobatics has become so institutionalized in Asiatic culture that there is nothing to fear.
Finally, the Cirque du Soleil (founded in the 1980s)added to acrobatics a new notion of a narrative based on elements drawn from the commedia dell’arte. The Cirque’s shows are not simply a string of acts ordered on principles of spectacle. Each act is part of a story; the flow is mimetic as well as rhetorical and aesthetic. The acrobatic spectacle involves the working out of human problems and relations as well as the increasing emotional thrill of witnessing the marvelous and the death-defying.

Rules and Play

Hovering as it does on the edge of sport, acrobatics has traditions more than rules, and the winners are those who best perform the most complex feats and survive intact. The successful performance of acrobatic feats requires considerable physical exertion, the painstaking acquisition of unusual athletic skills, and a high degree of muscular and psychological control. Acrobats are less motivated by the creed of faster, higher, stronger and by the quest for records than by the goal of performing more inventively than others. Since the ultimate purpose of acquiring acrobatic skills is not to compete but to acquire even more spectacular skills, acrobatics remains outside the realm of sport. The basic criteria by which we appreciate acrobatics—control, gracefulness, innovation—are not susceptible to
objective measurement. Defying death was for a mortal an appropriately symbolic part of ancient funeral ceremony, but doing so for reasons of pure spectacle is an act of hubris.Acrobatics has thus traditionally been both applauded
and derided.Complete respectability has always eluded acrobatics. Perhaps for that reason, the practitioners have almost always been outsiders—or portrayed themselves as such—to Western European culture. Acrobatics cannot be conventionally competitive. Yet some Olympic sports are judged more on aesthetic than on quantified bases—gymnastics and figureskating— and so a form of acrobatics might someday achieve Olympic status.Whether this happens or not, acrobatics is certain to retain its appeal as an activity both exciting and appealing to watch.

Cockfighting, the contesting of specially bred male chickens, is a blood sport, that subset of sports heavily reliant on the likelihood of injury, bloodletting, or death. In cockfighting, throughout its many variations, the bird acts as a surrogate for the owner or handler. While wagers may ride on the performance of a particular rooster, the communal display of virile zeal is more important. From this perspective, the human participant in a cockfight, in spite of the obvious violence, views him or herself (more frequently him) as taking part in a sport, not engaging in animal cruelty. In his well known study of Balinese cockfighting, Clifford Geertz explores the notion that cockfighting reflects the basest component of humanity. Yet he shows too that cockfighting is multifaceted, with elements that extend beyond the gory spectacle.