[MUSIC PLAYING]
Which of these would you guess is the fastest sport?
If you said baseball, soccer, or even tennis,
you'll have to cast a wider net.
Considering the speed of the shuttlecock
at the release after being hit, it
can reach up to over 200 miles per hour.
Yes, badminton, the sport many Americans play
with a beer in one hand next to their backyard grill,
is one of the world's fastest sports.
To understand what makes the birdie,
or shuttlecock, fly so fast starts
with putting down the beer and going indoors.
The weather and the temperature could actually
cause the shuttlecock to fly in different way than expected.
Once indoors, players smash, clear, drop,
and drive the shuttlecock towards their opponents.
It's a sport with roots in ancient Greece,
China, Japan, and India.
But its current regulations were developed in England
and brought to the United States in the 19th century,
where the first badminton club opened in New York in 1878.
The rules have changed over time,
but the one constant was the shuttlecock.
This is kind of a unique shape for a projectile compared
to other sports.
This is a cone shape, and there are 16 feathers.
They're made of goose.
Goose feathers are chosen for their durability.
But sometimes duck is used as well.
Only four feathers per bird make the cut
for the optimal and uniform curvature, shape, and weight.
No matter how the shuttlecock is hit, it will fly nose first.
All other ball sports created the ball to make it fly faster.
The shuttlecock is made actually to slow down after being hit.
The feathers create drag, which leads
to a more predictable flight path,
giving the player more control over shots.
Surprisingly, 80% of the speed can be preserved.
As the shuttlecock descends, the flight angle
becomes more steep than its lift, a unique property
for a projectile in sports.
The feathers break easily, which can make the shuttlecock wobble
during flight.
Often, several are used in one match.
And players can even alter the speed
of the shuttle with some minor adjustments to the feathers.
If I want to increase the speed of the flying,
I will tip the end of the feather inside.
So less air resistance actually can
be encountered during flight.
Just don't try that during a match.
It's cheating.
And Dr. Qin Arthur Zhu would know.
In addition to his work in kinesiology
or the study of human movement, Dr. Zhu
is a national-level badminton umpire and a top player
trained in China.
To improve coaching techniques, Dr. Zhu and his team
wanted to understand how players could transfer the most
speed to the shuttlecock.
They looked at racquet angle, swing speed, and string tension
when players hit a smash.
We suspended the shuttlecock from the ceiling,
put the reflective markers on the head of the shuttlecock,
and a racket head, so that we can
keep track of the shuttlecock movement
after impact to see how fast the shuttlecock was moving
and in which angle it was moving so that we can correlate it
to their swing performance.
Dr. Zhu and his team found that the fastest shuttlecock speed
was achieved by expert players when the racket
angle was 71.6 degrees.
Recreational players could swing the racket just as fast
as expert players.
But since they weren't able to hit the shuttlecock
at that optimal angle, they weren't
able to achieve the highest speeds.
It's really hard to hit that angle right because--
It's a complicated process.
You have to bend your knees to lower down your weight,
so that you can jump.
Then, the energy is going to be passed from the lower body
to the upper body into the shoulder, to the elbow,
to the wrist, and eventually to the finger.
And all of those energy is going to be
added up, passed through the racket to the shuttlecock.
Try doing that with a beer in one hand.
And there you have it--
badminton, a smashing and speedy sport.
[EXCLAMATION]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CLAPPING]