By Lisa Liddane
The Orange County Register

Badminton improves speed, agility, quickness and hand-eye coordination. Here, Don Paup, director of the exercise program at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., evaluates badminton based on the components of fitness on a scale of 1-10, 10 being best. Paup is committee chair for sports medicine and science for the USA Badminton team.

· Muscle strength: 6. You gain strength in the legs, but not as much in the arms.

· Muscle endurance: 8. Muscles are constantly moving for 30 to 60 minutes, more in competitive tournaments.

· Cardiovascular conditioning: 9. Badminton involves a lot of running and sprinting, constantly engaging the heart and lungs.

· Speed, agility, quickness: 10. The shuttlecock is hit every .8 to .9 seconds, so you have to be fast.

· Hand-eye coordination: 10. Anticipating and hitting the shuttlecock with the racket involves quick coordination.

· Flexibility: 7. You're not as flexible as a gymnast because you need some tightening of the muscles to move quickly, but you do a lot of bending and reaching.

· Body composition: 8. You lose fat and gain some lean muscle mass.