Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. The most common forms of the game are “singles” (with one player per side) and “doubles” (with two players per side). Badminton is often played as a casual outdoor activity in a yard or on a beach; formal games are played on a rectangular indoor court. Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with the racquet and landing it within the opposing side’s half of the court.
Each side may only strike the shuttlecock once before it passes over the net. Play ends once the shuttlecock has struck the floor or if a fault has been called by the umpire, service judge, or (in their absence) the opposing side.
The shuttlecock is a feathered or (in informal matches) plastic projectile which flies differently from the balls used in many other sports. In particular, the feathers create much higher drag, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly. Shuttlecocks also have a high top speed compared to the balls in other racquet sports. The flight of the shuttlecock gives the sport its distinctive nature.
Swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs, the body, or both. Humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as a survival response.
Swimming is consistently among the top public recreational activities, and in some countries, swimming lessons are a compulsory part of the educational curriculum. As a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern Summer Olympics.
Archery
Archery??is the art, sport, practice, or skill of using a??bow??to??shoot??arrows. The word comes from the??Latin??arcus. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity. A person who participates in archery is typically called an??archer??or a??bowman, and a person who is fond of or an expert at archery is sometimes called a??toxophilite.
While there is great variety in the construction details of bows (both historic and modern), all bows consist of a string attached to elastic limbs that store mechanical energy imparted by the user drawing the string. Bows may be broadly split into two categories: those drawn by pulling the string directly and those that use a mechanism to pull the string.
Directly drawn bows may be further divided based upon differences in the method of limb construction, notable examples being??self bows,??laminated bows??and??composite bows. Bows can also be classified by the??bow shape??of the limbs when unstrung; in contrast to traditional European straight bows, a??recurve bow??and some types of longbow have tips that curve away from the archer when the bow is unstrung. The cross-section of the limb also varies; the classic??longbow??is a tall bow with narrow limbs that are D-shaped in cross section, and the??flatbow??has flat wide limbs that are approximately rectangular in cross-section.??Cable-backed bows??use cords as the back of the bow; the draw weight of the bow can be adjusted by changing the tension of the cable. They were widespread among??Inuit??who lacked easy access to good bow wood. One variety of cable-backed bow is the Penobscot bow or??Wabenaki??bow, invented by Frank Loring (Chief Big Thunder) about 1900.??It consists of a small bow attached by cables on the back of a larger main bow.
In different cultures, the arrows are released from either the left or right side of the bow, and this affects the hand grip and position of the bow. In??Arab archery,??Turkish archery??and??Ky??d??, the arrows are released from the right hand side of the bow, and this affects construction of the bow. In western archery, the arrow is usually released from the left hand side of the bow for a right-handed archer.
Compound bows??are designed to reduce the force required to hold the string at full draw, hence allowing the archer more time to aim with less muscular stress. Most compound designs use cams or elliptical wheels on the ends of the limbs to achieve this. A typical let-off is anywhere from 65% to 80%. The compound bow was invented by??Holless Wilbur Allen??in the 1960s and it has become the most widely used type of bow for all forms of archery in North America.
Mechanically drawn bows typically have a stock or other mounting, such as the??crossbow. Crossbows typically have shorter draw lengths compared to compound bows. Because of this, heavier draw weights are required to achieve the same energy transfer to the arrow. These mechanically drawn bows also have devices to hold the tension when the bow is fully drawn. They are not limited by the strength of a single archer and larger varieties have been used as??siege engines.
Table Tennis
Table tennis, also known as??ping-pong??and??whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, the rules are generally as follows: players must allow a ball played toward them to bounce one time on their side of the table, and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side at least once. A point is scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions. Spinning the ball alters its trajectory and limits an opponent’s options, giving the hitter a great advantage.
