Badminton’s First Family : Brittons Bemoan the Sport’s Status in America, but Dominate It Heading Into Top Event at UCLA

Don’t look for the Britton family to play badminton at the company picnic.

Badminton is far too serious for that.

For one thing, it rankles badminton players that the sport is considered a recreation by most of the United States. It’s not even an outdoor game.

It is easily the fastest racket sport: The shuttlecock-- not the birdie-- has been timed at speeds up to 200 m.p.h. Singles players can expect to run the equivalent of eight miles in a match.

So it’s offensive to most players that badminton is not considered a serious sport. That puts badminton in line with soccer as a popular sport ignored in the United States.

Badminton is so popular in Asia that all of the Barcelona Olympic matches were shown on television in most Asian countries. The United States’ feed didn’t show any.

“I’m from Scotland, and everyone plays badminton there and through most of Europe--it’s just behind soccer,” said John Britton, who came to the United States to coach the now-defunct L.A. Heat outdoor soccer team and joined the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club.

“In Asian countries (badminton) is even bigger--it’s a way out for the lower classes. A lot like basketball is viewed here. That’s where your best players in the world are from.”

Britton has some good players right in his own back yard--if he would excuse the expression.

This is a family that has won a tidy share of national titles.

John Britton has won five.

Traci Britton has won three.

And, watch out, their daughter Jaymie has won 10 at the junior level.

That count includes titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles--mixed doubles in badminton circles does not suffer from a prestige problem any more than the rest of the sport.

John and Traci will be looking to relive some of their glory in the U.S. Open, which starts at 3 p.m. today at Pauley Pavilion. The competition will run through Sunday, when the finals start at 1 p.m.

Traci Britton and partner Tariq Wadood will try to reclaim the U.S. Open mixed doubles title they won in 1990.

John Britton and partner Gary Higgins will try to win the men’s doubles title for the first time since 1985. They also won in 1983.

Fittingly, John and Traci met at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club. A badminton dynasty, of sorts, was born. However, they don’t play mixed doubles together because “We wanted to stay married,” Traci said.

There are two more potential champions on the horizon as their sons Tommy, 11, and Andrew, 9, also play regularly.

If the Brittons seem a little old to be champions, they won’t acknowledge it.

“Age has little to do with it,” Traci Britton said. “John likes to say we’re over 40 and that’s all, but I say we’re no age. Some people have this preconceived idea that the younger and fitter should win. The game is from the wrist, not the arms like in other racket sports.

“But the game is 80% mental in that you have to set up your opponent.”

Her husband agrees.

“It’s not a game like tennis, where Pete Sampras keeps attacking,” he said. “It’s more like chess. You have to set up positioning and returns to force your opponent out of position.”

No matter what age, badminton players in this country are a long way from reaching international prominence. The U.S. Open is a good start because it receives more domestic exposure than most badminton events. No player from the United States advanced past the round of 16 in the 1993 Open.

“It doesn’t do a player much good to travel to an international tournament and lose quickly in the first round,” said John Britton, who has organized nearly a dozen sanctioned U.S. team tours to other countries.

“You gain much more by playing more and going deeper into the tournament. That’s why it’s far more productive to spend $10,000 playing a tour with games against the European countries or Australia than it is to go play in Asia and lose in the first round. We’re not there yet.”

Notes

The first and second rounds will be today and Friday at 3 p.m., the semifinals will be in two sessions on Saturday (1-5 p.m. and 6-10 p.m.) and the finals will start at 1 p.m. Sunday.