How Badminton is Played: The Ultimate Guide

Badminton is the fastest and probably the most difficult racket sport in the world.  All badminton rules and regulations are issued by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The rules are different for singles and doubles.

Let’s assume you are a beginner who watched Lee Chong Wei’s, or any other superstar’s matches, and you want to learn how to play badminton in the right way. This thread will explain everything you need to know about badminton rules and regulations.

Table of Contents

The Goal Of The Game

To win a badminton match, you need to win rallies and earn more points than your opponent. The shuttlecock must finish in the opponent’s half of the court, and the point is over when the shuttle touches the floor. However, if you hit the shuttle which goes outside of the court, the play goes on.

Many of you are probably playing for fun in the most different areas or surfaces. But anybody who wants to go pro needs to be introduced to the basic badminton rules and regulations. Now let’s learn how to play badminton!

The Basics

These are the most basic badminton rules and regulations each newbie needs to know when going on the first tournament.

Scoring system

The match consists of three games, and each game is finished when a player earns 21 points. If the result is 20 all, the side who scores 2 consecutive points is the winner. When the result is 29-29, the one who first wins the 30th point is the winner. The winner of the set serves first in the next set.

Intervals during the game

When a side scores 11 points, an interval of 60 seconds is given, both for singles and doubles. When the game is finished, the rest period of 2 minutes is given before the next game starts.

Change of end courts

After the game is ended, the sides of the court are changed (after the first two games). In the third set, sides are changed when the leading scorer reaches 11 points.

Toss

It is done before the match. The side which wins may choose the side of the court or serving.

Serving – Singles And Doubles

It is the most complex of all badminton rules and regulations. The player must serve diagonally. When you hit the shuttlecock during the service, the point of contact must be under the waist and the hand that holds the shuttle should be in the level of your last rib, or the serving is irregular. The shuttlecock must land into the receiver’s court for a successful serving.

Singles

When the result is love (0-0), or when the score is even, the player serves from the right side of the court. If the score is odd, the serving must be from the left side.

If the server wins a rally, he gets the point and serves from the alternative court. If the receiver gets the point, he will get a point and become a new server. When the points are even, he serves from the right side, but when the points are odd, he serves from the left side.

The receiver always stays on the opposite side of the court from the server. Both players can be on the even sides of the court (right), or odd sides (left).

Doubles

This is the most difficult set of badminton rules and regulations, but BWF has explained it thoroughly, and everyone can understand it with ease. Take a look at the picture and video.

The side has one service only, and the server who wins the rally will serve from the next point of the alternative court. However, when the receiver wins the rally, he becomes a server.

Image source: http://sportey.org/physical-sports/badminton-racquet-or-racket-sports/badminton-rules-rules-regulations-badminton (the link they provided won’t work)

Faults

Are you a beginner who wants to learn how to play badminton? This is the crucial set of badminton rules and regulations for you, especially for the ones who want to go pro. Read it thoroughly and look at this video!

The shuttlecock mustn’t land outside of court boundaries, hit the net and fail to pass on the other side, pass under the net, or touch the body or the dress of the player during the rally. It also mustn’t be caught or flung in the racket or hit twice.

You must not miss the shuttle when you try to serve, it is also a point for the opponent, just as if you use feints to confuse the opponent. The shuttle may touch the net during the serving, and it is only faulted if it doesn’t fall in the opponent’s service court.

The player mustn’t touch the net during the rally with his body or racket, hit the shuttle if it is on the opponent’s side of the court, try to distract the opponent or use offensive words and gesture.

The player who constantly offends or distracts the opponent, argues with the umpire or line judge, intentionally lengthens the game, or breaks the rules in any other way, can be penalized via point abduction, yellow card, or even the disqualification by the umpire. It also counts for missing the shuttlecock or letting it fall intentionally.

If the shuttlecock is caught on the top of the net and stays there, this is also considered to be a fault. Your foot mustn’t be on the opponent’s side of the court too.

In the doubles match, one player mustn’t hit the shuttle two times in a row. There are many difficult situations when it comes to faults, and even the umpire might make a mistake!

If there is ultra-slow-motion camera technology in the tournament, badminton players have right to challenge the call. There is only one rule – the player must call immediately after the umpire’s decision, and before the next serve or next rally. If the appeal is successful, the player retains challenge, if not, he has one challenge remaining.

Lets

Lets are badminton rules and regulations which are called by the umpire when the play should be halt. The player can also call Let if there is no umpire. The last serve won’t count, and the server will serve again when the Let is called.

When the shuttlecock is caught on the top of the net and remain suspended there, or when it has passed over the net, gets caught in the net, and remain suspended, the Let is called. This rule doesn’t apply to the service.

When both the server and receiver make fault at the same time during the serving, the Let is also called. The shuttlecock might disintegrate during hard rally shots, it sometimes goes over 400 km/h! If the base of the shuttle is separated from the feathers, the Let should be called too.

Sometimes the umpire and the line judge aren’t able to determine whether the shuttlecock is inside or outside the court, even during the service court error.

Conclusion

It seems hard to learn badminton at the beginning, but it’s fun when you mastered the rules.

If you are really keen to learn playing badminton, you should have a great badminton racket to avoid injury. Read about that in this article.

Do you or your friends who is interested in learning badminton? Show them this article and learn together!