Caught some Olympics badmitton on tv this morning...

[@wright]

before I left for work, and I was pretty damned impressed. It was women's singles, and they were just crushing the hell outta that shuttlecock, interspersed with really impressive touch shots. I wish pro badmitton was on tv more often, that was my first time to see the game played at such a high level, much different than playing against dad with our net in the backyard! The commentators were commenting how you run so much more in badmitton than tennis, which was hard to believe, but each point was usually filled with quick darts back and forth, up and down. I couldn't help but think, like with racquetball, that good tennis players must have a serious advantage in badmitton. Mary Carillo also talked for 10 minutes about her kids getting the shuttlecock stuck in the tree and throwing all their sporting goods up there to try and get it down. She babbled on and on, and it turned out to be a joke. NBC must have been desperate to fill the time between matches.

 

[Rickson]

badminton players have quicker reaction times than tennis players do. They'd make great volleyers.

 

[NoBadMojo]

ya man..badminton rocks and is very demanding. the shuttle can have initial velocity of almost 200mph. it's just a whole bunch of fun..try and catch some doubles..talk about hand/eye, reflexes, and footwork. its more up and back than tennis (especialy these days). it lots of overheads and droppers and angles. hard to really play outside though unless a very calm day. badminton works well w. tennis as does squash IMO because they are longer racquets as opposed to racquet ball and paddle tennis, but i'm all over any racquet sport..they;re all great IMO. we had some guys where i used to live and we played it as much as we could..other people laughed at us for playing until they gave it a try and discovered how fast it is. ed

 

[Feña14]

Yeah I saw the mixed doubles Final today and I thought team GB had it, but them Chinese are just too damn good!

In the end they won 2 games to 1, but hey, I am happy with a silver medal especially as we have our first Gold and more to come in the rowing.

-Liam

 

[Brian Purdie]

OMG! You saw that Mary Carillo rant, too! That was sick! What was she doing there? I felt uncomfortable in my home listening to that. I began to quiver with fear of the woman. She went on to start naming names of the kids in her neighborhood that she hated. It was definately not as funny as NBC would have liked.

 

[@wright]

Yeah, Brian, that was painful to watch. It made me want to take a few shots just to take the edge off, and I don't even drink like that. That was the worst attempt at humor I've ever witnessed on a televised sporting event. I thought she was gonna **** herself. She ended the 10 minute rant by saying, "that game is much different than what we're seeing here in Athens." Blech!

 

[NoBadMojo]

an occassional poster 'Shaolin' once mentioned that mary Carillo looks like The Rock..cracked me up ed

 

[@wright]

Yeah, she really does look like the Rock, especially with those intense eyes. I watched the men's singles semis on Bravo this morning, and it was even more impressive. It really seems to focus on the drop shot, or "tumbling" as they call it, and the overhead smash. This one guy from Indonesia, I think his name was Idayat, was just crushing the overheads with no regard for human life. He was ahead when I left for work. Badmitton seems to be an Asian dominated sport(not surprisingly), this semi I was watching consisted of a Thai and an Indonesian, and I would venture to guess the other semi was probably similarly cast.

 

[Coda]

watch out for the chinese

 

[topspin]

Yeah I've mentioned many times here how much I love badminton and how amazing a sport it truly is. It really is sad that tv in north america would rather show wrestling (fake stuff) instead of real sports like badminton. The conditioning of a badminton player is top notch and up there with swimmers and cross country skiers. A good badminton match will last about 15 to 20 minutes and you will be absolutely exhausted at the end and need a rest. It's also a ton of fun and very addictive.

 

[Coda]

correction topspin: very very addicting

 

[Kobble]

I was impressed to. It is like an extreme version of tennis. A higher net with a smaller court, and drop shots and overheads are the bread and butter shots. You'll never see a twenty ball overhead and dropshot rally in tennis.

 

[topspin]

hey happy to see we got so many badminton fans here