Badminton Facts

The most powerful stroke in badminton is the smash, which is hit steeply downwards into the opponents' midcourt.

The maximum speed of a smashed shuttlecock exceeds that of any other racquet sport projectile. The recordings of this speed measure the initial speed of the shuttlecock immediately after it has left the player's racquet. The official badminton smash record is 332 km/h (206 mph), set by Chinese badminton doubles player Fu Haifeng in the 2005 Sudirman Cup.

Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia recorded a faster smash, 421 km/h (262 mph), during Yonex's speed test of the Arcsaber Z-slash in 2009. Michael Hayes of badmintondoubles.com suggests that this smash is not comparable to Fu's because it was hit while shuttles were being gently fed to Tan whereas Fu's smash was hit during an actual match, and because Tan's was recorded by Yonex whereas Fu's was recorded by BWF officials.