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Jargon buster

Kill: For a sport which can be played with such feathery touch, a remarkable amount of strength and explosive power is ever present. A kill is an unreturnable shot struck with ferocity straight down into the opponent’s court.

Forecourt: The front section of each half of the court, between the net and the short service line.

Lift: A shot played from beneath the height of the net, normally played high to the back of the court.

Drive: A hard, low horizontal strike across the net.

Smash: An overhead shot hit downwards with maximum force.

Basic rules

The game of badminton is played on a court 13.4 metres long and 6.1 metres wide, which is divided in a half by a net about two metres high.

The purpose of the game is to get the shuttlecock over the net, using a racket, and make it land in your opponent’s half of the court or have them hit it into the net or out of bounds.

Games are won by the first team to reach 21 points, with a margin of at least two points. A match is the best of three games.

At London 2012 players will compete first in a group stage, before progressing to the knock-out stage of the competition.

They will play with a very specific sort of shuttlecock, weighing between 4.74 grams and 5.5g and containing 16 feathers, each plucked from the left wing of a goose. These shuttlecocks can travel at speeds in excess of 250mph.