13.40 × 6.10 / 5.18 m · Singles & doubles · indoor court
Badminton
The fastest racket sport — 300 km/h smashes over a 1.5 m net.
Beginner trap: The whole shuttle must be below 1.15 m when you serve.
01 Court
- 13.40 m long; 6.10 m wide for doubles, 5.18 m for singles (inner sidelines).
- Short service line: 1.98 m from the net. Long service line for doubles: 0.76 m from the back boundary (singles uses the back boundary itself).
- Net: 1.55 m at the posts, 1.524 m at the centre.
- All lines are 40 mm wide and part of the area they enclose — a shuttle touching a line is in.
02 Serve
- Serve diagonally so the shuttle passes the short service line and lands in the receiver's service court.
- At contact, the whole shuttle must be below 1.15 m from the floor and the racket shaft must point downward. Both feet stay on the ground and still.
- Serve from the right court when your score is even (including 0), the left court when odd.
- No second serve — a service fault loses the rally. A serve that hits the net and lands in is legal; there's no let.
03 Rally
- One hit per side — double hits and carrying or slinging the shuttle are faults.
- Don't touch the net with body or racket during play. You must contact the shuttle on your own side (follow-through over the net is fine).
- In doubles, only the designated receiver may return the serve; deliberately distracting an opponent is a fault.
- You may run outside the court to play the shuttle, as long as it hasn't touched the ground.
04 Score
- Rally scoring: every rally wins a point, whoever served.
- Games go to 21. At 20-all you need a 2-point lead; at 29-all the 30th point wins.
- Matches are best of 3 games. The winner of a game serves first in the next.
- Heads-up: from January 2027 the BWF switches to best of 3 games to 15 (2-point lead at 14-all, capped at 21).
05 Faults
- Service faults: shuttle above 1.15 m at contact, racket shaft not pointing down, feet moving or off the ground, or excessive delay.
- In rallies: double hit, carry/sling, touching the net, hitting from the opponent's side, or obstructing an opponent.
06 Terms
- Shuttle (shuttlecock) — the feathered projectile.
- Rally scoring — every rally scores a point.
- Service court — the box the serve must land in, chosen by even/odd score.
- Let — in badminton, an umpire-called replay for unforeseen interruptions.
Badminton World Federation (BWF) — Laws of BadmintonChecked Oct 2026