Introduction to badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport, commonly denoted as the fastest racquet sport there is, for rightful reasons, as the fastest recorded smash in a game of Badminton was 332

km/h. With a court being 13.4 metres long and 6.1 metres wide, there is not too much time left for you to react.

The first thing you need to know

• To be able to understand and play badminton, first you need to know the rules. There are many rules in badminton, many of which can be explained in this diagram of the court in the next slide.

• What can not be explained, however is the scoring system and how the server is chosen point by point, which again will be explained in continuing slides.

As you can see, there are different boundary lines for singles and doubles, as well as different service boundaries. In a singles game, you may serve in the back tram lines, but not in the side tram lines, however in doubles you may serve in the side tram lines, but not in the back. However, after the initial serve, in doubles you may now use the back tram lines for any other shot, whereas in singles, you may never use the side tram lines.

The scoring system

• Once upon a time, a team, or player could only win a point if they won a rally during their serve. However due to the service side being slightly harder than the receiving side and some games lasting for hours, a new point system was introduced.

The rally point system

• The rally point system is simply, a team or player can now earn a point by winning a rally, regardless of whether or not it was their serve.

• With the rally point system, a match then be won by playing the best out of 3 games to 21.

How a server is chosen

• The initial server is chosen by hitting the shuttlecock in the air and letting it fall to the ground. Whichever way the head of the shuttle is pointing, the serve goes to that team.

Consequential servers

• If the servers side wins the rally, then the server continues to serve until they lose a rally. The opposing team would then get a point and the service is passed on to the opposing team. The player in doubles who would get the serve would be chosen by their respective score. If their score is odd, then the person on the left hand service area will become the server, if even, the person on the right hand service area will get the serve. This person will continue serving, swapping from left to right each point until they lose a rally or win the game.

How to hold a racquet

• There are two types of grips for you to hold. • A forehand grip

• And a back hand grip

Serves and their types

• There are three types of serves, varying in their uses and difficulties

High serve

• The first serve and typically the easiest of the three is the high serve, where you aim to land the shuttle on the back line, putting it far over their head to prevent them from making a smash too far in the court. This serve is commonly used in singles as in singles, the back tram lines can be used for a serve.

Low serve

• This serve is mostly used in doubles, to force the opposition to lift the shuttle in the air to allow for your team mate to get a smash.

• When serving this, aim to keep it as close to the net as possible, while also aiming to land on the front service line.

• Be careful when performing this serve, putting it too high may result in the shuttle being smashed back at you from the net.

Flick serve

• This serve is the ‘trick serve’. Used to trick the opponent into thinking it will be a low serve, causing them to take a step in, but instead placing it above them towards the back line, catching them off guard.

The most important shot of the game – drop shots

• Drop shots in badminton are the most crucial part of the game. Many games can be won by simply just dropping the shuttlecock rather than smashing it.

Types of drop shots

• There are many different types of drop shots that offer different advantages and disadvantages.

Slow drop shot

• A slow drop shot is meant to drop the shuttlecock as close to the net as possible. It is important to also keep it as low as possible. If the opponent suspects that you are going to drop it, it will allow them to create a powerful smash attack from the net.

Fast drop shotA fast drop shot is much more of an attacking shot in the sense that you make it power over the net as low as possible to catch your opponent off guard.

Smash attacks

• Like all racquet sports, badminton has smash attacks as well.

• There are 3 different types of badminton smash attacks.

Forehand smash

• This smash is has a similar action to throwing a ball and as such the most easiest to learn making it the most common smash used amongst beginners.

Backhand smash

• This smash is performed on your backhand side of your body and contains more of a flick than a smash

Around the head smash

• This is used as a substitute for a backhand smash as it is easier to perform and comes with greater power.

Tactics of play - Serving

• In higher levels of play, serving accuracy is crucial. As mentioned earlier, it is more difficult to win on your serve than it is to win while receiving.

• It is also important to keep varying your serves between the three types of serves to keep your opponent guessing.

Attacking play

• Typically, the best way to attack is to move your opponents to a section of a court, then play a drop shot or a smash towards the opposite side.

• Another form of attack is smashing the shuttle as close as you can to the outer tram lines.

• Setting up smashes is also another way, you could keep the shuttle low to them, so they put it up and then you capitalise and smash it back at them.

How to defend

• Defence either involves drop shots or hitting the shuttle high in the air towards the back of the court to give you time to regain your posture.

• If the opponent is controlling the game and constantly smashing it at you, then try to get the shuttle away from them.

Keep your rallies short

• Try to win the point with every shot, instead of trying to keep the game going, as it will increase the risk of you making an error or the opponent getting a good shot in.