20 Benefits And Drawbacks of Badminton (The Full List)

If you have ever played badminton, you might have noticed some pros and cons of it, but I can assure you that there are some that you haven’t noticed either. Be that as it may, in this article I’ll walk you through 12 advantages of badminton and 8 disadvantages.

Top badminton benefits are the improvement of your physical and mental health, the easy accessibility of it, and the affordable price without forgetting the joy you get from it. Some drawbacks are the risk of injury, the underappreciation of the sport, and that you can’t play it alone.

There are a ton of more pros and cons of badminton, so without a further due, let’s take a closer look at them starting from the advantages.

Related: Why Do I Love Badminton?

Advantages

1. It Is Good For Physical Health

Badminton is the world’s fastest sport which guarantees a good amount of physical activity that will not only keep you in shape but improve your fitness level as well. The best thing about badminton’s physical benefits is that it doesen’t target just a couple of body parts. No, badminton is a full-body workout that trains you from head to toes.

Badminton includes a lot of rapid explosive movement, jumping, smashing, crunches, and flexes that are all beneficial to your muscles, joints, and heart. Your calves, legs, glutes, quads, core, back, arms, and chest are all exposed to the workout, which improves your health in all physical aspects.

Many people are familiar with badminton, especially as a relaxed game while on the picnic or own back yard. You can play badminton without breaking a sweat, but if you want a good workout out of it, you certainly can, and that is highly recommended.

Physical activity has numerous benefits that go well beyond toned muscles and flexible joints. I highly encourage you to read this article from World Health Organization so you can see how important physical activity, in this case, badminton really is.

2. Improves Your Reflexes

The Badminton court is 13.4m (44ft) long, and the fastest badminton strike has been struck at the speed of 426km/h (265mph), so the reflexes and explosive speed required are world-class. Naturally, playing such a sport trains your reflexes better than most things you could do.

Reflexes benefit you in more ways than just badminton. For example, reflexes aid you in everyday situations such as crossing the street, driving a car or riding a bike, working a job, and much more. If you have poor reflexes, you are more likely to get an injury and lack in required performance.

Badminton is really beneficial to reflexes because you need to react to the shuttle in a matter of seconds. So in a way, badminton has an effect on improving your whole life by improving your reflexes.

3. Stimulates The Brain

Brains are naturally connected with reflexes and physical activity, and badminton stimulates them very well. Your brain is super active during badminton because there are so many skills you need to master and use to play it well. For example, you need to be mindful of your:

• Stance
• Grip
• Footwork
• Strokes
• Timing
• Rhythm
• Tactics
• Strategies

All of these things in addition to hand-eye coordination, opponent analysis, anticipation, and perception are happening nearly simultaneously. This makes your brain work, and that is healthy.

Many kinds of research show that people who play brain active sports have a better ability to filter out the noise and static, process information and situations better, and have a decreased chance of getting memory illnesses.

4. You Can Play Regardless of Age

You can literally play badminton from the day you can hold a racket till the day you die. Think about other sports such as Ice Hockey, Football, Basketball, Golf, etc. They are much more physically demanding so you can’t start them as young and certainly can’t play them as old as you can badminton.

There are various badminton benefits for children from increased development of limb coordination to better physiological functions and much more. It goes without saying that these skills are vital if one wants to live a normal life with excellent skills. Not that without badminton, these skills won’t develop, but they will develop faster and further.

When talking about the elderly and seniors, badminton has numerous benefits for them as well. Things such as reflexes, cardiovascular system, bones, joints, and balance are improved and maintained, which is super important because these things tend to worsen when ageing. Badminton truly is beneficial for all ages!

It’s a common belief that young people have nearly always all the advantages in sports when compared to older people, and often that is true in recovery time, agility, and strength. However, older badminton players are often more confident, social, tactical, and strategic and don’t compare themself to others which can be the line between a win or loss and often leads to a more fun time.

5. It Offers Social Networking

One of my personal favourites about badminton is social networking and interaction, whether with your spouse, girl or boyfriend, friends, family, or even strangers.

Many times when I have felt sad or not so good, a ‘game of badminton has never failed to cheer me up. Interaction with others, especially if the person is essential to you, is highly important for many things, and it will often refresh your mind.

Social interaction also has many researched benefits that I have experienced, such as lightened mood and increased happiness levels. Also, it gives you a sense of belonging, security, and safety in addition to decreased risk of dementia. Finally, you can open up to someone and receive their trust as well in the middle of a fun badminton game. I always find badminton refreshing and replenishing.

6. You Can Play Singles And Doubles

In badminton, you have different playing options. You can play singles which are 1v1 or doubles, meaning 2v2. Depending on the day, I can like singles and doubles, but if you can find three extra players, doubles are always quite fun as hanging out with a group of friends is beneficial, as we learned above in the social interaction section.

On the other hand, if you can’t find three other players or enjoy singles more, then that is what you can do, and there are no problems whatsoever. It’s always good to have a couple of options in case you need some change.

7. Badminton Is Easily Accessible

The easy accessibility of badminton and the fact that you can play it virtually anywhere by using a badminton set is the reason why there are more than 220 million worldwide badminton players and 1.3 million in the United States.

Badminton does have a relatively recreational and lazy reputation mainly because many people know it only as a backyard sport that is played during a picnic, in your backyard with kids, or at the school. While that is true, badminton is always a serious sport.

Anyways, you can play badminton anywhere you want, and that is a huge benefit that most sports don’t have.

8. It Doesn’t Break Your Bank

When comparing badminton to sports like ice hockey, football, golf, and even tennis, it is considerably less expensive. In fact, many families can’t afford to let their child or even multiple children to ice hockey practice because the monthly fees are hundreds of dollars in addition to a huge load of required equipment and trips that can cost thousands of dollars.

Badminton, on the other hand, is quite cheap with a usual playing price of $10/hour which is always split among players that are renting the court. The most expensive piece of equipment is the badminton racket or shoes, and you can get off quite cheap there as well.

In fact, you can get a badminton set for less than $50, and there are multiple rackets and a net if you want to practice some relaxed backyard badminton.

Of course, you can spend a ton of money on a very expensive badminton racket, expensive trips, and coaching, but that isn’t necessary, unlike in other sports where you need to spend money in order to practice it.

9. Weather Isn’t An Issue

As you might know, there are many reasons why badminton is an indoor sport, such as weather and the lightweight of the shuttlecock. This is good because this means you can play badminton whenever you want if you go to an indoor badminton court.

If you want to play golf and it’s pouring water from the sky, or it is too cold to be comfortable, you might need to reschedule your golf session. However, if there is the worst blizzard in the decade, you can still go off and play badminton in an indoor hall.

10. Do It For a Living If You’re Good

Did you know that badminton is an Olympic sport and there are a ton of successful badminton players that do it for a living? Well, it isn’t easy to achieve that because badminton can be hard, but if you are good and committed, it certainly is possible!

Badminton players don’t earn as much as tennis players; however, the earnings, especially from top-level players, are more than enough to last for you or even your grandchildren.

This certainly is a benefit to badminton because there are some sports that you can’t live off of. Also, the tournament price money isn’t the only way to earn a living as a badminton player, and the same principles hold if you were to look at how table tennis players make money off the sport.

11. Badminton Is Safe To Play

Badminton is one of the world’s safest sport, and you can know it without even checking it from anywhere if you think about it. There are dangerous sports such as Football, Rugby, Free Diving, and then sports that aren’t so dangerous but can be if you are unlucky such as Frisbee golf or Cycling.

However, there really isn’t anything life-threatening in badminton that could happen. The most common badminton injuries are ankle sprains, tennis elbows, and rotator cuff injuries. That being said, badminton is super safe.

12. It’s Really Fun

Last but certainly not least, badminton is a fun, low entry-level sport for all ages where you can hang out with friends without the fear of big injuries. The whole package is the makings of a perfect sport, and that is why it is so popular in the world.

In addition to innocent fun, there are numerous health benefits of having fun. Having fun can have advantages such as:

• Reduced stress
• Increased serotonin levels (pleasure)
• More energy
• Positive thoughts
• Deeper sleep
• Improved connection with other people
• And much more

Disadvantages

Now, let’s move on to the disadvantages, and as in all things, badminton has some of them as well.

1. There Is Always The Risk of Injury

First of all, there is always a risk of injury even in just plain walking, and badminton is no different. Most common badminton injuries include:

• Tennis Elbow
• Rotator Cuff Injury
• Wrist Injury
• Ankle Sprain
• Achilles Tendon Rupture
• Jumper’s Knee
• Blisters

The best way to reduce injuries is to learn proper footwork and techniques so that you won’t strain your joints over and over again. Also, do not grip your racket too tight because it will put too much pressure on your hand when you smash, causing tennis elbow.

Also, investing in proper badminton shoes with lateral support and shock absorption is extremely important.

Read also: Can You Use Badminton Shoes In Other Sports?

2. Badminton Is Underrated

Badminton is really underrated, which annoys me sometimes. Don’t get me wrong; there are over 220 million worldwide badminton players but only a 1.3millon in the United States.

Also, badminton’s reputation is quite a weak kids game which it can be. However, it certainly can be a very demanding sport that requires tremendous speed power, and balance between the mind and body.

3. You Can’t Play Badminton Alone

You can train tennis and table tennis alone, but the options are far less in badminton. A second player is really needed if you want to have a good training session.

There are shuttlecock machines that will shoot shuttlecocks your way; however, they aren’t as good as tennis or table tennis machines, and the options really stop there. In tennis or table tennis, you can use a wall or the table to train, etc, but the shuttlecock won’t bounce back on your way.

This is definitely one of the biggest cons in badminton, if not the biggest.

4. Badminton Isn’t Free

I listed the cost of badminton as the advantage as well because it isn’t expensive. However, it isn’t free either, and money is always money.

The essential things you need to play badminton are the racket, shuttlecock, and court. There are free public courts sparsely spread, so if you live near one, you can take advantage of it. However, remember to use nylon shuttlecocks because they are fit for outdoors.

Speaking of shuttlecocks, if you want to save money, use nylon shuttlecocks because they last longer and are cheaper to purchase. Also, you can get a badminton racket cheaply, or you can buy a used one. All in all, you can start badminton with far less than €50.

Read also: Feather Vs. Nylon Shuttlecock: Which One For You?

5. It May Be Time Consuming

Renting a court, going to the court, finding a partner, playing your session, taking a shower after, driving back home, and you name it. Yes, that will undoubtedly take many hours from your day, so if you are busy with work, family, or other responsibilities, it may be difficult to find time for badminton.

And let’s say you find time; you may just be too tired for a sports session that takes hours if your day has already been a tough one.

However, if you love badminton, you can find time for it, but it may require resourcefulness and effort.

6. There Is A Learning Curve

The basics of badminton are relatively easy to learn, even for a child. However, if you want to advance to a higher level, there is a massive leap in what you need to know and master.

I have an in-depth article about 10 badminton skills you need to master to dominate on the court that I highly encourage you to read. Anyways, skills such as proper footwork, strokes, serving, timing, rhythm, anticipation, and more require a great deal of practice which can be frustrating at first.

But believe me when I say that everything on the list is learnable; you simply need to invest time and effort, which will take you to your goals.

7. Your Height Can Be a Disadvantage

Generally, the height isn’t a disadvantage because usually people’s height differences arent so drastic. However, if you are shorter than the average and your opponent is taller, you might be at a disadvantage.

Taller players can reach further and cover the court in fewer steps, which will save energy. Therefore you may need to work harder on the court to achieve the same results. However, this often isn’t the determination of victory or defeat because so many other more important factors play a role in that.

Still, height can be a disadvantage, especially if you play competitive badminton.

8. It Isn’t a Team Sport

Team sports are often respected more, you can make a living out of it more easily, and you can find friends better as well. It’s safe to say that team sports have more advantages in general.

However, badminton is for specific kinds of people, and if you enjoy single sports as I do, badminton might just be the right choice for you. Nonetheless, team sports are often favored by more people, so that’s why it may be even hard to find someone to come and play badminton with you.