about

Made-for-television radar guns instantly flash the speed of serves, volleys and pitches to the sporting public around the world these days, but few viewers could name the world's fastest racket sport. The title belongs to badminton.
The flight of the shuttlecock, a missile of cork and goose feather that players volley across the net, has been recorded at speeds of 260 kilometres per hour. Speed, agility and lightning-fast reflexes are essential to the game. Add stamina, too - players have been known to cover more than six kilometres in a single match.
While contemporary badminton first appeared in the mid-19th century, it evolved from the game battledore and shuttlecock, which can be traced back to ancient Greece, China, Japan and India.
Especially popular in Asia and Europe today, badminton became a full competition sport at the Olympic Games in 1992.

history

Before Badminton House, there was poona. Before poona, there was "jeu de volant". Before that, battledore and shuttlecock, and, before that, Ti Jian Zi. It's not easy tracking the ancestry of the sport now known as badminton.
As far back as the 5th century BC, the Chinese were playing Ti Jian Zi, or shuttle-kicking, a game played with the feet. The shuttlecock was there, but it remains unclear whether it led to the game of battledore and shuttlecock that arose about five centuries later in China, Japan, India and Greece. The battledores were the early versions of today's racquets. By the 1600s, battledore and shuttlecock had developed into a popular children's game. It soon became a favourite pastime of nobles and the leisured classes of many European countries, becoming known as "jeu de volant" on the continent.
In India, a game closer to modern badminton, poona, had evolved by the mid-19th century. While British army officers stationed there were learning the game, the Duke of Beaufort was introducing it to royal society at his country estate, Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England. Within four years, the Bath Badminton Club had formed, and a new version of the game played there laid the basis for today's rules.

olympic history

Badminton was contested as a demonstration sport during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. It debuted as a full medal sport in 1992 at Barcelona. Men and women compete at the Olympics in both singles and doubles, and the events have been dominated by Indonesia, China, and Korea.
Olympic badminton consists of five events - men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, and mixed doubles. Each involves a single-elimination tournament, with the top eight players or pairs seeded.

rules

A badminton match comprises the best of three games. A coin is tossed before the first game, and the winner of the toss may serve first or pick an end of the court. Only the serving side can score. In Classic scoring format, the winning team needs 15 points in doubles and men's singles, or 11 in women's singles. In the new Rally Point scoring format that just recently adopted and used for major tournaments, the winning team needs 21 points to win the match.

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

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. A shuttle on the line is "in". 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 must obey laws designed to force underhand delivery of the serve, and the receiver must stand still until the service is struck.

Scoring

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