BADMINTON

Badminton gets its name from Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England — the home of the Duke of Beaufort, where the sport was played in the last century. Before Badminton House, there was a game called poona (a game played by British army officers stationed in India). Before poona, there was jeu de volant played on the European Continent, before that, battledore and shuttlecock, and, before that, Ti Jian Zi — as you can see, it’s not easy tracking the lineage of the sport we now call badminton! The origins of badminton date back at least two thousand years, a surprisingly long history for one of the Olympics’ newest sports! Worldwide popularity for the sport surged only after badminton’s Olympic debut at Barcelona in 1992. The first major tournament was the Thomas Cup (world men’s team championships) in 1948.

CARROM

The word "carrom" probably originates in Timor in south east Asia. From there it travelled with the Portuguese who found it to be a convenient description for the Malabar coast of India. It is also the name of a particularly delicious fruit (star fruit) and by the late eighteenth century the English speaking world was familiar with the word in the context of the game of 'carrom billiards', a game played on a snooker type table without pockets. A little more time passes and the word 'carrom' becomes prominent in English usage, thanks to the growing popularity of billiards, to mean 'hitting one thing on to another'. More time passes and the word 'carrom' becomes the now more familiar 'canon' in English usage . By the time 'canon' was in usage in English 'carom' was becoming the standard name for a variety of games that form the basis of this book.

BMX

The 1960s saw the increasing popularity of motocross, and spurred the creation of a non-motorized version of the sport. This is how BMX came about, with youngsters seeking the excitement and energy of motocross, but restricted both by the cost of the equipment and age limitations on driving. The sport became immediately and enduringly popular in California and, by the early 1970s, BMX had become sufficiently mainstream for a US governing body to be founded. By 1978, BMX had spread to Europe and, in 1980, the first BMX track in the UK was opened in Redditch.
The International BMX Federation was founded in 1981, with the first World Championships held the following year. Having begun as an informal sport sitting somewhere between motocross and cycling, BMX gradually became more formalised and was fully integrated into the International Cycling Union (UCI) in 1993. By 2007, there were 75 national BMX federations with UCI recognition.
BMX freestyle, meanwhile, developed as an independent branch during the 1970's. Drawing on skateboarding, riders on 20-inch bicycles began to develop tricks and stunts in convenient empty spaces - swimming pools, empty reservoirs, storage pits and the like. Such experimentation began in the mid-70's, particularly in the southern Californian cities of San Diego and Santa Monica. The terrain was a water-free substitute for the waves encountered by surfers at sea, but the principle of carving a wave remained. The precise beginnings of each aspect of BMX are hard to pin down, with major milestones occurring in the late 1970s. The first bicycle aerial out of a 'vert bowl', in which the rider and bike become airborne above the level of the riding bowl, happened in 1977, and flatland freestyle tricks emerged at a similar time. The first freestyle show was staged in 1980 by the Bicycle Motocross Action Trick Team.