Our Guide to Teaching Badminton in Primary Schools
Teaching badminton in primary school PE is a fantastic way to build fundamental movement skills in a fun, engaging environment. By focusing on simple activities and adaptable equipment, teaching badminton becomes accessible for all abilities, helping pupils develop coordination, balance, and confidence.
Badminton lessons develop physical skills, confidence and friendly competitiveness in a way that is accessible for children across Key Stage One and Key Stage Two. Teaching badminton is also so much fun and rewarding too – the slower speed of the shuttle allows children to experience early success, which helps motivation and encourages participation in physical activity.
They help to meet the expectations given of the PE Curriculum. For Key Stage 1, the Curriculum content says that children should be taught to:
- Master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities.
- Participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending.
They also support the subject content of the Key Stage Two PE National Curriculum, including:
- Play competitive games, modified where appropriate [for example, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, netball, rounders and tennis], and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending.
Badminton is included as an example sport within the curriculum, and while this isn’t a mandatory requirement, Badminton naturally covers a wide range of the subject content by developing tactical awareness, coordination and competitive play.
What children gain in badminton lessons
Badminton lessons aren’t always a first choice in primary school, but they are so fun and go far beyond shuttles and smashes…
- Building cognitive and tactical awareness
- Developing hand-eye coordination, balance, agility and movement skills
- Supporting emotional wellbeing, including confidence and resilience
- Fostering vital social skills, including teamwork, communication and sportsmanship
- Providing enrichment opportunities
On top of all that, badminton is one of the most accessible net-and-wall games that you can teach children in PE lessons. This is a biggie. Often overlooked, badminton shuttles are easier to control than balls so builds confidence and competence , making them an ideal starting point for developing coordination and racket skills.
Getting started with badminton lessons
It is important to focus on developing fundamental skills, basic badminton techniques and helping children understand the gameplay.
- Basic rules and safety: the basic rules of badminton, safe use of racket and awareness of space to ensure children play safely.
- Racket and shuttle control: how to hold a racket correctly and practise controlling the shuttlecock through simple hitting or throwing activities.
- Basic shot techniques: fundamental shots such as forehand and backhand hits, focusing on control rather than power.
- Serving: the underarm serve, helping children learn how to start a game and aim the shuttlecock into space.
- Movement and positioning: move to the shuttle and recover to a ready position, developing agility and spatial awareness.
Key badminton skills to develop as the class progresses
As your class develop confidence in holding the racket and hitting the shuttlecock, move onto more advanced techniques and aspects of badminton.
- Rallying and partner work: lots of opportunities to keep rallies going with a partner, improving consistency and cooperation.
- Simple tactics: basic tactical ideas such as aiming for open spaces or hitting away from an opponent.
- Finally, move onto group games: including scoring, teamwork and good sportsmanship.
Our Badminton lesson plans makes teaching badminton easy! Detailed badminton units of work, including lesson plans, and supporting content such as a knowledge organisers, video demonstrations and assessment documents. Available from Year 1, through to Year 6 with a focus on progression, and whole child wellbeing and development. Sign up to PE Planning and you’ll have access to all these resources and plans.
Unlock any full unit of work for free with this special offer—Just get in touch for more info!
Fun badminton games
Finally, here are a couple of fun PE games to begin teaching badminton. Dig out the badminton rackets, round up the shuttlecocks and give these a try…
Around the world
This is a fast-paced, energetic game that helps children develop their badminton skills – teaching badminton stays fresh and fun for you, too!
What you need:
- Cones
- Shuttles
- Rackets
- Net
How to set up:
- Set up three large courts.
- Teams of 4/5 pupils lined up behind each other on each court.
- Teams should be facing the net opposite their opponents.
How to play:
- The game is started with a serve towards their opponent.
- When pupils hit one shot, they run in a clockwise direction joining the back of the opposing team’s line.
- The aim is for the rally to keep going with each pupil hitting one shot and then running to the opposite team.
- Aim to use overhead shots to keep a rallying going, explain power and height is needed to keep a continuous rally.
- Progression: competitive rally. introduce three lives for each pupil. When a mistake is made i.e., hit out of court or into the net, subtract a life.
Scoring:
- Pupils run to one side of the channel without getting hit.
Defend your hoop
Kick off your badminton lesson with this warm-up activity—it’s fun and only needs minimal equipment!
What you need:
- Hoops
- Shuttles
How to set up:
- Pupils work in pairs and should stand facing each other, around 5/6 steps apart.
- Each pupils should have a hoop on the floor behind them.
- Each pair requires 1 shuttle.
How to play:
- The aim is to score points by throwing and catching the shuttle back and forth.
- Players must use an overarm throw.
- Players can only hold the shuttle for a maximum of 3 seconds before throwing.
- Each player must defend their own hoop and try to score in their opponent’s hoop.
- Keep moving pupils around so they play against different opponents.
Scoring:
- 1 point each time the shuttle lands in your opponent’s hoop.
Download badminton lesson plans
Teaching badminton is a fun and adaptable way for you to introduce net and wall games to primary school children of any age. For your class, it’s a fun way to develop hand-eye coordination, agility, balance and movement skills while building confidence and understanding how to play fairly within games.
Badminton in PE also helps children develop transferable skills that apply to other sports such as tennis and volleyball. And, it’s a sport that can be played indoors, ideal for any time of year rain or shine!
We’ve provided an introduction here to teaching badminton, but you can get far more insight and guidance using our downloadable lesson plans.
Need more help with badminton lessons? Get in touch! We’re more than happy to help with this, or any PE topic. We’d love to hear from you!
