Important Badminton Rules For Beginners

How to play badminton

• Badminton is played on a court by either two players (singles) or four players (doubles).
• Players use rackets to hit a shuttlecock over the net from one side to the other, the object being to score points by hitting the shuttle over the net so that it lands on the other player’s side of the court before they hit it.
• Points are also awarded when your opponent hits the shuttle outside of the court or fails to clear the net.

Important Badminton Rules For Beginners

Serves and points

• Serves should be diagonal across the court to count and should always be hit from below the waist.
• Matches generally consist of best of three game format, with the first player/team to reach 21 points winning the set.
• If the scores are tied at 20 all, then the player/team to gain two clear points ahead of their opponent will win the game.
• The side that wins the game then serves first in the next game.

Badminton court size

• The court size will depend on whether a game of singles or doubles is being played.
• The singles court is 13.4m (43.9ft) long, 5.18m (17ft) wide and divided in half by the net, which should be 1.5m (4.9ft) high from the surface of the court.
• In doubles, the area of play is larger due to the addition of the 1.4m (4.6ft) 'alleys' along either side of the court, increasing the width to 6.1m (20ft).