Imagine, you are a child living during the Great Depression. Things are very tough for your family and all the money Dad earns needs to go into paying rent and feeding the family – there is nothing left for buying frivolities like toys and games. A few days ago, you were out and about when a lady hit her badminton shuttle too hard and it came soaring into the street. You picked it up and gave it back to her, but you also realised you could make one! It was just a bit of cork with some feathers in it. You collected some feathers from the ducks down near the river, and found an old bit of cork to put them into. It isn’t a perfect shuttle, but it’s a lot of fun to play with!
When I showed the children this shuttlecock, they knew exactly what it was. Shuttlecocks are still often used by the children because they are soft and easy to use, and most importantly, they don’t hurt if they hit you! The children were very surprised by the shuttlecock though. They are used to plastic shuttlecocks, mass produced in factories. This shuttlecock is made of cork and feathers though, as they traditionally have been for centuries. One child pointed out that the feathers might be why it’s called a ‘shuttlecock’ “after all, isn’t a cock a rooster?” The thing which surprised them most though was how old shuttlecocks were, and that badminton is not the traditional sport they are used in.
Today, shuttlecocks, also known as ‘featherballs’ are most familiar to westerners as the ‘ball’ used in the game badminton, but their use in this game is actually very recent. Shuttlecocks themselves date back far before the game of badminton even existed! The first shuttlecocks came from China and they date back over 2500 years. They were probably first used in military training, but by the 5th century BC they were being used in the game Ti Jian Zi, which literally means ‘kick shuttlecock’. In this game the shuttlecock must be kept in the air by using the feet or other parts of the body to kick it up. Hands are not allowed to be used, though later another game, called battledore was introduced where a paddle was used to hit the shuttlecock back and forth. Both versions of the game quickly spread throughout Asia, and have been played in Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea and Indonesia for centuries. The original game is now played internationally and is actually called shuttlecock. The shuttlecocks used in this game are different to those used in badminton though, using fewer feathers, and much more heavily weighted. To find out more about this game, click here.
Although shuttlecock is usually accepted to have originated in China, a similar game called Poona has also been played in India since about 1500BC. At first, this game used the hand to hit the shuttle, but as it evolved it split into a womens game (using the hand) and a mens game (using the legs). In about 1870 it was this game which was introduced to England by soldiers who had been stationed in the Indian colonies. The Duke of Beaufort, who is known as ‘the father of Badminton’, loved this game and enjoyed playing the ‘womens’ version with his daughters and family. He played it in his Villa in the village of Badminton, which is probably where the name of the game comes from.