Receiving a Badminton serve

The serve receiver must be within his serve area diagonally to the player serving. Both feet must be touching the ground and also within his serve area without touching the lines. The goes for the server, both his feet must be touching the ground until service is complete and his feet must touch the lines.

The receiver can stand wherever he feels more comfortable, it is usually recommended to stand as close as possible to the net within the serve area to reach any short serve and be ready to jump back for a long serve. If the receiver thinks the birdie will fall out of bounds he can let it fall to the ground. If he is right the service will be at fault and he will win a point, if he is wrong and the birdie lasts on the line or inside the serve area the serving team will win the point.

Once the serve is complete, the players can move anywhere on their court in anticipation to the volley, the only restriction is players can't cross over to the opponents’ side of the court.

A typical doubles game follows this similar pattern. AB play against XY. AB wins the toss and chooses to serve. A serves and X decides to receive.

Court 1: A serves from the right service area towards X, which is in his right service area. AB win the point. Score 1-0.
Court 2: A serves from his left service area towards Y, which is in his left service area. AB win the point. Score 2-0.
Court 3: in the next court A again serves from the right service area towards X which is in his right service area. XY win the point, they now have the serve. Score 1-2.
Court 4: XY now have the serve, the score is 1-2 (score is always said with the side serving first). Since X is in the right service area he begins serving and serves towards A, since he was on the right during the last point. XY win the point. Score 2-2.
Court 5: X now moves to the left service area and serves to player B. AB now win the point, X loses the serve and Y serves. Score: 1-3. (second serve).
Court 6: Y serves to the player diagonally from him in this case player A. Again AB win the point. Y loses these serve, and team AB begin serving again score 4-1.
A continues serving until he loses a point, then the serve goes to player B.

After the first set teams must change sides, a set is won by reaching 21 points if they tie at 20, then the game goes to 22, the set must be won by 2 points. The team to win the best out of 3 sets wins the match.

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