Faster than a speeding shuttlecock!

>> Speedminton amps up a traditional
racket sport for fast outdoor play

RACKET SPORT AMPED UP: Speedminton players

by SCOTT C

A couple of weeks ago, I was out enjoying an exceptional day in Montreal, trolling the mountain with camera in hand, hoping to catch some interesting people in the sun. It was there that I bumped into Jarrett and Raji, a couple of friends who had come to the park to play the curious racket game called speedminton.

Jarrett explained that he had met the inventor while in Berlin last year, and insisted that if I had any love for badminton or tennis, then it was something I had to try. I’d been kicked off the badminton team in high school for not keeping up my grades, but always loved the speed and finesse of the game. Resembling junior squash rackets in both size and weight, the tools of speedminton are unique to the game, including the smaller, weighted shuttlecocks, called speeders.

I was hooked immediately, floored by the distance and speed at which two capable players could drum up a rally. We were at least 40 or 50 feet apart, but the speed of the game was definitely there, and made me want to play more. It was then that I started thinking about getting my own set.

From Berlin to B.C.

The speedminton court or playing field consists of two squares measuring 5.5 metres (18 feet) on each side, with the distance between the two squares measuring 12.8 metres (42 feet), exactly the size of a regulation tennis court split right down the middle. The key is to reach the square of the opposite player with the speeder. If the speeder falls outside the opposite square, chalk up a point for the other side. The game ends when one player has at least 15 points, and has at least two points more than their opponent.

The game was invented in Berlin by Bill Brandes, who, like many badminton enthusiasts, wanted to come up with an outdoor version of badminton where the ultra-light shuttlecock wasn’t at the mercy of the wind. Strangely, Brandes first called his invention shuttleball, but settled on the name speedminton in 2001. Although thousands of Germans and other Europeans have enjoyed this pastime since 2003, the sport is still relatively unknown in North America.

Speedminton officially arrived in Canada in 2006, when provincial sports organization Badminton BC focused on marketing the game to public schools. “We were trying to reinvent badminton with an edgier look,” says Badminton BC’s executive director Brock Turner, “trying to build on what we already had with something that had that extreme appeal. We saw that a company from San Diego called Pro Performance Sports had acquired the North American distribution of speedminton, and we asked if we could be their Canadian arm.”

That negotiation resulted in Canadian Tire exclusively carrying the speedminton “Fun Set,” but had limited success moving the product at its $60 price tag. Badminton BC is now selling the Fun Set for $39.95 online. Turner also mentions that at that point, no real marketing had been done, even though international tennis star Maria Sharapova was the official spokesperson for speedminton. “We decided the best marketing strategy for us was to reach out to people who already had a love for racket sports, and it just mushroomed from there.”

Glow-sticks optional

Apart from the fact that speedminton is great for hand-eye coordination, footwork and fitness, this full-body workout can also be played in complete darkness, thanks to the handy miniature glow-sticks that can be inserted into speeders. Although it’s been a while since I played badminton, I can see myself jumping headlong into speedminton (or radminton, as I like to call it), and I challenge anybody with a love for racket sports to at least try this out before dismissing it.

You can order all speedminton paraphernalia directly from the Badminton BC Web site, at www.badmintonbc.com, or call 1-800-483-2473 to order direct.