A short history lesson about the sport...

Badminton was invented long ago; its origins date back at least two thousand years to the game of battledore and shuttlecock played in ancient Greece, India and China. A surprisingly long history for one of the Olympics newest sports!

Badminton took its name from Badminton House in Gloucestershire, the home of the Duke of Beaufort, where the sport was played in the last century. By coincidence, Gloucestershire is now the base for what became the International Badminton Federation and is now called Badminton World Federation.

The IBF was founded in 1934 with nine members - Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. The USA joined four years later. Membership grew steadily over the following years with a surge in new members after badminton’s Olympic debut at Barcelona.

The first major IBF tournament was the Thomas Cup (world men’s team championships) in 1948. Since then, the number of world events has increase to seven, with the addition of the Uber Cup (ladies’ team), World Championships, Sudirman Cup (mixed team), World Juniors, World Grand Prix Finals and the World Cup. The World Cup invitational event started in 1981 and is organized by the International Management Group (IMG).

The MBA and USA Badminton adopt the Badminton World Federation's Law of Badminton. The BWF rules can be found here: http://www.internationalbadminton.org/statues.asp

The badminton court and dimensions are shown below.