WHAT IS BADMINTON

The modern game of badminton developed in the mid-19th century among the British as a variant of the earlier game of battledore and shuttlecock. ("Battledore" was an older term for "racquet".) Its exact origin remains obscure. The name derives from the Duke of Beaufort's Badminton House in Gloucestershire, but why or when remains unclear. As early as 1860, a London toy dealer named Isaac Spratt published a booklet titled Badminton Battledore—A New Game but unfortunately no copy has survived and in 1863 an article in The Cornhill Magazine describes badminton as "battledore and shuttlecock played with sides, across a string suspended some five feet from the ground".

 

Early on, the game was also known as Poona or Poonah after the garrison town of Pun, where it was particularly popular and where the first rules for the game were drawn up in 1873. By 1875, returning officers had started a badminton club in Folkestone. The sport was played under the Pune rules until 1887, when the J.H.E. Hart of the Bath Badminton Club drew up revised regulations. In 1890, Hart and Bagnel Wild again revised the rules. The Badminton Association of England published these rules in 1893 and officially launched the sport at a house called "Dunbar" in Portsmouth on 13 September. The BAE started the first badminton competition, the All England Open Badminton Championships for gentlemen's doubles, ladies' doubles, and mixed doubles, in 1899. Singles competitions were added in 1900.

 

The Badminton World Federation now governs international badminton and is a federation of 188 members gloablly. Since 1992, badminton has been a Summer Olympic sport with five events: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles.

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THE BASICS

The aim of badminton is to hit the shuttle with your racket so that it passes over the net and lands inside your opponent’s half of the court. Whenever you do this, you have won a rally; win enough rallies, and you win the match. You can also win rallies from your opponent’s mistakes: if they hit the shuttle into or under the net, or out of court, then you win the rally

 

If you think your opponent’s shot is going to land out, then you should let it fall to the floor. If you hit the shuttle instead, then the rally continues. Once the shuttle touches the ground, the rally is over and you are only permitted to hit the shuttle once before it goes over the net.

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THE GAME

Badminton can be played by singles and doubles, mixed or same sex with matches played to the best of three sets (on KBC club nights friendly matches are played to one set). 

 

Points are won regardless of who is serving. Each time a side wins a rally they receive a point and the right to serve for the next point. The first to 21 points wins the game. Games must be won with a two-point lead. If a game is tied at 20-20, the game continues until one side achieves a two-point lead or until one side scores 30 points (30-29 is an acceptable score for victory).

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SERVING

A team only has one serve in doubles with the serving diagonally from one service box to another, alternating between the left and right side of the court as points are won. 

 

The server always serves from the right-hand box at the start of a game and when they have an even number of points. They serve from the left-hand court when they have an odd number of points.

 

In doubles, the player on the right always starts the serve and, when a point is won, the players switch sides and the server then serves from the left, continuing to alternate until a serve is lost.  

 

There are numerous rules regarding the serve in badminton but basically the server must hit the base of the shuttlecock in a single stroke with their racket pointing downward. Neither the server nor the receiver can lift a foot off the ground until the shuttlecock has been served. 

 

 

THE GAME

The shuttlecock must make it over the service line when it is served, otherwise it is a fault and the receiving team wins both a point and the serve.

 

After the serve a rally can take place anywhere within the court boundaries and a point is scored when the shuttlecock hits the ground within these boundaries. If the servers win the point they continue to serve. If the receivers win the point they become the servers.

 

If the shuttlecock lands outside the court boundaries this is a fault and a point goes to the receiver. Similarly if a player fails to get the shuttlecock over the net this is also a fault. It is also classed as a fault if the shuttlecock hits the ceiling.

 

The shuttlecock can only be hit once in a rally. Though only the base can be hit in the serve, the feathers of the shuttlecock can be hit during a rally. 

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THE RULES

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We hope the information on this page is useful and if you would like to a beginners guide to badminton there is a very useful weblink (below) which was provided to us by a young adult who undertook a fun educational project.

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https://www.playgroundequipment.com/a-kids-and-beginners-guide-to-badminton/

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