Badminton Association Rules

Prior to the 1992 Olympics, each country's badminton association had its own rules. According to the Olympics website, the Badminton World Federation standardized the rules. Olympians play five badminton events: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. The best two out of three games decides the winner of each match of two players or two pairs. The player or pair who correctly calls a coin toss gets to choose between first serve or choice of court end.

  1. Court Dimensions

    • A badminton court measures 6.1m wide and 13.4m long. The net crosses the center of the court's length, and stands 1.55m tall. The service area on each end of the court starts 1.98m from the net and extends back to 720mm from the back boundary line. Each end of the court has a center line that starts at the front service line and runs to the back boundary. Singles-width boundary lines run 420mm in from the doubles-width boundary lines.

    Game Play

    • Each end hits the shuttle once, over the net, until the shuttle hits something or is missed. This action is called a rally. A point is at stake for each rally. If the shuttle goes out of bounds, the receiving end wins the point. If the receiving end fails to hit a shuttle that lands on the line or inbounds, the receiving end loses the point. Players or pairs remain on the same court end for the game, and then move to the other court end for the next game.

    Keeping Score

    • According to the laws of badminton as spelled out by the Badminton World Federation, an end scores a point for winning a rally even if it is not that end's serve. Each game ends at 21 points. If the game is tied at 20, the first end to get ahead by two points or is the first to reach 30 points wins.

    Serving

    • A side serves until it loses a point, and then the other side serves. The serve starts from the right side of the court and alternates between sides for each point. The receiving player on the other side stands within the service area diagonally across the court from the server. The serve must go into this service area, or the point is lost. The server's racket must stay below her waist and angle downward. If the server swings more than once or misses the shuttle, the point is lost.

    Doubles Areas

    • Each player must stay on her side of the court for the serve. After the serve is returned, the players can move about their end of the court freely for the rest of the rally.

    Doubles Servers

    • The serve alternates among the four players in turns as follows: First server, first receiver's partner, first server's partner, then first receiver.