Last updated: 6 August 2026
Reviewed by Jordan Makin, FA Level 2 Football Coach
The core service rules
Service faults
| Scenario | Legal? |
|---|---|
| Shuttle contacted below the server's lowest rib, racket head angled down | ✅ Legal serve |
| Shuttle contacted above the waist/rib line | ❌ Fault — illegal serve height |
| Server's feet leave the ground before contact | ❌ Fault — feet must stay in contact with the court |
| Serve lands outside the correct diagonal service court | ❌ Fault — out of bounds for that serve |
| Server feints or delays unfairly before serving | ❌ Fault — service must be a continuous, uninterrupted motion |
Which service court?
Serves always go diagonally — right service court to right service court, left to left. In singles, you serve from the right court when your score is even, and from the left court when your score is odd. In doubles, the same principle applies but which partner serves also depends on the score and rally outcome, which is one of the more confusing parts of badminton scoring for newcomers.
Top picks compared
| Pick | Product | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top pick | Badminton Racket (Beginner, Complete) | Balanced racket for learning serve technique and rallies. | Check price → |
| Option | Shuttlecocks (Feather, Tube of 12) | Tournament-standard shuttles for practicing legal serve height. | Check price → |
| Option | Badminton Court Marking Kit | Mark accurate service court diagonals for practice. | Check price → |
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Frequently asked questions
Why is the overhead serve banned in badminton?
The underarm serve rule is a long-standing structural feature of badminton designed to prevent the server from having too large a power advantage on the serve — unlike tennis, where an overhead serve can be a dominant weapon, badminton's serve rules keep the serve as a rally-starter rather than a primary scoring shot.
What happens if a service fault occurs?
The point goes to the receiving side immediately — in badminton's rally-point scoring system, every serve results in a point for one side or the other, so a service fault simply awards that point to whoever was receiving.