Garden Badminton Rules
Instructions for playing Badminton in your backyard & garden
Objection of the Game
A match is decided by the best of three games. Each game runs to 15 points (sometimes 21), or, in ladies singles, 11 points. Only the server may score points, his opponent must regain service by winning the point before commencing to score.
Game Features
A feature of Badminton is known as “setting”. If the score is 13-all, the player or side that reached 13 points first can choose either to play to 15 points, or to “set to 5” and play up to 18 points. Again, at 14-all (whether or not 13-all was reached) the first to 14 points may choose to “set to 3” and play to 17 points. In ladies singles, the first to 9-all may “set to 3”, and at 10-all to 2. The winner of one game serves first in the next.
Scoring
The players toss for service or choice of ends at commencement of a match. Service is diagonal from right to left, alternating for subsequent points until the serve is lost. The opponent then likewise commences from right to left. In doubles, each partner has a chance to serve before losing service, but at commencement of the game only one service per side is allowed before losing service to the opponent. For each service the server (and his opponent) must have both feet touching the service court. No feints are allowed and the shuttlecock must be played underarm with the racket head below the waist at impact.
A point is lost when a shuttle either falls out of court, or fails to clear the net, or touches the ground, or the body of a player, or anything outside the court. A player may not hit the shuttle twice, touch the net, or hit the shuttle when it is beyond the net. Striking the shuttle with the frame of a racket is now legal, and a shuttle falling on the line is considered in.
Technique
The delight of the game is that it can be infinitely variable in play from a smash of over 100 m.p.h. to a gentle lob to the back of the court. Popular tactics are to alternate short drop shots just over the net with high lobs which can only be reached as they fall into the back of the court. The intermediate shot, made as a drive head-high to the opponent, is also a popular standard stroke and can be very effective particularly in mixed doubles. The smash is a popular winning shot and should be struck as steeply over the net as possible. The essence of success is attack and the expert player avoids disclosing his stroke to his opponent, disguising his shot and using a last minute wrist flick.
The most popular form of service is the shot, which passes low over the net, and just falls into the court. The deep high lob service is often also successful.
As in most sports and games the learning of the basic techniques of the game is fairly easy – but to become a champion requires dedication and endless practice!
History of Badminon
Like a great majority of today’s popular sports and games, Badminton originated in England. It is named after the country estate of the Duke of Beaufort, and the British took the game to India where the first rules were drawn up in 1877. Since the Second World War, many other countries, especially the U.S.A., Denmark and the South East Asian countries have challenged Britain’s early domination of the game.
John Jaques and Son Limited, the oldest sports and games manufacturers in the world (pre-dating Badminton by some 80 years), have been associated with the game since its inception and were the first manufacturers to produce a laminated Badminton Racket of under 5 oz; the KFD model. Garden Badminton and many other garden games have been an important part of the Jaques business since the introduction of Croquet (one of many Jaques “firsts”) in the late 1800’s.
