When do u switch boxes in a doubles game?

Question: When is the only time you and your partner can switch boxes in a doubles game of badminton?

Answer:
Hi Celie, thanks for asking us a question.

Technically, you switch serving boxes when you win 2 consecutive rallies.

This might be a little bit difficult to understand; so I’ll try to explain it with an example.

Now let’s assume that you start a game at love all (0-0) and you will deliver the service. According to the rules, you will serve from the right hand side of the court. When your score is an EVEN number, you serve from the right hand side of the court; when your score is an ODD number, you serve from the left hand side of the court.

See the picture below.

0 is an even number, so you start the game by serving at the right hand side of the court.

Next…

You WON the rally! Your score becomes 1-0. Since you were serving in the previous rally at love all, you will continue to serve for this rally.

So you’ll move to the left and side of the court to perform the service.

In this case, you’ve switched boxes.

Another scenario…

What if you serve at 0-0 and then lost the rally?

Your service is over and your opponent delivers the service for the next rally. You will not switch box this time because you did not win the rally.

In the next rally, you won and the score becomes 1-1. Remember that for serving purposes, you were standing at the right hand side of court. Keep yourself there!

1 is an ODD number. So it’s your partner’s turn to serve. You DON’T switch boxes in this scenario.

Basically it works this way. The serving rules looks more complicated with the 21 points system. I used to have trouble thinking where to stand all the time.

If there is a player that is familiar with the rules in your group, try to play with him/her more often and you’ll automatically know the rules over time.

You can further understand this by reading the scoring system for doubles.