| The
first report of the Shuttlecock is the 5th century BC in
China . The Chinese played the Ti Jian Zi or shuttlecock.
At least for 1000 years, this game was played initially
in Asia . It assumed that shuttlecock developed from the
Tsu Chu, a game similar to football. Shuttlecock is a remarkable
way of exercising, a training for developing quick reflexives,
of agility and of concentration. Exactly, because of this,
shuttlecock for decades is used in military training and
in basic training in China .
The
game is very simple. Children in order to make a
featherball took round pieces of lead and tin for the
base, chicken
feathers for the top, and played shuttlecock. Today,
the game is played in schools all over
China . The Shuttlecock
evolved from an ancient military exercise. A lot
of famous generals in the Chinese history used this
game
in order
to relax and exercise their troops. The matches of
Shuttlecock were popular in the times of the dynasties
of Han and
of Song (207-906). Since the Song Dynasty
(960-1278) the game
was renamed to Chien Tsu, from the Chinese word for "arrow" that
sounds precisely as the word "shuttlecock".
The
game is divided in two basic types: The artistic
and the team play (which is analysed).
The
game is played according to the rules. The game
is similar to the volleyball, but the ball is different
and by no
means touched by the hands. The artistic
game is completely different.
As the name implies, it has to do with the skill
of the athlete and the choreography. The winner
is the one who does the
most difficult and controlled subterfuges with
the
featherball. Individuals, pairs, or teams can play
the artistic game.
Both games have the same goal, to keep the ball
in the air without touching the ground. The featherball
is kicked with
the feet, the knees, the hips, the body, but never
with
the hands.
The
first national competition of Shuttlecock took
place in 1933 in China . In 1933,
in Nanjing
in the
fifth National Sports
meeting, playing Jianzi, wrestling, and so on
were defined as the National Sports formerly.
And in June, 1961, a
movie called "The flying feather" was finished by the
central news movie company. The movie was so successful that
it is gained the International movie festival gold metal
of movies. Since 1984, shuttlecock is an Official National
Sport. In 1984, an enthusiastic team of fans founded in Hong-Kong,
the Amateur Union of Shuttlecock. In 1994, this union was
reformed and renamed to "Hong Kong Association of Shuttlecock" (HKSA).
Shuttlecock,
came to Europe before the 2nd world war, when
a Chinese athlete from the province of Jiangxu
performed a demonstration in
the Olympic Games of Berlin in 1936. Germany
and
other countries were so impressed, that they
began to learn and play the
demonstrated sport. The
championships of the World Shuttlecock are
an annual event since the founding of the International
Shuttlecock
Federation
- (ISF) in 1999. Since then, the countries
were
undertaking voluntarily the organisation of
championships, in
turn. Hong-Kong organised the International
Championships of Shuttlecock
in 1995.
Day
by day, the sport receives a greater recognition,
since it has been included as a sport in
the southeastern Asiatic
games of 2003. The members of ISF are China,
the Chinese Taipei, Finland, Germany, Holland,
Hungary,
Laos the
Vietnam, Greece, France, Romania, Serbia,
etc. Among them, China
and
the Vietnam are considered as leading teams
in ranking, while for Europe, Hungary and
Germany are considered
the Best Teams.
Finally, on August 11th 2003 delegates from
Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania
and Serbia founded the
Shuttlecock Federation of Europe (S.F.E.),
in Ujszasz (Hungary).
In
Germany shuttlecock was discovered by Peter von Rüden,
a German engineer while he was travelling in China.He
saw some people play it in a park. Some of them were 60
or 70 years old. He was fascinated by this sport. He was
presented
a ball and he showed his friends how to play. Since that
time his life is dedicated to popularizing shuttlecock.
He founded FFC Hagen on 1 September 1991, the first European
shuttlecock club.
He organised the first
German Open on November 25-26 1994, on which Hungarian teams took part.
As a result of Peter von Rüden’s popularizing activity, several
countries introduced shuttlecock eg.Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands,
Finland,Switzerland, Ireland and Hungary.
Peter
von Rüden had a shuttlecock show at the Travel ’92
exhibition in March 1992. A P.E. teacher, Butor Klára
happened to see this show and she liked it a lot. She is
the programme director of the Hungarian Pioneer Association.
She bought a lot of balls and popularized shuttlecock within
the Pioneer Association.The
first Hungarian competition was held on 29 May 1993. During
1993 and 1994 several friendly tournaments were organised.
On 11 March 1995 the Hungarian Shuttlecock Association was
founded in Újszász. The Founding President
is Butor Klára and the General Secretary is Fehér
János.After
the foundation of MLTSZ, the system of championships was
worked out and international connections were developed.
MLTSZ have been organising an international championship
yearly since 1996. It is called the Hungarian Open. Besides
the system of championships, students’ Olympics is
organised since 2000.
The
Shuttlecock game was introduced in Greece by Mr. Jordan Stavridis,
instructor of Chinese Martial Arts, graduate of Gymnastics
Academy of Martial Arts in Luoyang, in Henan province of
People's Republic of China. Mr. Stavridis was using the feather-ball
as the basic exercise of his students, since 1986. By practising
that "game", his students reflexives, concentration
and speed were improved. This enjoying way was totally unknown
to Greece that time.
In 2002 creates the Greek Federation of Shuttlecock and the
first Greek Teams. He comes in contact with the ISF and makes
Greece a member of the International Shuttlecock Federation.
The first Greek competition was held on 18 April 2004.
The
story of shuttlecock in France really started in 2002 with
the curiosity of Guillaume Destot. The father of his wife,
of Vietnamese origin, had shown him how he made shuttlecocks
out of pigeon feathers and stacked, cut-out bottoms of plastic
water bottles. He played this with his daughter, Guillaume's
wife, named Kim-Da.
Kim-Da, though, had always played it with the hands rather
than the feet. Guillaume wanted to find out more about the
game. On the internet, he not only found that the game was
played with the feet, but also that it was developing in
Europe, especially Germany and and Hungary. Guillaume was
instantly
fascinated by this original game. He wanted to create a club
in France. Thanks to a friend of his, he got in contact with
an association of Vietnamese in France, and united with their
sports section to create a shuttlecock club.
The first training sessions, mostly improvised and outdoors,
took place in the summer of 2002. Guillaume contacted the
Germans, and very soon, Peter von Rüden, Karsten Thilo-Raab and
Pasquale Salimbeni were kind enough to come show the French
a few techniques In the autumn of 2002. After a few training
sessions only, a French team took part in the 2002 World championship
in Hagen, along with Hungary, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Taiwan
and Finland. The French team was composed of Kim-Da Destot-Vong,
Anh Mai Chau Van, Yohan Vinchon, Brian Valès, Guillaume
Odin and Guillaume Destot. This experience was very precious
for the French, who then started to organise the sport at home.
They used the term "da cau", the Vietnamese word
for shuttlecock kicking, to refer to the sport, as a tribute
to the Vietnamese, who had shown the sport to them. After initial
difficulties, for obtaining training time in sports halls and
recruiting players, more French clubs have been created now.
The pioneers of the sport in France are Anh Mai Chau Van, Kim-Da
Destot-Vong, Anne Bizet, Yohann Vinchon, Guillaume Odin, Brian
Valès, Yannick Hougardy, Alexandre Mariottini, Yoram
Abitbol, Cédric Manfredi, Samuel Le Bihan, François
Grignard, Florent Maurel, and of course Guillaume Destot, who
founded the first club and took the first team of French players
to international competitions.
Thanks must also go to Jean-Baptiste Vong, Guillaume's
father in law, who was the first to show him the game,
and to Peter
von Rüden, whose help along the years has been invaluable.
The
royal family of Malaysia introduced the "Sepak Takraw",
about 500 years ago. The origin of the name comes from
two languages. Sepak, means "kick" in Malay,
and Takraw, means "ball" in Thai. The original
name of the Shuttlecock game is Sepak Bulu Ayam.
"Kemari" in
Japanese means, "strike the ball with the foot".
This game came from China sometime around the 7th century.
It quickly became very popular because it was a skill that
could be acquired by everyone regardless of one's social
class. Nowadays, the game takes place in three variations
as honokemari, tanabatamari and osamemari. But the only known
reference to foot shuttlecock ever being played in Japan
appears in a book, published in 1975, entitled "Games
of the World" by Frederic V. Grunfeld. The following
is an extract: " The game of shuttlecock, in which a
small feathered ball or disc is kicked from player to player,
has been played in China, Japan and Korea for more than 2000
years. In ancient Japan, the game was used to train the militia:
It was believed that a soldier's physical abilities would
be sharpened by this sort of play. Officers formed clubs
where the game rules were standardized."
In
Korea the Shuttlecock game is called "Jeigi" or
"Jeigi-chagi"and
it is one of the most widespread and beloved game. The
Koreans played this game, centuries before the Japanese.
Today Jeigi-chag is
a children's game and even though a declining number
of them play it, it has not entirely died out. Evidence
for this can be found in many modern photographs of children
dressed in their colourful national dress enthusistically
kicking their shuttlecocks.
The traditional Shuttlecocks
were made of a strong white paper wrapped around a coin
at the base to give it weight
in
the appropriate
area.
The paper above the coin would then be cut into strips
to serve the same purpose as feathers in a convential
shuttlecock.
From enquiries made, it seems that the
practice of kicking the "Chiquia" has now disappeared
from this Portuguese colony, but Macau is due to be handed
back to Mainland
China in 1999 so maybe, in the fullness of time, the game
could well be revived at some time in the future.
Pictorially the game has not been forgotten, because on
31st July, 1989 Macau issued a postage stamp showing a "chiquia" in
the foreground and in the background a circle of four men
playing the game.
Here
the game is called "Da Cau" and it's the national
game of Vietnam. The game involves kicking a small ball back
and forth, a "cau", which is similar to the ball
used in badminton. In the past, the featherball was made
of metal coins and feathers. Now they are fashioned out
of rubber and plastic. The feathers are colored cellophane
ribbons.
The bright fringes allow the players see the ball more
clearly and indicate the bird's potential speed.
Historic annals mention kickball tournaments as far back as the 11th century.
Wood carvings of shuttlecock players have been found on the 17th century
Vietnamese temples.
Shuttlecock was neglected in Vietnam during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. After
1975 a well-known Hanoi pediatrician Dr. Nguyen Khac Vien campaigned to
revive the sport. Recognizing games as a universal need, especially among
children, he organized teams of players and facilitated the production
of inexpensive shuttlecocks.
A birdie and a ready foot are all that is needed to play the most popular
street game in Hanoi and Vietnam's national sport.
In
Indonesia, the Shuttlecock game is called "Bola Bulu
Tangkis". It's similar to the one that is played in
Vietnam. The game is known since the 10th century.
The
Shuttlecock game in Philippines is called "Larong Sipa".
Known and played by all age groups, especially by the elders,
for many centuries. The Larong Sipa game has three categories,
the women's, the men's and the team category. In the women's
category, the ball is required to be kicked with the outer
side of the foot and the goal is a high score. For each
successful kick, that is, without the featherball touching
the ground,
a point is scored. In the men's category, the ball is required
to be kicked with the inner side of the foot. In the team
category, men and women play together, both inner and outer
foot kicks are allowed.
In
Singapore the game is called "Chapteh". It has
been played for centuries and it is very popular. The game
is played with a small variation, without a net. The players
make circle and they play until the ball falls on the ground.
The player who missed the ball leaves the circle. The two
last players play by themselves separate trying to keep
the ball in the air. The winner is the one that last more.
The
game is still played by children in Singapore and the chapteh
can still be bought in shops there. On the 21st February,
1997 Singapore Post Office issued a set of four stamps
depicting Traditional Games. The upper half of the 22 cents
value stamp pictures a boy kicking a shuttlecock and the
bottom half, a close up of a chapteh.
In
Brazil the game is called "Peteca". It has been
played for centuries and it is very popular. The only difference
from the other countries is that the "Peteca" is
played with the hands and the net is quite high. It is
believed that the game has its roots from the tribe Xavante,
which
was the basic game of the children of the tribe. The ball
consisted of a species of grass, as garlic with the root
and its leaves.
A
game with a ball of feathers is something, which is very
often found in the tribes that live in the Northwestern
coasts. The tribe Zuni, played with a ball made from
a piece of corn
stalk tied up with feathers from various birds. The game
was played with hands and feet. The game with the hands
was called "Po ke if", while the game with the feet "Po-ki-nanane".
The existence of this game in the region is known from murals
that were found in caves in the Chelly canion. A
similar game was played among the Piman tribe of Arizona,
which was called "Kwaitusiwikut". The
native Salish of the British Columbia and of Washington played
the game striking a ball, which was made from a piece of
hard timber and had three feathers tied on it with a wide
piece of wood. This game was called "Kwakiutl" or "Quemal".
In
India, the game existed before 1500 B.C. and was called "Poona".
It was named "Poona" because of its region of origin,
which was city "Pun". It is said that "Poona" means "the
game of the city Pun". Initially the game was played
with the hand, using him palm as a racquet. Later on, the
hands were replaced with the legs, something that made
this game popular among Indian men but extremely difficult
for
the Indian women. Thus, it was separated in a men and a
women game. In
1870, British officers that served in India brought with
them back to the country the game Poona. Duke of Beaufort,
the Father of Badminton, was great supporter of the game,
which he played very often. However, this game was quite
primitive for the elite of the English society. Thus, he
was pleased in playing the woman's version of the game
of Poona with his friends and his daughters in his villa
at
the village Badminton of Glouschester.
One
day, as he was playing in the garden of his villa, it began
to rain. Without hesitation, he emptied his dining room so
to continue the game there. This was also the beginning of
the sport known as Badminton.
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