If you have an interest in both badminton and tennis, I can understand your decision of wearing badminton shoes for tennis. Some will tell you it’s a good idea while others will tell you it’s not. I’ve done some research on this question so you don’t have to.
Using badminton shoes to play tennis is not recommended but it can be done up to a certain extent. These 2 sports have different movements and not to mention, played on different types of courts. Badminton shoes can be decent for certain types of tennis courts but not all.
Badminton and tennis have some similarities but at the same time many differences as well. That is why it is important to get specific shoes for the specific sport you are playing.
Movements In Badminton & Tennis
Even though badminton and tennis have some similar footwork, the movements for both these sports are very different. This is largely due to the difference in court size for both these sports.
Tennis courts are almost 2 times bigger than the courts of badminton. As a result of this, the movements in badminton is like Chasse in Jazz dancing while tennis is more like sprinting. As you may or may not know, badminton shoes are not the best for running mainly because of the thin insoles.
Furthermore, badminton requires you to move in all sorts of directions all the time while tennis does not. You might be thinking to yourself, “but in tennis, I have to run in every direction too.”
You are right, tennis does require you to do that, but not as often as badminton. In tennis, you will be running from side to side on your baseline most of the time and run forward for a drop shot every once in a while.
In contrast to badminton, you can hardly tennis players running up or down the court, let alone diagonally. Because of this, tennis shoes are designed to have better lateral grip support while badminton does not. While badminton shoes do have lateral grip, they are not made mainly for that.
Types of Courts
There are more types of courts in tennis compared to badminton. For casual play, badminton has 3 types while tennis has 4 but for competition, badminton only uses 1 type of court while tennis still uses 3.
In this article, we will only be discussing the courts each sports use for competition as it is more standardized. The 1 court that badminton use for competitions is a synthetic PU cour and for tennis, they use grass, clay, and hard courts (made of synthetic PU).
Badminton Court
Official world-class badminton competition only really uses 1 type of court which is PU. This type of court gives players a good grip while providing a cushion when they fall over. Badminton shoes are mostly made with these courts in mind.
Tennis Courts
1. Grass
Grass courts are very enjoyable to the eyes and it’s refreshing to see. Sadly, due to the high maintenance cost of these courts, they are not as common nowadays. They require constant mowing and watering. Moreover, they are much easily impacted by the weather compared to the other courts (clay and hard court).
This is a fast court to play in because balls don’t bounce as well on grass. So, players need to get to the ball quicker.
Badminton shoes would not be good for these types of surfaces. Grass courts can get really slippery due to dew or weather conditions. The grip of badminton shoes will not be enough to counteract that to give you enough traction.
2. Clay
Clay courts are easily installed but can be expensive to maintain in the long term. Traditionally, these courts are used in the French Open. They have a slower gameplay since the ball can bounce higher.
Tennis shoes made for this type of court has a herringbone pattern, which looks like a zig-zag pattern. This is to prevent the clay from getting stuck in the outsoles of your shoes.
Again, badminton shoes will be terrible if you wore them on clay since they don’t usually have zig-zag patterned outsoles. This will be problematic. The clay can easily trap between the outsole patterns causing you to lose grip. When you lose grip, chances of injuries will be extremely high, especially for a fast-paced game like tennis.
3. Hard Courts
Hard courts for tennis are either made of asphalt, concrete with paint coating (acrylic court) or synthetic court (similar to badminton’s).
For acrylic courts, they will be very harsh on your badminton shoes. The outsoles of badminton shoes are made of gum rubber which is soft and thin. Playing on such a hard surface, like acrylic courts, can wear them out very quickly. That being said, badminton shoes can be decent on acrylic courts since there are outdoor badminton courts with similar materials.
When it comes to the synthetic courts of tennis, badminton shoes can absolutely thrive, though not ideal, on these courts. The materials used are very similar to those on badminton courts. You will get the grip you need from your badminton shoes on this court.
Height of Shoe Heels
Badminton is a fast-paced game with a lot of quick changes in directions, hence the shoes are made to safely do that. That being said, badminton shoes usually have shoes with lower heels as compared to tennis shoes. This is to give players a lower center of gravity so they can balance better when making those quick direction changes without injuring their ankles.
It is better to wear shoes that are similar in design to running shoes when playing tennis as it requires a lot of sprinting. You do not have to change directions so quickly in tennis as compared to badminton. So, having a higher center of gravity is okay and it will make your feet feel a lot better in the long run.
Thin insoles
Every badminton player with experience will tell you to get shoes that have thin insoles for badminton to lower your chances of injury. This is great if you are playing badminton. You will be able to feel more of the ground, be more explosive, and most importantly prevent or lower chances of injuries. On the other hand, if you are using these shoes to run, they are horrible.
Like I’ve mentioned in the beginning, tennis movements are more like running while badminton is more like Chasse in Jazz dancing. The bad news is, these thin insoles are not ideal when it comes to running or sprinting. Your feet will start to hurt after a while because you can feel much more from the impact of every step compared to shoes with thicker insoles.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you can use badminton shoes to play tennis in certain types of tennis courts. This is not ideal since badminton and tennis have different movements. Wearing badminton shoes for tennis will wear them out much quicker. That is because there is a lot of running and sprinting in tennis, unlike badminton. The outsoles of badminton shoes are not made for this since they are thin and soft.
Only use badminton shoes for tennis if you have absolutely no choice. It is still best to get a pair of tennis shoes for longevity and safety. If you have a good pair of badminton shoes, it might just cost you more money if you wear them to play tennis since you have to replace them more often when they wear out.
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