HOW TO PLAY BADMINTON

There is more to learning how to play badminton than just being up to date on the rules of the game. Learning how to play badminton correctly also means developing certain skills. Among the most important of these are gripping the racquet correctly and mastering serves and stokes.

The best way to hold your badminton racquet is to grip it like your are shaking hands with it. Once you have experimented a bit with this concept the next thing to do is try serving. In badminton the serve is underhanded. The shuttlecock is held below the waist and service is upward, propelling the shuttlecock over the net and into the diagonally-opposed court. Make sure the shuttlecock enters the area beyond the front service lines but does not go out of the court beyond the side or back boundary lines. When the serve is made, stand in the right court if the score is even or in the left court if it is odd. You will need some practice to hit the shuttlecock into the right area of the opposing court. Be careful not to hit the net or serve so strongly that the shuttlecock goes out of bounds.

Learning how to play badminton can be overwhelming if you try at first to consider all the different strokes. It is best for beginners to master the high serve and to learn the basics of forehand and backhand strokes. In serving there are low serves and high serves. In a high serve, the goal is to hit the shuttlecock so high that it is falling vertically when it reaches the opponent’s backcourt. A high serve is always returned with a forehand stroke.

In all other situations the badminton player has the choice to play each stroke either forehand or backhand. A forehand stroke is played with the front of the hand (palm,up) and the backhand is the reverse, hitting with the back of the hand (knuckles up). In learning how to play badminton you eventually work on a number of different strokes, including service, overhead, underhand, sidearm, drop and smash.

The overhand stoke, sometimes called an overhand clear is meant to drive the birdie as far and deep into the opponent’s court as possible. The underhand stroke or underhand clear is meant to do the same thing. A drop shot, on the other hand, is meant to drop just barely over the net as it falls into the opposing court. A smash is just like it sounds, similar to a spike in volleyball, where the birdie is hit with a severe overhand stroke so hard that it falls fast downward to the floor and the opponent has no chance for a return.

Don’t try to master all aspects of how to play badminton at first. As you learn more and more about how to play you can practice all of the different strokes as well as work on footwork and covering the court, which are also essentials of the game. In the beginning, keep it simple--just concentrate on a basic serve, a basic return of serve, and on keeping the shuttlecock in play.