Badminton has its origins in ancient civilisations in Europe and Asia.

The ancient
game known as battledore (bat or paddle) and shuttlecock probably originated
more than 2000 years ago.
In the 1600s battledore and shuttlecock was an upper class pastime in England
and many European countries. Battledore and shuttlecock was simply two people
hitting a shuttlecock backwards and forwards with a simple bat as many times as
they could without allowing it to hit the ground.
Modern badminton can be traced to mid-19th century British India. It was created
by British military officers stationed there. A net was added to the traditional
English game of battledore and shuttlecock. As it was popular in the British
garrison town of Poona, the game came to be known as "Poona" or
"Poonai" Initially, woollen balls were preferred by the upper classes in windy or
wet conditions, but ultimately shuttlecocks took over the role of a "ball." This
game was taken by retired officers who got back to England. It was introduced as
a game for the guests of the Duke of Beaufort at his stately home 'Badminton' in
Gloucestershire, England where it became popular. Hence, the origin of the name
"Badminton."
In March 1898, the first Open Tournament was held at Guildford and the first 'All
England' Championships were held the following year.
The International Badminton Federation was formed in 1934 with nine founder
members, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Holland, Canada, New
Zealand and France. India joined as an affiliate in 1936.
The first major IBF tournament was the Thomas Cup (world men's team
championships) in 1948. Since then, the number of world events has increased
with the addition of the Uber Cup (women's team), World Championships
(individual events), Sudirman Cup (mixed team), World Junior Championships and
the World Grand Prix Finals.
Badminton is a relatively new Olympic sport. It was a demonstration sport at the
1972 Munich Olympics. Badminton eventually became an Olympic sport in
Barcelona in 1992. Only the singles and doubles were introduced for the first
time in the Olympic Games. Mixed doubles was included in the 1996 Atlanta
Olympic Games and badminton is the only sport that has mixed doubles event in
the Olympics.
Only five countries have won gold medals at the Olympics since badminton was
introduced in 1992 - China, Indonesia and Korea, England and Denmark.
Susi Susanti from Indonesia won the women's singles in Barcelona, becoming
Indonesia's first medallist after forty years participating in the Olympics.
Ironically, Susi's future husband, Alan Budi Kusama won Indonesia's second gold
medal in the men's singles.

Badminton and tennis are both popular racquet sports, although both
used comparatively different facilities and equipment. Here is a brief
list:
Badminton

 Court of dimensions 6.1 x 5.18 metres

Badminton racquet
Shuttlecock
Tennis
Court of dimensions 23.77 x 8.23m
Tennis racquet
Tennis ball
A badminton court is rectangular and divided into halves by a net. The
courts are usually marked for both singles and doubles matches,
although sometimes a court can be marked for singles only. Both the
courts are the same length, but the doubles court is wider. The width of
the court is 6.1 meters (20 ft) for doubles, and 5.18 meters (17 ft) for
singles, and the length is 13.4 meters (44 ft). At the edges of the court,
the net is 1.55 meters (5 ft 1 inch) high and 1.524 meters (5 ft)
towards the centre. It is not mentioned in the Law of Badminton how
high a ceiling about the court should be, but a court won;t be suitable
for the game if the ceiling is likely to be hit during play.
Badminton racquets are lightweight, and usually weight between 70
and 95 grams. They can be composed of different materials ranging
from carbon fibers to solid steel. Carbon fiber's an excellent strength to
weight ratio and stiffness gives it excellent kinetic energy transfer.
Cheaper racquets are still often made of metals such as steel. Oldfashioned wooden racquets are no longer manufactured because of
their excessive mass and cost. The Laws of Badminton limit racquet
size and shape, although the isometric shape is most common in new
racquets, and a traditional oval shape is still available.
The shuttlecock is the high-drag, cone shaped projectile used in the
game of Badminton, Its shape comes from sixteen
overlapping feathers that are embedded in its cork base, a cork base
which is covered with a thin layer of leather or synthetic material.
Sometimes synthetic plastic 'feathers' are used in shuttlecocks as this
reduces costs and these alternatives do not break so easily.
Tennis courts vary mainly in their size to badminton courts, but they
can also be of varying surfaces, including clay, grass, carpet, and
concrete. A tennis court is also rectangular, but its dimensions are
23.77m in length, and 8.23m in width for a singles match, 10.97 for a
doubles match. The net is stretched across the entirety of the court at
the halfway point and is roughly 1.07m high at the posts, and 91.4cm
high towards the centre.

Tennis racquets are made up of a handle and a neck joining a roughly

elliptical frame which holds the criss-cross pattern of strings in place.
Since the 20th century, racquets have been made of materials such as
ceramics, carbon graphite, and titanium. These stronger materials
meant that oversized rackets that yielded more power could be
produced, and the now synthetic strings added durability whilst
retaining the feeling of the animal gut that was used as strings 100
years ago.
Tennis balls are hollow rubber balls with a felt coating. They were
traditionally white, but color was gradually changed to a fluorescent
yellow in the latter part of the 20th century to allow for improved
visibility.
There are seven essential pieces of equipment that you need when you
play table tennis (or ping pong as it is also known). The first one is a
table, and unless you have got the room (and the desire) to buy your
own, you will find this at a sports club or other facility.
Another important factor in this game is an opponent because this is
very definitely a game for two. The rest of your equipment is as
follows:
Bats
A table tennis bat (also known as a paddle) is a flat, rigid piece of wood
that has to be rigid, but it can be of any size, weight or shape. The
sides that will hit the ball have to be covered in rubber, and they need
to be different colors on each side. For example, black on one side and
red on the other.
If one side is not covered with rubber, you cannot play with this side of
the bat.
Balls
Ping pong balls are 40mm in diameter and are usually made from
celluloid. They are graded according to a three star system: Zero star
and one star balls are the cheapest and are used for training; two star
balls are better; and three star balls are the ones used in competition.
ss
Net
A good quality net is not extortionately expensive, but buy one that
has screw clamps rather than spring clamps for the best attachment to
the table. It also needs to be able to be tightened on each side, and
make sure that it conforms to competition regulations if you think that
you will be playing seriously. This means that it has to be 15.25cms

high.
Shoes and clothing
When you start to play, reasonable squash or tennis shoes will be fine.
Make sure that the clothes that you wear do not restrict movement,
and that shorts are above the knee so that you bend your leg without
restriction.

The absolute basics

The aim of badminton is to hit the shuttle with your racket so that it passes over the net
and lands inside your opponents half of the court. Whenever you do this, you have won a
rally; win enough rallies, and you win the match.
Your opponent has the same goal. He will try to reach the shuttle and send it back into
your half of the court. You can also win rallies from your opponents mistakes: if he hits
the shuttle into or under the net, or out of court, then you win the rally.
If you think your opponents shot is going to land out, then you should let it fall to the
floor. If you hit the shuttle instead, then the rally continues.
Once the shuttle touches the ground, the rally is over. In this respect, badminton is not
like tennis or squash, where the ball can bounce.
You must hit the shuttle once only before it goes over the net (even in doubles). In this
respect, badminton is not like volleyball, where multiple players can touch the ball before
sending it back over the net.

Badminton is played indoors

Some of you may be familiar with playing badminton on a beach, or in the garden. This is
fine when youre playing it as a casual game, but it doesnt work when you start to get
competitive.
The shuttle is blown off course by even the slightest breath of wind. Thats why
competitive badminton is always played indoors.

Setting up a badminton court

Badminton has its own nets and posts; the net is much lower than for volleyball.
Sometimes a sports centre will set up the court with a slack volleyball net instead,
because the staff dont know anything about badminton. Ask for proper badminton posts
and a badminton net.

If you need to set up the court yourself, then check three things:

The net covers the whole width of the court.

The net is pulled tight, not slack.
The net is in the middle, so that both court halves are the same size.

Often it can be hard to see the badminton court lines, because lines for other sports are
also painted on the floor. The badminton court lines should all be in one colour, so try to
focus on that.

Singles, doubles, and mixed doubles

You can have either two or four players on a badminton court: one player on each side,
or a team of two players on each side. One-against-one is called singles; two-against-two
is called doubles.
In doubles, either player can hit the shuttle; you do not have to take it in turns. The only
exceptions are the first two shots of the rally; Ill explain this when we discuss serving.
In total, there are five types of badminton:

Mens singles
Womens singles
Mens doubles
Womens doubles
Mixed doubles (each team is a man and a woman)

Mens doubles and womens doubles are also called level doubles.
These are the only types of badminton played in serious tournaments. In casual play,
however, women sometimes play against men (e.g. two women against two men).

What are all those lines for?

When you first look at a badminton court, you could be forgiven for thinking it has too
many lines. This is mainly because the court is marked up for both singles and doubles,
which use slightly different court sizes.
The outermost lines form the doubles court. So in a doubles rally, the shuttle is allowed to
land anywhere on the court.
The singles court is slightly narrower than the doubles court. The singles side lines are
not the outermost lines, but the next ones in. Taken together with the outermost
(doubles) side lines, these make narrow alley shapes along the sides of the court. These

alleys are often called the tramlines or side tramlines, since they look like tram or train
tracks.
So heres another way to think about it: the side tramlines are in for doubles, but out for
singles.

All the other lines are for serving

There are still three lines we havent discussed yet. These lines mean nothing during the
main rally, and only apply when youre serving. This is similar to how a tennis court has
special lines for serving.

Serving
Serving is how you start the rally: someone has to hit the shuttle first! To prevent the
server gaining an overwhelming advantage, there are special restrictions placed on
serving that dont apply during the rest of the rally.
The receiver is the person who hits the second shot in the rally. In doubles, the receivers
partner is not allowed to hit this shot.

How to serve
In badminton, the serve must be hit in an upwards direction, with an underarm hitting
action. You are not allowed to play a tennis style serve.
The main rule here is that when you hit the shuttle, it must be below your waist. To be
exact, the rules define this to be a height level with the lowest part of your ribcage. In
other words, you can serve from a bit higher than the top of your shorts, but not much.

Service courts
The service courts are smaller box shapes inside the court. Well look at what they are
used for in a moment, but first lets get the right boxes.
Notice that the badminton court has a line down the middle, extending from the back to
near the net; this is the centre line. At the front of the court, the centre line is met by
another line; this is the front service line. These two lines form a T shape where they
meet.
A singles service court is a box made from four lines:

The centre line

A singles side line (inside side line)

The front service line
The back line (the outside one, all the way at the back)

On your side of the net, you have two service courts: your right service court, and your
left service court. The same is true for your opponent.
The doubles service courts are slightly different. They are wider, because they use the
outside side line (remember: the doubles court is wider); and they are shorter, because
they use the inside back line.
Thats what the inside back line is for: doubles service, and nothing else. Its probably the
most confusing line on a badminton court, because thats all it does!
So just to be clear, a doubles service court is made from these four lines:

The centre line

A doubles side line (outside side line)
The front service line
The inside back line (not the very back line, but the next one in)

How service courts are used

Service courts are used for three things:

The server must stand inside a service court.

The receiver must stand inside the diagonally opposite service court.
The serve must travel into the diagonally opposite service court.

For example, suppose the server is standing in his left service court. The receiver will be
standing in his left service court, which is also where the serve has to go.
If the serve is going to land outside the service court, then the receiver should let it fall
to the floor. If the receiver hits the serve, then the rally continues even if the serve had
been going out.
The server and receiver must stay inside their service boxes until the server contacts the
shuttle with his racket. After that, they can leave the boxes immediately and move
anywhere on court.