Tennis is a well known game. Everyone can name at least one tennis player: John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Roger Fedora - and that's just the men! There are even some women who play tennis!

However, if you were to ask the average man-in-the-street to name a famous badminton player, they would probably collapse.
Badminton, you see, is not well known. Most people don't even understand how to play it.

Which is a shame, because actually, it's exactly the same as tennis, save for one important difference - the ball.

A tennis ball is made of hollow rubber, and is covered in yellow felt so the players can see it better.
A badminton ball is made of sponge, and has wings on it to help it fly. Yes, fly. In fact, a badminton ball is so good at flying, it isn't even called a ball - it's called a shuttlecock.
Crazy, you might think - but true crazy.

Given the tendency of shuttlecocks to spend more than 90% of their time in the air, it should come as no suprise that a game of badminton is usually very slow. And no-one is less surprised than the players.

Indeed, in order to make matches more exciting, many players have taken to other pursuing other activities... in the middle of their matches!

The most inventive of these mid-shot pastimes is that of foot controlled shuttlecock keepy ups - invented by none other than Jill Bandon of Australia!
Jill once managed to keep a shuttlecock in the air for 3 hours, 13 minutes and 53 seconds... while simultaenously playing a regular game of badminton (which she lost)!

Well done Jill!