What do you need

1. Racket
   First of all one needs a badminton racket of course. Trainers, experienced players or a shop owner can give advise about strings, grips, price and brand.
2. Sports clothes
   To play badminton only a tracksuit with t-shirt and shorts underneath suffices. Shoes need to be light and elastic with good support to your foot and the right sole profile.
3. Shuttles
   Finally one needs a shuttle. There are nylon shuttles for beginners and feather ones for the experienced players. The associations has shuttles that you can use.

Court

The playing court for badminton looks as follows:

The court is 13,40 meter long and 6,10 meter wide. The net needs to have a height of 155cm at the net poles. In the picture on the left side is a  grey area that denotes the field for doubles and mixed doubles with the dark grey area denoting the service area. On the right in  grey is the single field. The same dark grey is again the service area.

Categories

In badminton there are five categories:

1. Men Singles(MS)
2. Woman Singles (WS)
3. Men Doubles (MD)
4. Women Doubles (WD)
5. Mixed Doubles (MXD).

Toss

Before a game starts there is a toss. The side who wins the toss can choose from the following:

• Serve first or receive the serve first, or:
• Start the game on one or the other side of the net.

The opponent chooses from the remaining choice they have. Thus when the winner of the toss chooses to serve first, the opponent has to receive first and the opponent can choose on which side they want to start the match. At the score 0-0 and all even numbers, one serves from the right side of the service area. On every uneven score one serves from the left service area. After every consecutive point one serves from the service area next to the one they just served in.

Service

General

A serve is very important in badminton. A serve is considered legal when:

• it is played underhand;
• it is played diagonal in the right serving area;
• the serving player is not standing on or against the lines;
• the server is standing with both feet on the ground.

Underhand: The top of the racket with the strings in pointing down.

Service singles

• Every player has one turn to serve.
• In one service turn only one point can be scored.
• When you make a mistake when serving the opponent gets the point and the serve for the next point.

Service Doubles

• Every team has one turn to serve.
• At an even score of your team you serve from the right side, at an uneven score from the left.
• In one serving turn there can only be one point scored.
• There only is a change in serving area when you or your partner scores a point when your team just served

Counting

The game is played according to the rally-point system (every point you play goes to either side, the old system where you could only score a point when serving has dropped). A play goes up to two won games with a game going until 21 points. There must be won with a 2 point difference and this can last until a maximum of 30 points. Thus whoever reaches 30 first wins the game. You score a point when:

• you hit the shuttle on the ground in the playing area of your opponent;
• your opponent hits the shuttle in the net, under the net, against the ceiling, against the wall or outside of your playing field;
• the opponent hits the shuttle before it has flown over the net;
• the opponent hits the shuttle two consecutive times.

Your opponent gets a point when:

• the shuttle falls on the ground in your playing area;
• with your serve the shuttle lands outside the correct serving area of your opponent;
• you play into the net;
• you hit the shuttle two consecutive times.

Let

A let means that the rally is played again due to unforeseen events (e.g. a shuttle from another field falls into yours).

Official rules

The official rules consist of all rules of a badminton game! If you want to get to know all possible rules please check the BWF badminton site.