Functional clothing

With clothing, one rule stands above all, and it's Crossminton-specific: if the Speeder touches your body or your clothing — expressly including shoes and socks — the point is lost. Loose, flapping things are thus an immediate risk. A loose shirt that the Speeder grazes in passing costs you the rally. So the first rule of playing clothes is simply: tight enough that nothing flaps.

On top of that comes the jersey requirement at official tournaments. At the big tournaments you wear a top with your name and country on the back in all matches; at smaller ones this applies from the semifinal, at the 100-point tournaments not at all. The details are in the tournament regulations under „Rules“.

With the material, a look at the fabric is worthwhile. Cotton soaks up sweat and then holds a damp layer right against the skin; in high summer that cools pleasantly, on cool days it draws the warmth out of your body. Functional fibers made of polyester take up hardly any moisture, transport it outward and dry quickly — for short, intense sessions the first choice. Merino wool does take up moisture, but wicks it away better than cotton and stays fresh-smelling longer; its strength is long wear at changing temperatures.

For outdoors the layering principle helps: a thin base layer that carries the sweat away from the skin, over it a warming layer of trapped air, and in wind or wet a protective layer on top. The advantage is that you can take layers off and put them back on. What matters is consistency: a single cotton layer in the middle soaks through and ruins the whole system. On cool days the clothing may sit a little looser, because the air between insulates — „loose“ here means an air layer, not flapping; the fault rule from above still applies.

Wind and sun demand little extra. A windproof, close-cut jacket keeps the wind off and still stays breathable; in wind a flapping jacket is doubly unfavorable, as a point risk and as a distraction. Against sun there are sports shirts with high UV protection that keep off considerably more than a white cotton shirt. How warm or cold you get in the process differs from person to person; that's exactly why the layering principle is so practical, because it can be adjusted to your own sense of it.

Put on what you wear when playing and do a deep lunge: is anything flapping somewhere that the Speeder could catch? Feel the fabric — cotton that soaks up, or functional material that stays dry? And if you play outdoors: do you have a layer with you that you can put on in wind or cold and take off again in warmth?