Can You Play Badminton On a Tennis Court? (Tips and Tricks)

When talking about racket sports, people that aren’t familiar with them often think that they are nearly similar in all ways. However, even when the sports use rackets, they can be very different even when there are some similarities.

One of the most common questions considering badminton and tennis is whether you can play badminton on a tennis court. That’s what you will learn in this article in addition to what are the size differences and whether you should play both sports at the same time in your life.

Before moving on to the main subject, can you play badminton on a tennis court?

You can play badminton on a tennis court if you remove the tennis net and place a portable badminton net in its place. Also, many tennis courts are painted with additional badminton court lines which makes playing badminton easy on a tennis court. Casual badminton is possible without any of that.

By following these rules, you are able to play authentic badminton with all the features and nothing left behind. However, you can play casual badminton without any of that by simply playing with a tennis net and marking the borders yourself with personal items or leave them unmarked altogether.

TennisCanada has made great research about how to integrate a badminton court into a tennis court so if you are interested in that, you should check it out.

Is Badminton and Tennis Court the Same?

One of the biggest reasons why badminton can’t be properly played very easily on a tennis court is the court itself.

Badminton and tennis courts aren’t the same because they vary in size and the lines aren’t compatible for both sports. A badminton court is 13.4m (43ft) long and 6.1m (20ft) wide, whereas a tennis court is 23.77m (78ft) long and 10.97m (36ft) wide. Also, the court materials are very different.

Speaking about court materials, badminton is an indoor sport (Find Out Why) whereas tennis is meant for the outdoors. Naturally, the court materials are different even tho you can play badminton outdoors and tennis indoors. However, in the vast majority of cases including competitive matches, badminton is indoors and tennis outdoors.

Indoor badminton courts are generally made either from wood or synthetic materials. This is because it gives the best traction and playing conditions for badminton. On the other hand, there are four tennis court materials that are hard, clay, grass, or artificial grass. These give tennis the best conditions even tho you should use different kinds of tennis shoes for each court type.

Finally, the net height is very different between badminton and tennis which makes it incompatible to play badminton on a tennis court. A tennis net is only 91.4cm (3ft) high whereas a badminton net is 1.55m (5ft) high so there is a big difference between them.

What many people do if they want to play badminton on a tennis court is that they remove the tennis net, and bring their own portable badminton net so they can play authentic badminton. Given that most tennis courts are outdoors, I highly recommend using only nylon shuttlecocks because they are more durable and weatherproof.

Below is a table where I have listed all the information so you can easily scan through it.

Badminton and Tennis Court Differences:

Court Differences	Badminton Court	Tennis Court
Court size	13.4m (43ft) long & 6.1m (20ft) wide	23.77m (78ft) long & 10.97m (36ft) wide
Court location	Indoors	Outdoors
Common court materials	Wood & Synthetic	Hard, Clay & Grass
Net height	1.55m (5ft)	91.4cm (3ft)

Is Badminton Bad for Tennis?

As a racket sports lover myself, I have often wondered what many others do as well which Is: Is playing badminton bad for playing tennis?

Mixing badminton with tennis is not a good idea because even when both sports are racket sports, they are completely different. Badminton is more wrist-oriented with a considerably lighter racket and a shuttlecock at the ball’s place. You will likely mix the skills which will impair your tennis.

There are skills that badminton will likely improve for tennis such as the serve, overhead smash, hand-eye coordination, and reflexes. However, nearly everything else is different which is why most people me included don’t recommend mixing racket sports together.

In fact, research has shown that playing any other racket sports table tennis excluded will worsen your tennis performance. This is because the basic idea is the same, but everything else is different, which will scramble your tennis skills. The only exception is table tennis because it is different enough not to have an impact.

What Games Can You Play On a Tennis Court?

Tennis courts are big enough for many sports, so even though it is obviously meant for tennis, you can play other sports, including badminton. However, what other games you can play on a tennis court.

• Pickleball – You can play pickleball on a tennis court with the same principles as badminton. You need to integrate the pickleball court’s borderlines to the tennis court or find one that already has them. Pickleball court is about the same size as a badminton court. Also, you will need a portable pickleball net.
• Soccer tennis – Fun way to play tennis without a racket. You can use a tennis net or make a border from cones or backpacks. Then, use a tennis ball to get it on the opponent’s side using anything but your hands. When it comes to the rules, the ball can bounce once in your side before losing a point. Also, what I like to do is to change the tennis ball to a soccer ball because I find tennis ball to be too hard to make fun out of it.
• Dodgeball – Everybody knows what dodgeball is, and a tennis court is perfect for it. You need a group of people and multiple balls. Split into equal teams, separate to your court halves, and place the balls on the centerline. Start the game, run for the balls, and eliminate your opponents by throwing the balls at them. Last team standing wins!
• Line Tag – Similar to regular tag with a fun twist! Spread out to the tennis court and select one friend to be ”it”. The chosen one tries to catch other people tagging them to join being ”it”. The fun twist is that you need to run along the tennis court’s lines!
• First to 100 – Easy and fun game that can be played anywhere with space, which makes a tennis court perfect for it. You need multiple people spread out on the court. One person hits the tennis ball into the air and calls a number for it. Anyone who catches the ball gets that many points, but the same amount of points are deducted from the player if they drop the ball. The first one to reach 100 points wins!

Can You Play Tennis and Badminton At the Same Time?

Technically, you can play tennis and badminton at the same time. However, it isn’t recommended that you mix racket sports because the skills, rules, and techniques can and often will get mixed up, which will worsen your performance on all racket sports.

On the other hand, if you enjoy both racket sports and don’t have ambitious goals, but you are more of a casual player, then I see no harm in playing both tennis and badminton at the same time.