Badminton Collegiates

I played at the 2017 USAB Yonex Collegiate Nationals Badminton Championships over the weekend at the Los Angeles Badminton Club, and this venue was interesting in that it had a mechanized system where the lights over the courts would go out after a certain amount of time until a key card was held over the sensors embedded in the bleachers. This led to a lot of lights going out in the middle of matches, and if it happened in the middle of the rally, the umpire would call a let and the players would start the rally over once the lights turned back on. I have played badminton on courts where one of the lamps had gone out before, and even that one lamp makes a huge difference in visibility. This weekend reminded me of that, and it made me think about how integral light is to badminton and to all sports in general. For badminton, playing with dim lights is pretty trippy (on the other hand, if the lights are too bright, the shuttle blends in with the lights and it's hard to time your shots correctly), and playing with no light, of course, would be impossible, since badminton is solely an indoor sport (don't even talk about trying to play with candlelight). The invention of electricity has really changed the game for sports -- not only has it made indoor sports possible, but it's also made it possible to host outdoor sports at night any day of the month (such as in stadiums or even anywhere with streetlights).

Sorry for the bad quality pictures, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how lights are typically set up in a badminton club. I tried uploading a video too, but the quality got really messed up so if you are interested in seeing a quick clip,  click here