Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Badminton - the fastest racquet stroke in the world!

Did you know that Badminton is the fastest racquet stroke in the world? According to some stats which you can find in Wikipedia, Men's doubles player Fu Haifeng of China set the official world smash record of 332 km/h (206 mph) on June 3, 2005 in the Sudirman Cup. The fastest smash recorded in the singles competition is 305 km/h (189 mph) by Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. 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.

Do note that how they measure the speed is at the point of contact of the smash. Since the shuttle is lighter than a tennis ball, the speed of the shuttle will decelerate much faster than a tennis ball or a squash ball. I've tried playing tennis and it was so easy to serve a hard and power serve compared to badminton as the racquets are also heavier. It does take much more strength for a player to produce a hard and fast smash compared to other sports hence why I feel badminton is one of the most challenging games in the world.

Taufik's record of the fastest smash in a singles game:

Fu Haifeng's world record smash:

Have you tried capturing the speed of your smash? Well I plan to do so someday soon just for fun! If you have tested the speed of your smash, would be great if you would let me know your speed.

Ciao da mao

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I never capturing my smash speed. But I definitely know that my smash isn't that bad because my oppose hardly return the birds most of the time...LOL

I learn from HERE and HERE, they are very good sources to improve my skill.

Peace,

BADMINTON SHOT

smashingmark said...

Hey Pasifik.. Maybe you should try capturing your smash :) Well thanks for the links.. Somehow I cant smash so hard now as I'm facing a shoulder injury.. sigh