Maarssenbroek – Try for yourself what it’s like to smash that shuttle over the net. That’s the best way to find out if badminton is for you. Badminton club OSM regularly organizes opportunities to put it to the test. You may think of badminton as skipping the shuttle at the campsite, but the sport is much more than that. Badminton is even the fastest racket sport in the world. It is intensive, keeps you fit and can be learned quickly. You will sweat, work on your fitness and meet lots of new people at the same time. RTV Stichtse Vecht was allowed to watch how this works.
With around 200 members, OSM Badminton is the largest badminton club in the municipality of Stichtse Vecht. Games are played almost every day of the week in two sports halls in Maarssenbroek. The level varies from national competition to recreational playing for fun. Badminton is for all ages: children can start from the age of five and seniors also remain active into old age.
Origin of the sport of badminton
It is generally believed that India is the birthplace of badminton because the game POONA was practiced there. Probably named after the city of Pune, which is about 50 km from Bombay. English officers introduced the game, which they were introduced to in India, to England and around 1873 the game was intensively practiced at the estate of the Duke of Beaufort in Gloucestershire. The name of that estate was Badminton and it can be assumed that the name of the estate was transferred to the game. It is certain from old paintings that the game was already known in Europe and it was probably practiced under different names.
Sport with a long history
Ken Davidson, a well-known American badminton authority, who has studied the history of badminton, discovered that the game was played in England as early as the 12th century. The game ‘Jeu de longue plume’ was also known in France in the Middle Ages. There is a 17th century painting by Adam Menyoki showing that the game was played with a small racket and some kind of shuttle. That shuttle used to be known as shuttlecock. A good Dutch word for badminton would therefore be ‘pluimbal’.
