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Đá cầu · A coin, a few feathers, and Vietnam's official national sport

Shuttlecock Kicking

It costs almost nothing to make, needs no more space than two people standing a few meters apart, and can be picked up and put down in the middle of a conversation — which may be exactly why đá cầu, feet instead of hands, a feathered shuttlecock instead of a ball, is Vietnam's official national sport. This is the seventh page in our series on Saigon's passions, and the lightest one, literally: a competition shuttlecock weighs about 13 grams.

From an army drill to a world title

Đá cầu's long path from a Chinese military drill to Vietnam's official national sport runs through more than two thousand years, a colonial-era interruption, and — as of very recently — a genuinely dominant run on the world stage.

5th century BCE

The earliest documented references to shuttlecock-kicking appear in China; other accounts trace it specifically to the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), where Chinese generals reportedly used the game to train and relax their troops as an alternative to football.

Song dynasty, 960–1278

The game becomes known as "Chien Tsu," a Chinese term meaning "arrow" — the likely root of the English word "shuttlecock" — and becomes fashionable enough among the aristocracy that a legendary player becomes part of the game's own folklore; see The kicker who became a warlord in a novel, below.

722 CE

Under Vietnamese emperor Mai Hắc Đế, shuttlecock-kicking is already in use as a way to train soldiers' physical fitness; under the later Lý and Trần dynasties, it becomes a regular feature of major festivals and victory celebrations.

French colonial period

Widespread hardship under colonial rule leaves little room for folk pastimes to flourish, and đá cầu, like many traditional games, recedes from public life for decades.

1984

Đá cầu is formally included as a traditional sport in the Hội Khỏe Phù Đổng, Vietnam's national school sports festival, marking the beginning of its modern revival.

1985–1986

Vietnam's General Department of Physical Training and Sports issues the country's first official rulebook for đá cầu; the following year, the first national championship is held and a standardized competition shuttlecock is developed.

2026

At the World Shuttlecock Championship in Hagen, Germany, Vietnam's national team wins 7 of 7 gold-medal finals it contests, against more than 150 athletes from 13 countries and territories — an emphatic confirmation of the country's status as the sport's dominant force on the international stage.

Three ways to keep it in the air

The same feathered shuttlecock supports at least three distinct ways of playing, ranging from solitary practice to full international competition.

Đá cầu đơn

Solo juggling

One player, one shuttlecock, and the simple challenge of keeping it airborne using anything but the hands — the most common way children first encounter the game, often alone on a sidewalk or in a schoolyard between classes.

Đá cầu vòng tròn

The circle game

A loose group forms a circle and keeps a single shuttlecock moving between them, with no fixed teams, no scoring, and no real end point beyond how long everyone wants to keep going — the version most likely to break out spontaneously in a park or a quiet street corner.

Đá cầu lưới

The competitive net game

Played on a rectangular court with a net not unlike badminton's, this is the formal, competitive version governed by national and international rules — the discipline in which Vietnam's national team currently sits at the top of the world rankings.

What thirteen grams are made of

The classic đá cầu shuttlecock is a study in doing a lot with very little: a circular rubber base roughly 3.8 to 4 centimeters across, reinforced with a metal ring for weight and stability, topped with feathers arranged to stand roughly 16 centimeters tall. A regulation competition shuttlecock weighs about 13 grams — light enough to hang in the air just long enough for a kick, heavy enough to fly true rather than drift. Modern versions swap chicken feathers for woven nylon strands or waterproof foam wings, better suited to wet weather and heavier competitive use, though the traditional feathered version remains the most recognizable.

The folk version costs even less to make than the manufactured one: a coin or a flat metal washer with a hole punched through the center, four or five chicken or duck feathers threaded through the hole and bound tightly in place. Generations of Vietnamese children have made their own this way, at a cost of essentially nothing beyond a spare coin and a few feathers — a homemade version of the same object that, in its standardized competitive form, now helps carry Vietnam's flag at world championships.

Places to discover

23/9 Park

Công viên 23 Tháng 9, District 1, between Phạm Ngũ Lão and Lê Lai streets

The same large green space that hosts sidewalk chess and skateboarding, described elsewhere on this site, regularly sees informal đá cầu circles form in its open areas, particularly in the cooler hours of early morning and early evening — a shuttlecock kept aloft for its own sake, with no scoreboard in sight.

Any schoolyard, between classes

Primary and secondary schools across the city

Less a fixed address than a daily ritual, the few minutes between class periods reliably produce small clusters of students kicking a shuttlecock back and forth in a courtyard or hallway — for many Vietnamese, still the very first place they ever played the game that would later carry the national team to a world championship.

The kicker who became a warlord in a novel

From palace attendant to fictional villain

Under China's Song dynasty, shuttlecock-kicking was fashionable enough among the aristocracy to produce its own celebrity players — none more famous than Cao Cầu, a minor attendant to the great scholar-official Su Dongpo, remembered as the finest shuttlecock-kicker of his day. His skill at the game caught the attention of Emperor Song Huizong, who promoted him steadily up the ranks until Cao Cầu commanded some 200,000 imperial guards as a top military official — an improbable rise built, according to the legend, on nothing more than his footwork with a feathered shuttlecock. The Ming-dynasty novelist Shi Nai'an later drew directly on this figure to create the corrupt military commander Gao Qiu, one of the principal antagonists in the classic novel Water Margin (Thủy Hử) — a case of a folk sport's most legendary player becoming, centuries later, a villain in one of Chinese literature's most enduring works.

Seven finals, seven gold medals

At the 2026 World Shuttlecock Championship held in Hagen, Germany, Vietnam's national team reached seven finals across the tournament's various disciplines — and won every single one, finishing comfortably atop the overall medal table ahead of competitors from 13 countries and territories. Among the individual results, men's singles gold went to Hồ Phước Sang, who defeated Hong Kong's Kevin Or 2-0, while Vietnamese pairs dominated the doubles events as well. It's a result that traces, in a single tournament, the full distance this sport has traveled: from a coin and a few feathers threaded together by a child on a sidewalk, to a Vietnamese team standing at the top of a world championship podium in Germany.

Four names, one shuttlecock

Jianzi

China

The original Chinese name

The name under which the game is best known internationally in English-language sources, referring to both the sport and the feathered object used to play it.

Đá cầu

Vietnam — the national sport

Vietnam's official designation

Literally "kicking the ball" or "kicking the shuttlecock," and formally recognized as Vietnam's national sport, reflecting both its deep folk roots and its modern competitive success.

Sipa

The Philippines — a former national sport

Displaced designation

The Philippine name for a closely related game, which held official national-sport status until it was replaced by the martial art arnis in December 2009.

Capteh (or chapteh)

Malaysia

A children's pastime

The Malaysian name for the same basic game, traditionally regarded as a children's activity played before graduating to the more athletically demanding sport of sepak raga.

Practical info

Informal đá cầu circles form and dissolve constantly in parks and open spaces across the city, most visibly in the cooler hours of early morning and early evening; 23/9 Park is a reliable place to see the game played casually alongside sidewalk chess and other street sports.

A shuttlecock and enough open ground for two or three people is all that's needed to join in — visitors curious to try are usually welcomed with more amusement than judgment, in keeping with the game's reputation as one where beginners are expected to be genuinely bad at first.

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