How to film your badminton games

How to film badminton with a phone: put it on a tripod or clamp behind one baseline, centred, about 1.5–2.5 m (5–8 ft) up, in landscape, with the whole court including all four corners in frame. Record at 60 fps for normal analysis and 120 fps if you want reliable smash speeds, lock exposure under steady light, and ask the people around you before you film them. Use the planner below to test your spot before you pack the tripod.

The best angle to film badminton

Behind a baseline, elevated, centred. This view shows both halves of the court, both sidelines and the full depth of every shot, which is what you need to judge positioning, shot placement and whether a shuttle landed in. TV coverage uses the same end-on view from a high camera for the same reason.

• Height matters most. From a phone on the floor, the far half of the court is squashed into a thin strip and far-court landings are guesswork. Raise the phone to around head height or a bit above and the far court opens up. Try the planner: drop the height under a meter and watch the warning appear.
• Distance behind the baseline. The further back, the easier it is to fit the near corners. With a typical phone’s standard (1×) lens you need several meters of space behind the court to fit the whole width; many halls don’t have that, which is where the 0.5× ultra wide lens helps (at the cost of some distortion at the edges).
• Centred, not in the corner. A corner view looks dynamic but makes one sideline much harder to read. Use it for highlights, not analysis.
• Side views (from the sideline at the net) are great for technique close-ups of one player, and terrible for judging depth or line calls on the far side.

Our guide where to put your phone walks through step-by-step setups for different halls.

Mounts: tripods, clamps and fences

• Tall tripod + phone clamp. The most flexible option. Look for one that extends to around 1.6–2 m (5–6.5 ft). Splay the legs fully and hang your bag from the hook if it has one.
• Clamp mount. A spring or screw clamp with a phone holder grips a railing, balcony edge, chair back or the top of a barrier. A balcony is the best seat in the house.
• Fence mount. On outdoor or caged courts, a fence clamp gives you instant height without a tripod.
• Safety. Keep every mount completely off the court and out of the run-off behind the baseline where players chase clears. Tape or weigh down tripod legs if people walk past.

Landscape vs portrait

Film in landscape. A badminton court seen end-on is wider than it is tall in the frame once you are a few meters back, and landscape gives the sidelines room. Portrait wastes pixels on the ceiling and floor and makes it easy to cut off the sidelines (switch orientation in the planner to see). If you want vertical clips for social media, film landscape and crop later: highlight tools, including Badminton Sensei’s Studio, can export 9:16 from landscape footage.

Frame rate: 30, 60, 120 or 240 fps?

A shuttle covers a lot of ground between frames. The faster it moves and the lower your frame rate, the bigger the jump between frames, and the more blurred each frame. Here is how far the shuttle travels between two consecutive frames:

• 30 fps: fine for watching rallies and tactics. Too coarse for speed: a fast smash jumps meters between frames.
• 60 fps: a good everyday choice for analysis and smoother slow motion, at modest file sizes.
• 120 fps: the sweet spot for measuring smash speed. Enough samples along the shuttle’s path to estimate speed well, and the gym lights still give enough exposure.
• 240 fps: lovely slow motion of technique, but each frame gets less light (grainier indoors), files are big, and some phones drop resolution.

If you want to measure your smash, read how to measure smash speed with a phone or try the smash speed calculator.

Lighting and exposure

• Don’t point the camera at windows. The phone exposes for the bright glass and the players turn into silhouettes.
• Lock exposure and focus. In the iPhone Camera app, press and hold on the court to lock AE/AF so the image doesn’t pump every time a player in a white shirt walks past.
• Watch for flicker. Many hall lights pulse with the mains supply. At high frame rates this can show up as brightness flicker or rolling bands. If you see it in the preview, try a different frame rate or a different court.
• Clean the lens. A fingerprint smear blurs a fast white shuttle into nothing.

Storage per minute (approximate)

Sizes vary with phone model, codec and how busy the scene is, but with the efficient HEVC format an iPhone records roughly:

Figures are approximate, based on the estimates Apple has shown in iPhone camera settings and on independent tests. For a full club night, 1080p is plenty for analysis; 4K is worth it mainly for highlight reels.

Battery and audio

Recording for an hour with the screen on drains a phone fast, especially at high frame rates. Start fully charged, plug in a power bank, and turn on Low Power Mode or lower the screen brightness if your app allows. Audio is optional for analysis, but the sound of contact is surprisingly useful when reviewing: you can hear a clean hit versus a frame shot. Halls are echoey, but audio quality doesn’t matter for analysis, so don’t worry about a microphone.

Privacy: filming other people on court

A wide shot of your court will usually catch players on neighbouring courts, coaches and spectators. Be considerate:

• Tell the people you play with that you are recording, and ask before you post anything.
• Check your club or venue’s rules. Many have policies on filming, especially around juniors.
• Never post footage of children without clear permission from their parents or guardians.
• Blur faces before sharing. Badminton Sensei’s Studio can blur or pixelate faces in reels and cards.

Quick checklist before you hit record

1. Phone behind a baseline, centred, 1.5–2.5 m up, off the court.
2. Landscape; all four corners and the net in the preview.
3. 60 fps for analysis, 120 fps for smash speed.
4. Exposure and focus locked; lens clean; no window behind the court.
5. Battery charged or plugged in; enough free storage.
6. Everyone on court knows they are being filmed.

Then make the footage count: how to analyse your own badminton video shows what to look for, and the video analysis app page shows what can be automated.