Other Badminton Games: Variations

There are many other badminton games, variants of the game as well as total deviations (possibly predecessors). Kick Shuttlecock is played in both China and Vietnam. It is an extremely popular game which consists of teams of one or two people who use their feet to kick a shuttlecock over a net. Kick Shuttlecock uses the same scoring system as badminton. This game is the national sport of Vietnam.

Image of Authentic Shuttlecock.

The Brazilian game of Peteca Shuttlecock is played with teams of one or two people who use only their hands to put the Peteca over the net. No other part of the body is allowed to be used. Peteca is often played as preparatory training to volleyball.

Pington is an indoor game which is either played as singles, with two opposing players or doubles with two players on each team. Pington is very similar to badminton, but rather than using racquets wooden paddles are used. The game was invented in 1960 at Texas Southmost College1.

Chinese Hacky Sack, Kinja, and Shuttlecock are common names for the game Jianzi. This game has a special feather shuttlecock which is fixed with a rubber sole or plastic discs. Homemade shuttlecocks often have a coin with a hole in the centre to provide weight to the cork head.This game is very like badminton except that Jianzi is played without racquets or paddles. The players can use any part of the body, but not their hands, to keep the shuttlecock from touching the ground. The legs and especially the feet are predominately used to balance and propel the shuttlecock upwards.

Battledore or Jue de Volantis is an early version of badminton. Two players use small racquets, battledores, which are made from parchment or rows of gut stretched over a wooden frame and shuttlecocks made from a base of cork with feathers around the top. The players bat the shuttlecock backwards and forwards to each other as many times as they can without letting it touch the ground.

Many of the badminton like games are thought to have originated in ancient Greece over 2000 years ago and then spread to India and China. Games such as Battledore and Shuttlecock have been very popular games in India, China, and Japan for at least 2000 years, and children in Europe have played similar games for centuries.

Badminton Life


1. Notes on Pington