Rules of Badminton

You have to know the rules of badminton. It is so important, no matter what level you are playing at. Not just that the rules make badminton fun to play, they also allow you to settle disputes during a match.

For example, there could be cases where your opponent is gaining an unfair advantage on you by hitting the shuttle above the waist during a serve. The opponent is actually breaking the service rules. If you know the rules of badminton, you can catch your opponent.

Now, let’s make it a goal that you understand the basic badminton rules before you ever step on a badminton court again.

The following are the rules of badminton that are explained in a simple and clear way, broken down into sections.

Toss

According to the rules of badminton, a game starts with a coin toss. The rules regarding the coin toss are the same for singles and doubles. Each of team A and team B picks one side of the coin (heads or tails). Then the umpire tosses a coin. The winner of the toss can choose one of two options. The winner can choose to:

serve or receive first
choose which side of the court to start on

Then the loser of the toss has the remaining option. So, if the winner chooses option 1, the loser will have option 2.

Example results:

Team A wins the toss and decides to receive the serve first. (Remember that option 1 has an option 1A and an option 1B. That means if you choose option 1, you can further choose between whether to deliver the serve first or to receive the serve first). Option 2 is the remaining option, so that’s the option for Team B. Team B can then choose which side of the court to start playing on.
Team B wins the toss and decides to start playing the game on one side of the court (let’s say the north side of the court). Team B will then have option 1. Team B can either choose option 1A - to serve first, or option 1B, to receive the server first.

Scoring system

The scoring system that is used in today’s badminton matches is the scoring system that has been used since 2006.

In one sentence, the scoring system is a best of 3 games, play-until-21-points rally scoring system. (If a game is tied at 20 to 20, the game will become a win-by-two game, capped at 30 points.)

The scoring system is the same for singles and doubles.

But the above one-sentence explanation may not be clear enough. Here’s a fuller explanation:

A badminton match is a best-of-3-games match, meaning a match can consist of either 2 games or 3 games.

The result of a badminton match can only be one of the following:

team A wins 2 games, team B wins 1 game (team A wins 2 to 1)
team A wins 1 games, team B wins 2 game (team B wins 2 to 1)
team A wins 2 games, team B wins 0 game (team A wins 2 to 0)
team A wins 0 games, team B wins 2 game (team B wins 2 to 0)

A badminton game is using a rally scoring system, meaning that a team can win a point no matter which team is serving (in contrast to the older badminton scoring system used before 2006, where only the team that is serving can win a point). The team that wins a point gets the next serve.

A badminton game can be a game without a deuce (you can think of it as a normal game) or a game with a deuce (you can think of it as an extended game, like a basketball game with an overtime).

To win a game that is without a deuce, a team that wins 21 points will win the game.

Examples:

team A scores 21 points, team B scores 19 points (team A wins)
team A scores 19 points, team B scores 21 points (team B wins)

On the other hand, if the score reaches 20 to 20, there will be a deuce.

The only way to trigger a deuce:

team A scores 20 points, team B scores 20 points (there will be a deuce)

To win a game with a deuce, a team must score two more points than the opposing team. For example, 22 to 20 will win the game. 27 to 25 will win the game.

You may have the question:

If team B scores one point every time team A scores one point, is the game going to last forever?

The answer is:

No, the maximum score you can have is 30, meaning that 30 to 29 will win the game. In other words, when a team reaches 30 points, a team no longer has to score two more points than the opposing team to win the game.

To win a game, a team must win at least 21 points with at least a 2 point advantage over his/her opponent(s). However, the maximum number of points a team can receive in a game is capped at 30, which means a team would win if the score reaches 30-29.

Examples:

team A scores 22 points, team B scores 20 points (team A wins)
team A scores 24 points, team B scores 26 points (team B wins)
team A scores 30 points, team B scores 29 points (team A wins)

It’s worth noting that the scoring system was quite different before BWF decided to use the new scoring system for major badminton competitions in August 2006. If you are interested in the old scoring system, the following is what it looks like (the old scoring system is in italic):

The old badminton scoring system before August 2006:

A badminton match is a best-of-three-games match, meaning whichever team that wins 2 games first will win the match.

In a badminton game, only the team that is serving can win a point. When a team that is serving “loses a point”, the score doesn’t change. The opposing team gets to serve. The team that wins a game serves first in the next game in the match.

For doubles and men's singles matches, to win a game, a team has to score 15 points.

For women's singles matches, to win a game, a team has to score 11 points.

The “deuce” system for doubles and men's singles matches:

If the score reaches 14 to 14, the team that reached 14 points first can decide to choose one of the following two options:

keep everything the same - whichever team scores 15 points wins the game
change the goal - whichever team scores 17 points wins the game

The “deuce” system for women's singles matches:

If the score reaches 10 to 10, the team that reached 10 points first can decide to choose one of the following two options:

keep everything the same - whichever team scores 11 points wins the game
change the goal - whichever team scores 13 points wins the game

Change of ends

As explained above, a badminton match must have either two or three games and the decision of which team plays at which side of the court at the first game is made at the coin toss at the beginning of the match.

Now, what happens after the first game and after the second game (if there is a third game)?

After the first game and after the second game, the teams change ends.

Examples:

in game 1, team A plays on side X of the court and team B plays on side Y of the court; in game 2, the teams change ends, team A plays on side Y of the court and team B plays on side X of the court
in game 2, team A plays on side Y of the court and team B plays on side X of the court; in game 3, the teams change ends, team A plays on side X of the court and team B plays on side Y of the court

There is a possible extra change of ends in the middle of the game 3. This extra change of ends happens only if the leading scorer of game 3 reaches 11 points.

Example:

in game 2, team A plays on side Y of the court and team B plays on side X of the court; in game 3, the teams change ends, team A plays on side X of the court and team B plays on side Y of the court; in game 3, team A reaches 11 points while team B has 7 points, change of ends happens. Team A plays on side Y of the court and team B plays on side X of the court

In game 2 and game 3, the team that wins the previous game serves first.

Examples:

team A wins game 1, team A serves first in game 2
team B wins game 2, team B serves first in game 3

Now, it looks like all the rules related to change of ends have been covered. But there’s an extra rule for doubles games.

For any doubles game, the team that serves first can decide which of the two players on the team serve first. The team that receives first can decide which of the two players on the team receives first.

Example:

team A wins game 1, team A serves first in game 2, now, for the first rally of game 2, team A can choose whether player A1 or player A2 serves first, team B can choose whether player B2 or player B2 receives first

Serving courts and scoring (for singles)

In a singles game, when a player serves and when that player has the score of an even number (at the beginning of the game, the player who serves has the score of 0, so it’s an even number too), the player must serve from the right service court.

In a singles game, when a player serves and when that player has the score of an odd number, the player must serve from the left service court.

After each server, the two players should hit the shuttle alternately until one of the players scores.

A player scores when one of the following two happens:

that player hits the shuttle and the shuttle hits the surface of the opposing player’s court
the opposing player makes a fault (“fault” will be explained in a later section)

Serving courts and scoring (for doubles)

In a doubles game, everything mentioned in the previous section “Serving courts and scoring (for singles)” still applies.

For example, if the team that serves has the score of an even number, the player that is on the right service court serves.

But there’s an extra rule that makes things slightly more complicated.

In a doubles game, if the team that serves wins a point, that team (player A1 and player A2 on team A) will switch positions. For example, player A1 who initially serves from the right service court the previous rally will move to the left service court to serve. Player A2 will move to the right service court). If the team that serves loses a point, the team’s players will not switch positions.

Faults

A fault is committed by a player when the player violates a badminton rule. When a player commits a fault, the opposing team wins a point.

A player commits a fault when the player does one of the following:

a player, during a rally, touches the shuttle with anything other than the racket. For example, the player commits a fault when touching the shuttle with hair, hand, foot or clothes during a rally.
a player touches the net or the net’s supporting parts with anything including the racket and body parts.
a player interferes with (i.e. disturb) the opposing team under the net during a rally. (if there’s action under the net but there’s no interferences, no fault is committed)
a player holds the shuttle with a racket before hitting it over the net (i.e. carrying the shuttle with the racket for half a second before hitting the shuttle)
a player hits the shuttle before the shuttle has traveled completely to the player’s side of the court (e.g. player A hits the shuttle, the shuttle is then going over the net, traveling from player A’s side of the court to player B’s side of the court; if player B hits the shuttle before the shuttle has passed the net completely, player B commits a fault)
a player or a team hits the shuttle more than once before the shuttle travels to the opposing team’s side of the court.
a player hits the shuttle and then the shuttle hits the ceiling or other parts of the arena that are not considered part of the badminton court (e.g. a chair, a basketball hoop)
a player serves and the then shuttle is stuck on the net
a player distracts the opposing team with gestures or language (e.g. unusual and distracting body movement during a rally, or shouting “out” or shouting “in” during a rally)
in a doubles game, the supposedly receiver of a serve doesn’t receive the serve, instead, the supposedly receiver’s partner receive the serve
a player violates any of the service rules (see above sections “Serving courts and scoring (for singles)” and “Serving courts and scoring (for double)”)

Lets

When a let occurs (something unusual happens, which will be discussed below), the rally is going to be re-played. In other words, when a let occurs, for example, player A serves when player B is not ready, there will be no score change and no service change. The rally would re-played and that means player A would serve.

There is a let when:

a shuttle is stuck on the top of the net (not any part of the net) during a rally
a shuttle is stuck on any part of the net after the shuttle has already traveled over the net
the server serves before the receiver is ready to receive (judgment is made by the umpire if there’s one)
the shuttle is so broken that the bottom part of the shuttle is separated from the top part during a rally
a player is disturbed by the opposing team or the opposing team’s coach
a line judge is unable to make the decision of whether it’s “in” or “out”
any strange or accidental situations happens

Continuous play, misconduct, penalties

During a badminton match, both teams must continue to keep playing until the match is over. The only exceptions are the following rests:

a 90-second rest between game 1 and game 2
a 5-minute rest between game 2 and game 3

Duties of an umpire

An umpire of a badminton match is like the main referee of a basketball or football match. There are other members like the line judges and the service judges in the official team. But the umpire is the main judge. An umpire is the main person who makes sure the badminton match is played based on the rules of badminton.

During a badminton match, an umpire shall:

calls a “let”
calls a “fault”
make sure the game is played according to the rules of badminton when the umpire sees that rules are not followed properly
make a decision on any appeal that is made before the next serve
overturn the decision of a line judge or a serve judge (e.g. the umpire can disagree with the line judge and the service judge and decide whether it’s “in” or “out, or decide whether the serve is “good” or “fault”)

Conclusion

The above is an attempt to explain the rules or laws of badminton in a way that is easy to understand. For a very detailed and updated version of the laws of badminton, you can find it on the BWF official website.