In badminton the server can serve anywhere from his service court is possible?

by Bijo

(Kerala, India)

Question:
In badmintion the server can serve anywhere from his service court is possible?

Answer:
Hi Bijo (nice name by the way), thanks for the question.

As long as the server serves within the service boundaries, it will not be a fault.

The service boundaries will be the area either at the left or right hand side of the badminton court, divided by the centre line.

I’ll provide you some pictures illustrating the service boundaries for a singles and doubles badminton game.

Badminton Singles Service Boundaries

The picture above shows you the service boundaries for a singles game. The server can serve from anywhere on the yellow area.

You should take note that the current score of the server in the picture above is an ODD NUMBER (eg: 3,5,7 or 11) because the server will be serving from the left hand side of the court.

If the server’s score is an EVEN NUMBER, he or she will be serving from the right hand side of the court.

Click here if you want to read more on badminton scoring system.

Let’s get back to our picture. Having said the large service boundaries in a singles game, most players will serve from the RED DOT as indicated in the picture.

That will be the ideal spot where the server performs the badminton service in a singles game.

When a player positions himself at the centre of the court, he/she will be able to cover the court efficiently regardless of where the receiver hits the shuttle to.

The centre of the court is also known as the badminton footwork base.

After you move away from this centre area of the court to retrieve a shot, you’ll basically need to move back to this centre spot immediately to prepare for your opponent’s return.

Badminton Doubles Service Boundaries

The 2nd picture on top of this page (click on it to enlarge) shows you the service boundaries for a badminton doubles game.

The server can serve from anywhere in the yellow area.

However, the ideal spot you want to stand while performing a service in doubles is on the red dot in the picture above.

Notice that in doubles, you’ll be serving closer to the net (the red dot in the singles boundaries picture is more towards the back of the court).

This is because in doubles, the server will only need to cover the front area of the court, while the partner can cover the rear court.

Therefore if you’re the server in a doubles game, you’ll want to stand slightly to the front to perform the service. This allows you to cover a bigger area at the front court.