Badminton is one of the fastest growing sports in UK and around much of the globe. It is easy to get to a club that offers games and competitions. It doesn’t take a lot of hefty equipment, in weight or price. It is one of those sports that offers all round physical exercise.
The badminton playing area, let’s take a competitive court for example, is one large rectangle marked out with 40mm wide lines. The dimensions of the court area are 13.4m long by 6.1m wide – in old english that’s 44ft log by 20ft wide. The posts are 1.55m high, 5ft 1 inch and have to remain absolutely vertical which the strained net is attached. Obviously with it being a high net, there has to be an element of visibility and safety so the net is made out of fine dark cord with a mesh of between 15-20mm. The actual layout looks like a tennis court, with white lines on green breaking the court into 2 halves with those halves further broken in half, the half furthest from the net is divided to form 2 side by side rectangles, just like a tennis courts but different dimensions.
Matches have either 2 or 4 players on the court at given times. Doubles matches require that after service is returned, both players are then able to hit the shuttlecock as suits, not needing to take it in turns, as one does in tennis doubles. For competitive badmintonm, there are five different events/matches formed by Mens’ singles; Womens’ singles; Mens & Womens’ doubles and of course mixed doubles where each team consists of a man and a woman.