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Badminton is a racquet sport played with racquets and a shuttlecock, also known as a birdie. The objective of the game is to hit the shuttlecock back and forth over a net and land it inside the boundaries of your opponent's side of the court. Points are scored when the opposing side fails to return the shuttlecock before it touches the ground, or if the opposing side commits a fault. The first side to reach 21 points wins the game. The sport is played in singles and doubles formats, with each side allowed to hit the shuttlecock only once before it passes back over the net.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Origin | The game originated around 2000 years ago in parts of Europe and Asia. |
| Early Forms | The game was played by hitting a shuttlecock back and forth and was known as battledore and shuttlecock. |
| Modern Game | The modern game was popularized in England with rules similar to the current ones being written in 1893. |
| Court | The court is rectangular and divided into halves by a net. The full length is 13.4 metres (44 feet) and the full width is 6.1 metres (20 feet). |
| Variants | Singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. |
| Equipment | Wired, metal-rimmed rackets and a shuttlecock (made of feathers or synthetic material attached to a cork or rubber base). |
| Scoring | Points are scored by hitting the shuttlecock into the opponent's half of the court. A rally occurs when the shuttlecock is hit back and forth over the net, with points awarded at the end of a rally. |
| Physical Demands | Badminton demands excellent athletic stamina, agility, strength, speed, precision, and motor coordination skills. |
| Governing Body | The Badminton World Federation (BWF) governs international badminton. |
| Popularity | Badminton is one of the most popular sports globally, with a significant following in Asia and Europe. |
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Scoring points
The objective of badminton is to score points against your opponent by successfully landing the shuttlecock, or "birdie", on your opponent's side of the court. The shuttlecock is a cone-shaped projectile made of feathers or synthetic material attached to a cork or rubber base. The feathers create higher drag, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly than balls used in other racquet sports. This makes badminton the fastest racquet sport in the world.
Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with your racquet and landing it within the boundaries of your opponent's half of the court. Each side may only strike the shuttlecock once before it passes over the net. A point is scored if your opponent fails to return the shuttlecock before it touches the ground, or if they return it outside the boundaries of the court. A point can also be conceded if the shuttlecock hits the net or passes through or under it, or if a player strikes it twice with their racquet. Players must wait for the shuttlecock to cross the net before playing a shot, and while you can follow through over the net, touching the net with your body or racquet results in a conceded point.
The shuttlecock must be hit below waist height, with players serving diagonally into their opponent's service box. In singles, the server always serves from the right service court when they have an even number of points, and from the left when they have an odd number of points. The first side to reach 21 points wins the game, and if the score reaches 20-20, a side must then win by two clear points. If the score reaches 29-29, the first side to reach 30 points wins.
The badminton court is rectangular and divided into halves by a net. The doubles court is wider than the singles court, but both are the same length. The full width of the court for doubles is 6.1 metres (20 feet), and for singles, this is reduced to 5.18 metres (17 feet). The full length of the court is 13.4 metres (44 feet).
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Rallying
To warm up rallying techniques, players should be left to rally and get used to hitting the shuttlecock. They should be kept in their pairs from the physical warm-up drills and given half a court each to warm up with. This warm-up is purely to practice the technique and therefore should not be strenuous.
There are several techniques that can be used during the rally break to help players focus and prepare for the next rally or phase of the game. One such technique is breathing with purpose and force, exhaling and imagining blowing out all your tension and anger. Many players have rituals that involve breathing, such as blowing on their racket hand. Another technique is to use a trigger, such as touching or looking at the strings of the racket or looking at a spot on the back of your hand, to start thinking about what to plan for the next rally.
Conditioned games can also be used to practice rally break techniques by providing different situations in which a rally break technique could be required. However, this may be challenging for coaches as it might require them to change the style and content of their sessions.
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Court dimensions
The goal of badminton is similar to other racket sports. Each player tries to hit a shuttlecock—also known as a "birdie"—over a net and into their opponent's half of the court, scoring a point if the opponent fails to return it.
Badminton is played on a rectangular court that is divided in half by a net. The length of a standard badminton court is 13.4 metres (44 feet) for both singles and doubles matches. However, the width of the court depends on the type of match being played. For singles matches, the width of the court is 5.18 metres (17 feet), whereas for doubles matches, the width is extended to 6.1 metres (20 feet). The full court measures 14.723 metres (48.3 feet) diagonally.
The court has two halves, each measuring 6.7 metres (22 feet) long, with the net running between them. The net stands at a height of 1.55 metres (5 feet 1 inch) at its ends and dips to 1.52 metres (5 feet) in the middle. The two playing areas on either side of the net are further divided vertically down the middle to demarcate the service areas.
The service courts are split by a centre line running down the width of the court. They are set back from the net by a "short service line" of 1.98 metres (6.5 feet). Doubles games also require a "long service line" that is placed 0.76 metres (2.5 feet) in from the back boundary.
Clearances of 0.61 metres (2 feet) should be provided around the entire badminton court. The court should be surfaced with safe flooring materials, typically wood, synthetic mats, or rubber.
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Types of shots
The objective of badminton is similar to other racket sports: players compete to score points by landing the shuttlecock, or shuttle, in their opponent's half of the court. To do this successfully, players must choose the right type of shot.
There are eight standard types of shot in badminton, each with a specific purpose and use. These are:
- Service: the first shot of every rally, where the server holds the shuttle in their non-racket hand, lets it drop, then flicks it over the net with their racket.
- Clear: a defensive shot, where the shuttle is hit high into the air to land in the opponent's back court, buying time for the player to return to their base.
- Drive: this shot is used when the shuttle is heading towards the back court, and the player hits it downward into the opponent's forecourt, just over the net.
- Drop: this is used to deceive the opponent, making them believe a powerful shot is coming, when in fact the shuttle is hit slowly and lightly.
- Lift: the shuttle is sent high up to the opponent's baseline. This is used when it is difficult to retrieve an opponent's net shot.
- Smash: an attacking shot, hit with power.
- Net shot: used to dominate the front court, this shot is played close to the net, making it hard for the opponent to return.
- Net kill: used to end a rally when the opponent has played a poor-quality net shot.
It is important to learn all the different shot types to become a well-rounded player and avoid being predictable.
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History of the sport
Badminton is believed to have ancient roots, with similar games played in ancient Greece, China, and India. The modern game, however, is said to have been invented in Gloucestershire, England, in 1873, by the Duke of Beaufort, Henry Somerset, who brought it back from India. The sport is named after the Badminton estate where it was first played in England.
In India, the game was known as "Poona" or "Poonah", after the city of Poona (now Pune), where it was especially popular. British military officers stationed in India in the 1860s played a version of the game, which was derived from the traditional Indian game. An 1863 article in The Cornhill Magazine describes badminton as "battledore and shuttlecock played with sides, across a string suspended some five feet from the ground". The game became very popular in India among British expatriates by the 1870s, and the first rules for the game were drawn up in Pune in 1873.
Upon returning to England, the officers started a badminton club in Folkestone in 1875. The Bath Badminton Club was established in 1877 and introduced new rules to the game. The formation of the Badminton Association of England (BAE) in 1893 marked a significant step in standardising the rules and regulations of the sport. The BAE launched the sport at a house called "Dunbar" in Portsmouth on September 13, 1893, and also hosted the first All England Open Badminton Championships in 1899, considered the world's first badminton tournament.
The International Badminton Federation (now the Badminton World Federation or BWF) was formed on July 5, 1934, as the sport's governing body, and its first world championships were held in 1977. Badminton became an official Olympic sport in 1992, with four events: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, and women's doubles. Mixed doubles were introduced four years later.
Over the years, the rules and equipment of badminton have evolved. The first rackets were made of a single piece of wood with animal gut strings, while shuttlecocks were made from unrefined bird feathers. Today, rackets are made of lightweight materials such as aluminium, steel, graphite, or carbon fibre, and shuttlecocks are made from synthetic materials. The scoring system has also changed, with the current system involving a rally point format up to 21 points, introduced in 2001.
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Frequently asked questions
The objective of badminton is to land the shuttlecock (or "birdie") on the opponent's side of the court. A point is scored when the opposing side misses the shuttlecock, causing it to touch the ground, or if the opposing side commits an error.
Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with a racquet and landing it within the boundaries of the opponent's half of the court. Each side may only strike the shuttlecock once before it passes over the net. A point can be conceded if a shot goes outside the court boundaries, if the shuttlecock hits the net or passes through/under it, or if a player strikes the shuttlecock twice with their racquet.
Badminton can be played in singles (one player per side) or doubles (two players per side) formats. There is also a mixed doubles variant, where male and female players form teams and compete against each other.
