Why are Badminton Courts Green?

Why Are Badminton Courts Green

I was wondering why badminton courts on professional tournaments are usually green, so I did a bit of research to find out.

So, why are badminton courts green? There is no specific regulatory reason for it. The most likely explanation is that, when the badminton mats were first created, the products used in them made them green, so that became the first color used and because of that, it has become the “traditional” color.

If you want to know a bit more about the colors of the badminton courts, be sure to read on.

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Why are badminton courts green? The in-depth answer

As I explained in the short answer, there is not specific regulatory reason why most courts are green. According to the laws of badminton, there is no specific color that the court should have. The only requirement regarding color is that the lines should be of a contrasting color with the floor.

The only mention that can be found to the color of the court is on the Equipment certification program for flooring from the Badminton World Federation. You can find the quote below:

Colour of the floor and that it can be certified that the color factor does not alter the playing properties of the floor. And some colors would not be able to be approved by BWF for International Play. All colors need to be submitted.

BWF EQUIPMENT CERTIFICATION PROGRAMME FLOORING

This means that, if a manufacturer wants the court to be certified, it needs to make sure that the color will be in line with BWF. That might be a reason for the lack of innovation in this field. Since the incentive of the manufacturers is to keep it simple and make sure that the flooring is certified, they choose the safest color, green.

What other colors can a badminton court be?

The color of the badminton court is only limited by the manufacturer’s imagination, as long as the BWF does not consider that it is suitable for International Play.

As far as badminton mats are concerned, below are some examples of different colors. If you want to know a bit more about badminton mats, check our badminton mats post.

Victor Badminton Court Mobile

Victor has a mobile court that is blue. You can see it following this link. This is the only badminton mat I have been able to find that comes with a different color than green as a standard, which indicates how widespread the use of green is.

Li-Ning Special Red Edition in World Tour Finals

Li-Ning manufactured a Special Edition of their court mats in red for the World Tour Finals. You can see it following this link.

In a sports hall a wooden floor or blue color

If badminton is played on a normal sports hall floor, then the more standard color stops being green. In this case, green is hardly used. The most normal colors in this circumstance are the natural wood color and the blue color that is so common on Polymeric and Sheet Flooring.

In this instance, the color of the lines become very important because, most likely, they will need to be different not only from the floor itself but also from the lines for all the other sports.

What should the color of the lines be?

According to the Laws of Badminton, the lines have to be easily distinguishable from the court and ideally yellow or white. The quote below is extracted from the document.

COURT AND COURT EQUIPMENT

1.2 The lines marking out the court shall be easily distinguishable and preferably be colored white or yellow.

Laws of Badminton

So, even though the normal setting you will see on television is a green court and white lines, that is not mandatory. This is only the preferred arrangement. The lines are white so that they contrast easily with the green court. But, in the case of the Victor court I mention before, the lines can be either white or yellow when ordering that court.

If instead, the lines are marked on a Sports Hall where other sports are also played, the important characteristic is that they are easily distinguishable from all other lines, so the color will depend on what is already installed there.

Is there any guidance on what colors are acceptable?

As we said before, there is no regulation for what color the court needs to have. However, there is guidance online on colors for indoor sport flooring. The most complete I have been able to find is from Sports England.

The recommendation is for the light reflectance value of the flooring to be around 40-50% and to have a contrast with both the floor markings and with the walls. This is in order to ensure visual comfort but also to help the visually impaired to easily navigate the surface.

It is also recommended that the courts have a matt finish in order to avoid glare from light fittings.

As for the lines, whenever badminton is played in a multipurpose hall where other sports are also played, the color that Sports England recommends for badminton is white, which is also the most popular color in international tournaments.

Final words

And with this, we have arrived at the end of this post. If you have any comments or doubts, please let me know in the comments below.

If you are interested in other badminton rules, you can check our badminton game rules post, where we explain all badminton rules in an easy-to-understand language.

License for featured image

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons license “Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International”.

Attribution: ITU PicturesFlickr, CC BY-SA 4.0

By MiquelM

I have been playing badminton since I was a kid, playing in both national and international tournaments at a semi-professional level. If you want to know a bit more about me, check my "About me" page.

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