Badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles), who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. The match begins with a coin being tossed and whoever wins the toss has the choice to serve or receive or chooses which end of the court they wish to play on. The overall purpose of badminton is to hit a feathered shuttlecock, also known as a shuttle or birdie, over a net and so that it lands in-bounds on an opponent's half of the court. Each point commences when a servers strikes the shuttlecock in an underhand motion so that it travels diagonally into the foe's service area. Play pauses when the shuttlecock hits the ground. Recent changes have been implemented in the scoring rules for international badminton. Games are now played to 21 points instead of 15. As a result of another change, whoever wins a volley receives a point. In the past, only the serving team or player could score.

Court & Equipment
Court Dimension: 44ft x 22ft (double) / 44ft x 17ft (single)
Net Height: 5ft 1in on the sides / 5ft on the center of court

Rally
Players score points whenever they win a rally and each game is played up to 15 points. A rally is won when a shuttle is hit over the net and onto the floor of the opponent's court.
A rally is lost if the shuttle is hit into the net, or over the net but outside of the opponent's court. A rally is also lost if the shuttle touches the player's clothing or body, or if it is hit before it crosses over the net.

Serving

• The service courts are slightly different for singles and doubles.
• The serve must travel diagonally (cross court) to be good.
• A serve that touches the net and lands in the proper court is called a let serve and is reserved, otherwise, only one serve is permitted to each court until a side out occurs. A serve that is totally missed may be tried again.
• The racket must make contact with the birdie below the waist on a serve.
• The server and receiver stand in the diagonally opposite service courts(always right hand at the start of the game) but therefore players may move anywhere on their side of the net.
• The server and receiver shall stand within their respective service courts until the serve is made.

• The server must obey laws designed to force underhand delivery of the serve, and the receiver must stand still until the service is struck.

• Points may only be scored when serving.
• All lines are considered in bounds.
• In singles, when the server's score is an even number, the serve is taken from the right side. When the server's score is an odd number, it is taken from the left. (Serving in a doubles game is different)

Scoring
Matches comprise of the best of three games. Each game starts at 0-0 (traditionally called "love-all").

Classic scoring Format
If the serving side wins a rally, it scores a point, and serves again but from the alternate service court. If the receiving side wins the rally, the score remains unchanged and the service passes to the next layer in turn. In singles, this is the opponent: in double it's either the partner or, if both players have just had a turn of serving, one of the opponents.

In men's singles and doubles events, 15 points wins a game. However, if the score reaches 14-14, the side which first reached 14 can choose either to play to 15, or to set the game to 17 points. The final score will reflect the sum of the points won before setting plus the points gained in setting.
Scoring in women's singles is slightly different. 11 points wins a game and there is the option to set to 13 points at 10-10.

And Finally...
Players change ends at the end of a game and when the leading score reaches 8 in a game of 15 points (or 6 in a game of 11 points) in the third game. A five minute interval is allowed prior to any third game.