I Slipped in Front of Forty People. Then I Found the Spray.

By Preethi Sundaram-Walsh

I have been playing badminton since I was nine years old. My father taught me in the back garden with a net strung between two fence posts, and by the time I was twelve I was playing at club level. I am not, by any measure, a beginner. I know how to move on a court. I know how to plant my feet, how to push off, how to change direction at speed without losing my balance.

Which is why what happened in March was particularly humiliating.

The Incident

We were playing a club doubles match — a friendly, but the kind of friendly where everyone is still trying. The sports hall we use on Thursday evenings has a sprung wooden floor that is, in theory, ideal for badminton. In practice, it gets dusty. Not visibly dusty, not the kind of dusty you'd notice walking in, but dusty enough that by the second game the surface has lost most of its grip and your shoes are essentially sliding on a very thin layer of fine particulate matter.

I went for a cross-court smash return, planted my right foot, and went down. Not a stumble. A full, committed fall, one knee on the floor, racket skidding away, the whole thing witnessed by both teams, the two people waiting to play next, and a small child who had come to watch their parent and who found the whole thing considerably more entertaining than I did.

I was fine. Bruised knee, bruised ego, nothing structural. But I was also done with accepting that court conditions were something I just had to manage around. I went home that evening and started looking for a solution.

Why the AIXO Game Grip Spray

I'd heard of grip sprays in passing — a few players at the club used something, though I'd never paid much attention to what. After the fall I paid attention. I looked at several options and kept coming back to the AIXO Game Grip for a few specific reasons.

First, it's non-toxic and adhesive-free. Some grip products leave a sticky residue that attracts more dust over time, which defeats the purpose entirely. The AIXO formula is designed to restore traction without leaving anything behind — spray, wipe dry, play. Second, it's 28.4ml, which fits in any kit bag without taking up meaningful space. Third, it's designed specifically for indoor court sports: badminton, tennis, padel, squash. Not a general-purpose product that someone has decided also works on courts. An actual court grip spray.

I ordered it the same night: AIXO Game Grip Shoe Spray – Non-Toxic Court Traction for Indoor Sports

The Following Thursday

I arrived at the sports hall early, which I never do. I wanted to apply the spray properly before anyone arrived to watch me do it, because I was not yet ready to explain to my doubles partner why I was spraying my shoes in the car park.

The application is exactly as described: spray a light coat onto the sole, wipe with a dry cloth until it's no longer wet, play. It takes about thirty seconds. There's no smell, no residue on your hands, nothing that would suggest you've done anything unusual to your footwear.

The difference was immediate and not subtle. The first time I planted my foot for a lunge, I felt the grip catch in a way it simply hadn't been doing. Not sticky — not that unpleasant, over-corrected feeling you sometimes get with inferior products — just solid. Planted. There. I played two full games on that dusty floor and didn't slip once. Not a wobble, not a near-miss, nothing.

My doubles partner asked if I'd got new shoes. I had not. I had got a 28.4ml bottle of spray that cost less than a round of drinks and had, in one Thursday evening, completely changed my relationship with that sports hall floor.

Three Months Later

The bottle is still going. I use it every session — a light application before the first game, occasionally a top-up at the interval if the floor is particularly bad that evening. I've recommended it to four people at the club. Two of them have since bought it. One of them, who plays squash rather than badminton, reports the same result: immediate, reliable grip on a surface that had been giving him trouble for months.

I no longer think about the floor when I'm playing. That sounds like a small thing. It isn't. When you're not managing your footing, you're playing badminton. When you are managing your footing, you're doing something else entirely — something slower, more cautious, less you. The spray gave me my game back.

Who This Is For

Anyone who plays indoor court sports on a surface that isn't always in perfect condition — which is most of us, most of the time. Badminton, tennis, padel, squash: if you've ever felt your shoe slide when it shouldn't have, this is the solution. It's small enough to forget it's in your bag until you need it, and when you need it, you'll be very glad it's there.

Browse the full range in our Grip Spray & Chalk collection, General Purpose Athletic Equipment collection, Athletics collection, and Sporting Goods collection — there's a full range of court and sports equipment worth exploring.

The AIXO Game Grip Shoe Spray is available now. Buy it before your next session. Don't wait for the fall.

Preethi Sundaram-Walsh has been playing badminton for twenty-six years, has a bruised knee that has fully healed, and now arrives early to every Thursday session. She lives in Leicester and considers the AIXO spray one of the better decisions she has made this year.