Rules of Badminton

Everything you need to play a proper game, in plain English: how a rally starts and ends, how the 21-point scoring works, where to serve from and where it has to land, what changes between singles and doubles, and the faults that cost a point. The printable diagrams are the illustrations.

The ten rules that cover almost every rally

Rally point. Every rally is worth a point to whoever wins it, server or receiver. Games go to 21, win by two, capped at 30. Best of three games.
The serve is underarm. The whole shuttle must be below 1.15 m when you hit it, your feet still and inside your service court.
Serve diagonally. From your right service court when your score is even, your left when it is odd, into the receiver’s opposite court.
It must clear the short service line (1.98 m from the net) — and in doubles it must not pass the long service line 0.76 m inside the back boundary.
One hit per side. Racket only; no double hits, no carries, and partners cannot both touch it.
Lines are in. A shuttle landing on a boundary line is good. Singles plays to the inner sidelines, doubles to the outer ones.
Don’t touch the net. Racket, body or clothing on the net or posts during a rally is a fault; so is reaching over to hit a shuttle before it crosses.
A net cord is good — if the shuttle clips the tape and drops in, play on, on the serve as well.
A let replays the rally — receiver not ready, a stray shuttle, a shuttle caught on top of the net after crossing, or an umpire’s doubt.
Winner serves next. Win the rally, win the serve. In doubles the serving pair swap courts when they win a point on their own serve; the receivers never rotate.

Serving: where you stand, where it lands

Look at your own score. Even — 0, 2, 4 and so on — and you serve from your right service court; odd and you serve from the left. The shuttle has to travel diagonally, over the net and past the short service line into the court directly opposite. In singles it may go all the way to the back boundary; in doubles anything beyond the long service line is out. Contact must be below 1.15 m, which is why the serve is underarm, and both feet stay on the floor until you have hit it.

Singles and doubles use different lines

Singles is the narrow game: the inner sidelines, 5.18 m apart, and a serve that may drop right on the back line. Doubles is the wide game: the outer sidelines, 6.1 m apart, but a short serving box — the serve must land short of the long service line 0.76 m inside the back boundary. The moment the serve is in, doubles rallies use the whole court, back alley included. Get those two facts straight and the court stops being confusing.

Scoring, in one paragraph

Twenty-one points wins a game, but you have to be two clear: 21–19 wins, 21–20 does not, and the game runs on until someone leads by two or reaches 30, which wins outright. Two games win the match. Players change ends after each game and, in a third game, when the leader reaches 11. Because every rally scores, a game between even players usually takes fifteen to twenty minutes; the serve simply passes to whoever won the last point.

For a PE class or a garden game

The rules above are the BWF Laws, which is what school and college programmes teach. For a class, the usual simplifications are shorter games (to 11 or 15), no let for a not-ready receiver, and calling the whole court in for the serve so nobody has to remember the long service line. The one rule worth keeping even in a garden is the underarm serve — an overhead serve turns every rally into a smash.

Print the court

Badminton court diagrams

Blank courts for worksheets and drills, the two labeled sheets above, and a builder that adds your club logo.

Open

Measure the court

Badminton court dimensions

Every line in metres and feet, and both net heights, on a printable sheet.

Open

What are the 5 basic rules of badminton?

One: a rally starts with an underarm serve hit diagonally into the opposite service court, with the whole shuttle below 1.15 m. Two: the shuttle may be hit once per side and must cross the net before it touches the floor. Three: a rally ends when the shuttle lands, goes out, hits the net and fails to cross, or a player commits a fault — and whoever wins the rally scores, whether or not they served. Four: games go to 21 points, win by two, first to 30 if it reaches 29–29; a match is best of three. Five: singles uses the narrow court and serves long, doubles uses the wide court and serves short.

How do you serve in badminton?

Stand inside your service court without touching its lines, feet still, and hit the shuttle with an underarm action so that the whole shuttle is below 1.15 m at the moment of contact. It must travel diagonally over the net into the receiver's service court — past the short service line, and in doubles short of the long service line. Serve from the right court when your score is even and the left court when it is odd.

How does scoring work — does the serve matter?

Rally scoring: every rally is worth a point to whoever wins it, server or not, and the winner of the rally serves next. Games are to 21; you must lead by two, so 21–20 plays on, up to a hard cap at 30–29. Win two games to win the match. The old side-out system, where only the server could score and games went to 15, was replaced in 2006.

What is the difference between singles and doubles rules?

The court and the serve. Singles is played on the inner sidelines (5.18 m wide) and the serve may travel to the back boundary. Doubles uses the outer sidelines (6.1 m) but the serve must land short of the long service line 0.76 m inside the back line; after the serve, the whole court is in. In doubles the receiving side does not rotate — only the serving side's partners swap service courts when they win a rally on their own serve.

What counts as a fault?

A serve that is too high, not diagonal, or short of the short service line; a shuttle that lands outside the lines, fails to cross the net, or is hit twice by the same side; a player touching the net with racket, body or clothing while the shuttle is in play; reaching over the net to hit the shuttle before it crosses; and a shuttle striking a player or the ceiling. A shuttle that clips the net and drops in is good, on the serve too.

What is a let?

A rally replayed with no point scored — called when the receiver was not ready and did not attempt a return, when a shuttle from another court interrupts play, when the shuttle catches in the net after crossing it, or when the umpire cannot decide who was at fault. There is no let for a serve that clips the tape and lands in; that is simply in.

Based on the BWF Laws of Badminton. Updated through September 2026.