Furness Girls Badminton Team
By Daniel Gunawan
April 19, 2024
Badminton is a racket-based sport normally played indoors where players are required to hit a shuttlecock across a 5-foot-tall net in a divided rectangular court. It is played by two opposing players, known as singles, or two pairs, which is known as doubles. It is most common around Asia because of its affordability and simplicity for developing countries. The game has a relatively low profile in the West, where it receives little media coverage and is often known as a casual pastime for the beach or the backyard in the hot, summer weather.
Badminton is regarded as one of the world’s fastest sports, requiring perfect accuracy and reaction time. Shuttlecocks can move up to 321 km/h (200mph) within a small court. Badminton's simplicity and gender neutrality, along with its availability to all regardless of background is perfect for schools to implement.
Badminton's obstacles in Furness High School
In Furness, there are numerous sports teams including the Furness volleyball team, Furness soccer team, and Furness girl's badminton team. Unfortunately, badminton isn't as favored due to the influence of other major sports like basketball, football, and tennis that cast a shadow over it.
The lack of a boy’s badminton team is also an issue. Furness only has a girl's badminton team even though it is known to be more popular for boys. Most boys who want to join the team can only be managers and are unable to participate in tournaments and games. With low interest, the girl´s badminton team doesn't have enough players.
Furthermore, the training is more of playing singles (one player on each team) and doubles (two players on each team) rather than practicing basic techniques and footwork. Without proper coaching, the girl´s badminton team suffered a major loss. Recently, the team lost against Central, who took first place last year. If the team doesn’t do anything about it, they will suffer the same major loss when competing with other schools.