II.3. SHUTTLECOCK
Shuttlecock (or Jianzi) is an exciting and spectacular team ball game, in which the aim is to get the special ball – made of feathers – over the net making it difficult for the opponent team to return.
It is hard to imagine, but this game was the inspiration for the popular badminton game. The first shuttlecock was made in China around 1000 B.C. A few feathers were stuck into a piece of wood, or into a small disc of zinc or lead. In the beginning, the Chinese played badminton exclusively by feet. The aim was to keep the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible. There are certain similarities with football, which is why some think it derived from Tsu-tsu. Later the game was used as part of military training for its ability to improve dexterity and reaction time.
This unique badminton game played with the feet and its variants are still played by millions, mainly in the Far East. For Europe, it was discovered by a German engineer, Peter von Rüden while travelling in China. He saw people of various ages (some of them about 60-70 years old) in a park. He was amazed. He then elated his friends with a shuttlecock he got as a gift. Since then, Peter von Rüden has devoted his life to the promotion of jianzi. In 1991, he founded FFC Hagen, the first jianzi sports club in Europe.
(http://www.utanpotlassport.hu/)
Home page for the Hungarian Shuttlecock Federation: