How to Organize a Badminton Tournament

Talk to your own teams first to check for interest. You'll need to select a time when people are likely to be available and try to find out who is willing to help out as well as play. The more people helping you to organize the tournament, the better.

• Do you want doubles or singles? It's easier to have doubles when doing this for the first time. As soon as you start mixing the games, the logistics become more difficult.

Decide where the tournament will be held. Will you use the usual badminton hall you play in now or do you need a bigger or more central venue? Consider the costs involved in hiring any venue and be sure that if you use a different venue from your usual, that it can accommodate badminton, including having the upper head space required.^[1]

Prepare the materials for inviting players to the tournament. You'll need to know numbers early on, so the sooner you can get bookings from players and teams, the better for your organizing logistics. Create registration forms which obtain all the necessary details from entrants to the tournament. Set the due date for return of interest or booking several weeks or months ahead so that you can make all the necessary arrangements in time.^[2]

• You might want to print up promotional posters to encourage unknown entrants to participate in the tournament as well. Have someone with good poster skills put together a great graphic along with details of the tournament dates, times, location and competitions. If there are any age restrictions, include these and provide contact details.
• If charging an entry fee, make sure it is clear. Entry fees should cover costs of hiring the venue, providing equipment and anything else. Unless you're a for-profit organization, don't make the entry fee about profit.
• Start a Facebook page and a Twitter account to promote the tournament. Be sure to have someone available regularly to respond to queries on these accounts and to update progress information.

Purchase or find any equipment needed. Check the condition of your own nets, rackets and shuttlecocks before presuming they will be suitable for the tournament. It's probable that you will need to buy at least more shuttlecocks of competition standard to ensure that there are enough new ones for the tournament. Ensure all the nets are in good condition and get new ones if needed. Have spare rackets in case players have breakages and need to use substitute rackets.^[3]

Set up the teams. Are people going to play according to existing teams or will you create teams specific to the tournament? If the winners are going to go on and play specific competitions elsewhere, be sure to read up on the rules for meeting any official requirements needed for such wins.

• Form a seeding committee if you are going to organize teams yourself from the entrants. Allocate players according to their seed, right down to unknown quantities (place them randomly).
• Use a computer program (badminton tournament software) to help you with teams, matches and other more complex arrangements required.
• If you need to use uniforms, be sure to arrange these well in advance.

Be very strict about court time. In advance, make sure that court time is allocated according to the game length and no more. Someone will need to be given the task on the day of ensuring that each team is adhering to its allocated court time. A good rule of thumb is to allocate 20 minutes for a 21 point game and 15 minutes for a 15 point game; be sure to let the teams know about these limits at the beginning of the tournament for the day.^[4]

• Be sure to have some super fit organizers willing to run around on the day of the tournament to take care of all logistics including keeping the flow moving, getting teams on and off courts on time, making use of courts that suddenly become free, etc. They may also need to act as impartial line judges on rare occasions when the teams cannot cooperate on a call.

Consider the provision catering and changing facilities. Will you provide food and drink or will you rely on what the venue already provides? And be sure that there are changing facilities available for all players.

Have trophies, ribbons or award plaques/cards made up in time for the tournament. If you can't afford anything fancy, simple cardboard certificates with a rosette attached make an excellent and affordable award.^[5]