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 shot
A 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.