Mark your space
Mark it once. Every card in badminton starts from this space and adds what it needs.
The space
At home, a strip about 3 m wide and 6 m long, on floor or ground with nothing breakable near it. Tie a rope or washing line between two chairs across the middle as the net, at about the height of the child's chest. A full court is 13.4 m long and 6.1 m wide for doubles, with the net 1.524 m high in the middle and 1.55 m at the posts. For young children use a smaller court and a lower net, or no net and a line of cones, until they can reach.
Where it fits: lane, terrace, park (no wind: use a foam shuttle outdoors), school ground, indoor room.
Mark in this order
- The net line across the middle of the strip
- A service line on each side, 2 m from the net
- A circle about 1 m wide in each far corner (chalk or tape)
Chalk or tape is enough. Tick each mark as you make it.
Practice kit first
Any racket or a table-tennis bat, a balloon, a foam ball or foam shuttle, buckets or boxes as targets, a tennis ball.
Real kit (a badminton racket, feather or plastic shuttles) only from the Intermediate cards.
Plastic (nylon) shuttles last longer than feather ones.
Never keep shuttles in a pocket: they bend.
Indoor court shoes, not running shoes, for sideways steps.
No net?
A line of cones or a rope on the floor will do for the first cards.
Safety
Take anything glass away from the wall; keep your eyes on the shuttle, not on the partner's racket; no running backwards (turn and step instead); no shuttles left lying on the court during play, and pick them up by hand, never flicked up with the racket; space players so rackets cannot touch; in doubles, same-handed partners on the same side where possible.
No drill aims a shuttle at the head.
awiseathlete.com/sports/badminton/setup