FIELDING BIRDIES AT BLINDING SPEEDS

In the wake of the Summer Olympics, badminton's popularity gets a bump By Adam Bloch It's been 20 minutes since I arrived, and already I'm embarrassing myself. No journalistic faux pas here-it's just this nettlesome game of badminton that I can't seem to figure out. I'm a racket sports veteran, but the rapid deceleration of the shuttlecock and unfamiliarity of the game have me swinging at air most of the time. And my ego isn't being helped by the rubber-jointed, wildly leaping, well-seasoned players around me, hitting jump smashes at blinding speeds. "It's the fastest of the racket sports," longtime player Artemis Stamatopoulos explained. Indeed, the world record for the fastest stroke is 206 mph. "Everyone still thinks of it being quaint. Badminton is a bit of a secret. The truth is that it's very intense." I'm among several dozen members of the NYC Badminton Club (NYCBC) in the seventh-floor gym of High School for the Humanities on West 18th Street. The organization, formed in 1996 with only a handful of participants, now counts about 180 players in its ranks. It organizes four playing opportunities per week in both Manhattan and Queens (see [www.nycbadminton.com](http://www.nycbadminton.com) for a complete schedule and additional information). Besides Humanities, the other local practice location is Robert F. Wagner Middle School on East 76th Street. With shuttlecocks-or "birdies," in the sport's jargon-whizzing by and players scampering about pell mell, it's obvious that badminton has come a long way since its days as a genteel amusement for the English upper class. The game was originally imported to the United Kingdom from India, and dominance has long since returned to Asia. The best professionals today come from the Far East, especially China. The United States is a provincial backwater in the badminton world, but that doesn't dampen the local enthusiasm for the sport. "It's much bigger now," said the club's head coach, Chibing Wu, adding that the quadrennial Summer Olympics always leads to a small boost in popularity. "There are more people playing, even though it's definitely not a widely popular sport in America. Some people come here to compete at a high level, and some come just to have fun." That fun extends to the team atmosphere. Chibing emphasized the social role his club plays in the lives of members. He boasted that 10 couples have met and gotten married since the organization was founded 12 years ago. Marriage also drew Chibing to the United States originally. Born in Sichuan Province in 1964, he became one of the top players in the world and a member of the Chinese national team from 1985 to 1991. Afterward, he coached Spain in the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics. Following the latter tournament, he came to New York to join his wife. He spent a few months coaching the U.S. national team in Colorado Springs in 1997, but the call of family brought him back to the city again. He's been the only coach the New York club has ever known and remains good enough to have won the national title in doubles and mixed doubles as recently as 2000. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Charlie Chen makes a futile swipe at an overhead smash delivered by Dion McKenzie, far court. Photo By Dan Burnstein"][/caption] Chibing's club has been instrumental in moving the center of badminton in the country from Massachusetts to New York over the past decade. A lot of the growth has been due to an influx of immigrant players, especially from East Asia and Europe. But the geographic diversity extends even beyond there. Chibing estimated that two-thirds of his players are foreign-born. Chris Awong, for example, a strong player on a nearby court, picked up the game in his native Trinidad and Tobago. He moved to Florida for college and eventually made his way to New York in 2001. He's been a member of the club ever since and attributes its success to the city's "cosmopolitan society." Beyond the NYC Badminton Club, the badminton scene is quite small. The only other major group in Manhattan devoted to the sport is The Badminton Club of the City of New York, a venerable institution that has been around since 1878. Both Columbia University and New York University have badminton clubs, and five local private schools-Brearley, Chapin, Hewitt, Marymount and Spence-field varsity teams. There are also several local tournaments every year, and the NYC Badminton Club often sends teams or individuals to compete. For those who have never seen it played, badminton differs from all other racket sports because of the birdie, which is constructed from a cork base with a conical skirt of goose feathers. The result is a projectile that can be smashed at great speeds but that also creates massive aerodynamic drag. High-arcing lob shots, for example, often lose energy and drop down in a straight line. As a result, it often takes some time to adjust to the game. I discovered that when Chibing invited me to pick up a racket during a visit to the club last week. Seemingly hard-hit birdies fluttered unexpectedly and seemed to fall out of the air, leaving me to lunge with my racket and then scramble back into position. But this initial discomfiture and clumsiness soon gave way to more fluidity on the court. Stamatopoulos pointed out that one of badminton's great strengths is its appeal to complete beginners. "It's much easier to keep the birdie in play than it is to keep the ball in with tennis, so that makes it more fun when you start," she said. She was right. Ten minutes after I first picked up a racket, I already had a wide grin on my face.