HANDOUTS FOR STUDENTS
SIMPLIFIED LAWS OF BADMINTON
Toss
The winner of the toss can elect to serve or receive in the
first game, or to choose to play at a particular end of the court. The loser
of the toss makes the remaining choice.
Basic Aim
You win a rally if you hit the shuttle over the net and onto
the floor of the opposing side's court see court layouts opposite.
You lose the rally if you hit the shuttle into the net, or
over the net but outside of the opposing side's court. You also lose the
rally if, for example, the shuttle touches you or your clothing, or if you
hit it before it crosses 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") 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 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.
15 points wins a game. However, if the score reaches 14-14, the side
which reaches 14 first 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 ladies' singles is slightly different. 11 points
wins a game and there is the option to set to13 points" at 10-10.
And Finally...
Players change ends at the end of a game and when the leading
score reaches 8 (or 6 for ladies' singles) in the third game. A five minute
interval is allowed prior to any third game.
Badminton - Basic Rules
SCORING AND SERVING:
In the new point counting system (from year 2001) 7 points
(instead of the old 15) are required to win a set with possible exceptions:
· If the score is 6-6 the player who reached 6 first
is allowed to decide if he wants to end the set at 7 or 8 points.
3 sets (instead of the old 2) won are required for victory
in a game.
A player serves always from the right serving area across the
court to the left, when having an even amount of points. Correspondingly,
when having an odd amount of points, the player serves from left to right.
Please check out the hopefully clarifying figure if unclear.
SPECIALITIES FOR THE DOUBLES GAME:
Players are named: Even and Odd
The Even player serves as explained above, but the Odd player
serves exactly in the opposite way.
A player serves as long as he is able to score points. After
that his teamate continues.
After both players on the team have lost their serve once,
the other team may start serving. The first serve comes always from the
right serving area and the first server, when having even points, is the
Even player and Odd player on odd points correspondingly.
SPECIAL EXCEPTION: When a new set begins the team that serves
first has only one serve (even player).
OTHER RULES:
The shuttle is allowed to "touch" the net, but the racket is
NOT.
The player is not allowed to prevent the other players "swing"
on the net with his racket.
The shuttle landing on the line is considered IN.
While serving, the racket must hit the shuttle under the players
waist level and the feet are not allowed to move.
One must serve with one continuous "swing", i.e. you are not
allowed to stop the movement of the racket, once you've began the serve,
until the racket hits the shuttle.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS - Rather humerous
As an introduction for beginning players- and for those who
have been doing it for some time but never knew exactly what it was that they
have been doing- here's an explanatory list with the most important terms
in modern badminton.
· Alley - where badminton was played
before legalization in 1873.
· Ankle - Dutch word for single. Also:
vital part of the lower leg that can start to hurt like hell at any given
moment (when you 'sprain' it), so that you have to keep your leg up into
the air for weeks and have yourself regularly palpated by some creep of a
physiotherapist.
· Australian doubles - When you face
two opponents all alone because your partner is "down under" from one too
many Fosters.
· Backhand - Your typical badminton
player has, besides a left hand and a right hand, a backhand and a forehand
as well. With right handed players the backhand is on the left hand side
and with left handed players vice versa (with one-armed players the backhand
is on the stump side by definition). Backhand is very difficult.
· Back service line - the short line
at the back of the doubles service court, which is irrelevant after the
serve and in singles - that is, an incomprehensible device, much like hockey's
"blue line."
· Badminton - Named after Lord Edward
`bad' Minton (1817-1926), Attorney General in British India; Pitiful forehand
the chap had. The tale that Badminton would be the name of the estate of
the Duke of Beaufort in England, where the game is supposedly played for
the first time, shouldn't be taken seriously.
· Ball - Is only used with badminton
in the expression: `good ball!'. Quality in a shuttle will usually be described
with: `nice shuttle'.
· Clear - High stroke from one end
of the field to the other. Isn't very easy altogether. Boys are usually better
at it than girls, let that be clear.
· Condition - The opposite of poor
stamina. Cannot be purchased and can only be obtained by tenaciously running
rounds, doing pushups and working out.
· Drive - Nice song from The Cars,
from the LP Heartbeat City of 1986. Also: hard, flat stroke.
· Drop - When you drop the shuttle,
be sure it's on the other side of the net. You may apologize to your opponent
about it, and ask him to pick it up and return it to you. There you have
a point!
· Doubles service rules - if you have
to ask, play singles.
· Even service court - for twilight
play.
· Finish - Badminton is war. He who
has trouble finishing his opponent is better off playing the game of goose.
· Flick service - Clever, fast, dexterous
- or unexpected, unsporting, mean *service (depending on if it's you or
your opponent being able to perform one)
· Forehand - Just about the opposite
of *backhand.
· Gut - the best place to hit your
opponent with a stone-hard *smash.
· Hairpin Drop - generally occurs
only in Ladies' games.
· Iron - Exclusively used as an exclamation
(`Shoot! Iron!') when the *shuttle is being hit inaccurately. Stems from
the long gone past when *rackets weren't usually made out of carbon fiber
reinforced polycyclical autoclave processed thermosetting composites, but
out of iron and wood.
· Ladies' doubles - With badminton
all women and girls suddenly are being called 'ladies' (while everyone knows
that a proper lady will never be running and jumping on a playing-field
like a fool). In doubles there are two of them.
· Let - what you must do when you
can't afford your own court.
· Lob(e) - Part of the brain where
the badminton centre is located.
· Men's doubles - Ladies' doubles,
but with men (or boys). Why men aren't properly being called 'gentlemen' in
badminton remains unclear. Is it because a gentleman will walk but never
run?
· Mix - Each game with four participants
that isn't a *ladies' doubles or a *men's doubles. Is usually preceded by
the invitation: 'Wanna mix?'.
· Odd service court - Reserved for
eccentric (that is, English) players.
· Overhead - Even more difficult than
*backhand.
· Overhead-forehand-clear - Is really,
really difficult, especially to pronounce.
· Racket - Literally: loud noise.
Try and hit a cymbal, shop window or football support with it and you'll
see why this is.
· Rally - Exchange of strokes. Probably
came into use after the notorious fight during the 24-hours men's doubles
in Monte Carlo (1917).
· Service - Be nice to your opponent
once in a while. Pick the *shuttle from the floor after you've won a *rally
and pass it to him. He may do anything with it that he wants - except returning
it of course.
· Service court - place of judicial
proceedings against rude badminton players; presided over by Justice Learned
Backhand.
· Setting - Just when you thought
the counting system of badminton was a masterpiece of simplicity, you get
situations that seem like tennis!
· Shuttle - To and fro, it keeps going
to and fro. Obviously named after the unwearying American spacecraft.
· Side-by-side - System at which the
players have sworn to stand by each other and to each defend their own territory.
· Single - Nice unattached man or
woman seeks other nice unattached man or women for a good bit of...
· Smash - Stone-hard blow with no
subtlety whatsoever.
· Up-and-back - spontaneous do-see-do
during a badminton game to confuse your opponents (see *side-by-side).
· Warning - Some of the above terms
aren't real badminton words at all. Sorry.
· Wood - See Iron
BADMINTON COURT DIAGRAM
