wedgewenis said:
i always thought of it like a non-combative martial art - Footwork, Tempo, Attack - Defence. Deceptiveness, Skill, endurance and Training - are all elements of it.
I'd have to agree with wedgewenis. In terms of the training, grueling and unrewarding while you're doing it, all just to get a statistical advantage when playing a real game...
I actually took up badminton because I was incurring too many injuries doing martial arts!
To add to WW's post though, I'd say that it also includes elements of... well... I won't say "spirituality", but what I mean is this sense of squaring off, you and your opponent. Those old chinese films where two masters are head to head, and they do the courtesy salute before fighting? Same thing.
As badminton players, what we're all striving for is this 'pure game' where the conditions are just right, in such a way that the game is all that matters. He's you're ennemy, sure, but at the same time, you can respect him, because he's done work to match up to you and you've done work to match up to him, and now this is the test that is largely irrelevant to you in the end-- all that matters is that you're playing that game, win or lose, to the best of your ability. It's something that you can give your all, and that has enough people out there playing as well that when you do so, they'll recognize that in you and that's what brings you all together, that common drive for self-improovement.
People sometimes associate too little respect to the word "game" or "sport"... in general, I think the people who give negative associations to the word "jock" or who sorta wrongly stereotype athletes as meatheads without any intellectual or spiritual capacity are simply those who 'haven't seen the light', or are simply narrow minded. It's a part of a healthy lifestyle to play games, it certainly beats going to war just to have some sorta competition.
I don't think it's important to dwell on definitions, but what I can say is that any true sportsmen or artists will know a fellow true sportsman or artist when he sees him or her in action... badminton is just one of those conduits for expression, one of those respectable disciplines by which we reveal just what we're made of and who we are.