Regulations

Rules of Play

Games go to 21 points or fewer if agreed upon in advance, or until the end of our time slot at the gym. If there are too many people waiting, the organizer may call for 15 point games. Note: see "Bulletin Board" for the note about "rally scoring".

In general, we use the IBF Rules of Badminton.  They are available at www.worldbadminton.com.  If someone would like a printed version, ask me (John) and I’ll make up some copies.   
Each player is obligated to call faults on themself. If your opponent's shot was memorable but iffy, please don't point out any perceived fault involved ;-)   We need to treasure the good shots rather than nit-pick.

Serving Rule Review

It has been pointed out to me (in strictly an educational way) that there are a lot of different serving styles, some of them not quite according to regulation. While I don't intend to ever start monitoring and enforcing rules, please review the following notes so that you can see how close you are, and consider whether you can change your serve after all these years. Self-enforcement is the norm in our club, and some people have been doing it their way too long to change now...

There are several serving rules that merit review:

-The bird must be hit in a continuous upward motion starting below the waist. Ensure that your raquet is pointing down when the contact with the bird occurs, and ensure that the contact occurs below your waist.

-Once both the server and receiver are ready, there should be no delay for the serve. It's not fair to wait until your opponent blinks or otherwise indicates a lapse of attention.

-Once you put your racquet back to serve, you must continue immediately to serve. You cannot hold your racquet back and wait until the "right time". Also, you cannot stop your forward motion part way and resume the swing.

-Your feet must both be on the floor at the instant when contact with the bird occurs.

Other Rule Highlights

Slinging the bird is a fault. This is where the bird is carried by the raquet rather than a clean single hit. In contrast, the situation where the bird is hit twice by the raquet in one swing is not a fault (the rules say "hit by the head and the strings", but this is impossible to determine reliably so I recommend accepting any double hit in one swing).

Facility Regulations

-Street shoes should be left at the school entrance on the mat.

-Shoes used within the gym should have non-marking rubber soles.

-No use is allowed of school facilities or equipment other than the gym, the nets, and the net posts.    Other equipment is excluded from our permit for the facilities.

-The washrooms connected to the gym should be the only ones used, unless we are requested to use others by the custodian.

-No smoking or possession of alcoholic beverages is allowed on school property (inside or outside).

-The custodian has the authority to request any or all of us to leave if any infraction of the rules takes place.  Infractions will quickly lead to cancellation of our permit and therefore, the club.

-Please do not arrive more than 5 minutes before our scheduled time or leave the gym more than 10 minutes after.  This means that play should stop and players should be taking the nets down at the end of our time slot no matter what the game score is.