Badminton?Easy

The service courts are smaller box shapes inside the court. We’ll look at what they are used for in a moment, but first let’s get the right boxes. Notice that the badminton court has a line down the middle, extending from the back to near the net; this is the centre line. At the front of the court, the centre line is met by another line; this is the front service line. These two lines form a T shape where they meet. A singles service court is a box made from four lines: The centre line A singles side line (inside side line) The front service line The back line (the outside one, all the way at the back) On your side of the net, you have two service courts: your right service court, and your left service court. The same is true for your opponent. The doubles service courts are slightly different. They are wider, because they use the outside side line (remember: the doubles court is wider); and they are shorter, because they use the inside back line. That’s what the inside back line is...

Serving is how you start the rally: someone has to hit the shuttle first! To prevent the server gaining an overwhelming advantage, there are special restrictions placed on serving that don’t apply during the rest of the rally. The receiver is the person who hits the second shot in the rally. In doubles, the receiver’s partner is not allowed to hit this shot. How to serve In badminton, the serve must be hit in an upwards direction, with an underarm hitting action. You are not allowed to play a tennis style serve. The main rule here is that when you hit the shuttle, it must be below your waist. To be exact, the rules define this to be a height level with the lowest part of your ribcage. In other words, you can serve from a bit higher than the top of your shorts, but not much.

When you first look at a badminton court, you could be forgiven for thinking it has too many lines. This is mainly because the court is marked up for both singles and doubles, which use slightly different court sizes. The outermost lines form the doubles court. So in a doubles rally, the shuttle is allowed to land anywhere on the court. The singles court is slightly narrower than the doubles court. The singles side lines are not the outermost lines, but the next ones in. Taken together with the outermost (doubles) side lines, these make narrow alley shapes along the sides of the court. These alleys are often called the tramlines or side tramlines, since they look like tram or train tracks. So here’s another way to think about it: the side tramlines are in for doubles, but out for singles. All the other lines are for serving There are still three lines we haven’t discussed yet. These lines mean nothing during the main rally, and only apply when you’re serving. This is similar to how ...

Badminton has its own nets and posts; the net is much lower than for volleyball. Sometimes a sports centre will set up the court with a slack volleyball net instead, because the staff don’t know anything about badminton. Ask for proper badminton posts and a badminton net. If you need to set up the court yourself, then check three things: The net covers the whole width of the court. The net is pulled tight, not slack. The net is in the middle, so that both court halves are the same size. Often it can be hard to see the badminton court lines, because lines for other sports are also painted on the floor. The badminton court lines should all be in one colour, so try to focus on that.