Both my wife and me plays badminton. Both of us started playing in our teens. Our 4 yrs old recently wanted to join us in the court. We got her a shortened racket. Despite numerous attempt, she couldn't hit the shuttle. Kids differ in ability but in general, is 4 really too young for playing badminton?
not too young at all. Just a little tap is all that is required. Hand feed shuttles directly onto the racket. Learning hand eye co-ordination at a young age is the focus
Let's take a step back and let me be the devil's advocate. It sounds like you and your wife are taking your daughter along to badminton. I assume there are not a lot of other children there whom she can play with. If so, then of course she will want to participate with her parents. However, I don't think it's good for four year-olds to be only participating things her parents put interest in. As coachgary says, it's important for kids to develop basic motor skills. But at her age that would be better accomplished in other ways. For example, play activities with other children will allow a child to develop physical skills (through play), develop social interaction skills (through interaction with other children), and develop unique abilities (through participation in various activities). For something a bit more on topic, I think four years-old is too young to be playing badminton. You said yourself that both you and your wife started in your teens. Is there any reason that your daughter must play right now?
Thanks all for the reply. hhwoot: I like devil's advocate. You correctly described the scenario. However, we also play tennis and she also goes to the tennis court with us. Our friends' kids are learning tennis, and we took our daughter to the class as well. Somehow, she is not interested. There is no reason why she should play badminton now. We were in a similar situation with violin. Our daughter told us that she wanted to learn violin after she turns 3. Both me and my wife thinks she was too young but she kept pestering us so we let her join a group class when she was 3.5. It has not been smooth sailing but so far, she is serious about her violin. Now is badminton: we are in fact not sure whether we should be more supportive of her interest here, or try to divert it elsewhere. I personally think 4 yrs old is too young for any racket sports.
I like ViningWolff's idea with the string. It doesn't have to be real badminton at this point, just something where she work on her coordination and timing with a racquet. Hitting a moving target can be quite difficult at that age, so maybe tie a bird on a string and get her to hit the shuttle forehand, backhand, overhead, underhand, siderarm - any way you can think of. Make it into a game, get some other kids into it, when she gets tired of it switch to something else.
You could try something like these things: http://www.plusballs.com/index.htm I don't know much about them, but I think the general idea is just that they fly really slowly, so they're easier to hit. Apparently the largest ones are suitable for teaching 3-7yr olds badminton.
