If you asked anyone what the fastest racquet sport in the world was, chances are they would guess either squash, tennis, or even table tennis.  And they would all be wrong.  Only a few people would come out and say badminton, and those would be the people who are right.  Just to give an example, the shuttle can travel up to 200 mph, so players in this sport need to have unbelievably fast reflexes to be really good at it.

The sport is currently dominated by China, but a few years ago Indonesia was the team no one could beat.  The most popular player today is undeniably Lin Dan of China and Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, but my all-time favorite player has always been Peter Gade of Denmark.  Gade was a totally different breed of player, and he could pull off the most unbelievable shots in a game.  The video of probably the best badminton trickshot I have ever seen can be downloaded HERE.  The screenshot of the video can be seen above, though it’s rather small because it won’t fit my page if I made it any bigger.

If you have never heard of this video, much less seen it, it’s a definite MUST for all badminton fanatics.  You can keep trying to do what Peter Gade did, but you’ll never be able to pull it off!  God knows I’ve been trying this for the longest time and I still can’t do it.  Hmpf!