By Justin Ma, 7x US Junior National Badminton Champion.
Last updated January 19, 2022
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3 min read
We all know about badminton singles, doubles, and even mixed doubles. However, not as many of us have heard about badminton triples! Although it’s not an official event in badminton, many players (including professional players) love playing triples as a way to warm up or just have fun with their friends. In this post, we will take a quick look at what badminton triples is and a few ways it can actually improve your game!
Badminton triples is what it sounds like — 3 versus 3 on a single badminton court. The lines you will use are the doubles lines for both serves and the rally. Generally, you will be playing with 2 players in the back and 1 player in the front, but during the rallies, the players are free to move around the court.
Badminton triples is an amazing way for you to warm up before a more intense training or game session. There is a lot less leg movement (but still some), so you won’t have to strain yourself to get the far-reaching shots. However, you are still able to react and hit quick shots to get your body and mind into the right place to play a quicker game.
As you can imagine, triples will have a much faster pace since you don’t need to do the footwork to reach the shots. This will help you a lot with your speed and reaction time. In the frontcourt, you will need to get used to cutting off faster shots. In the backcourt, you will need better placement, power, and reactions to be able to return hard drives or hit a winning shot in a crowded court!
We all know how much fun singles or doubles already is… can you imagine adding 2 more of your friends to the mix? Because of its nature, triples is also a much more laidback event where everyone is generally having a cheery time. Plus, you can play with 5 of your friends at one time so you don’t need to worry about the normal 4 people to a court limitation!
The scoring is still 21 points. You may not hit the shuttlecock twice back to back. For example, if someone serves you and you return, you must not hit the birdie when it comes back over the net. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to get out of the way of your teammates!
Badminton triples are played on the same court as a regular doubles match. During play, the normal rules still apply, except that there are three people on the court. Because of this, low-level triples can appear much like high-level doubles, with little lifting, but plenty of fighting for the lift.
The three stations in badminton triples will be right backcourt, left backcourt, and frontcourt. When the server’s score is even, both front players stand on the right side. Conversely, if the server’s score is odd both front players switch to the left. That part aside, the normal service rules apply.
During badminton triples, when one side wins the serve, they will rotate clockwise. In other words, the former left backcourt player becomes the one to serve. Otherwise, the positions stay the same.
This rule does have a drawback, however, because it means you will only ever serve two of the opposing players. A good option to mitigate this is simply to change the starting lineup at the beginning of each game.
The next time you are at the badminton gym with a large group of your friends, I highly recommend you give triples a try! Not only for the fun aspect but as a way to improve your skills as well. If you are looking for other fun ways to improve your badminton game, make sure you stop by our YouTube channel to learn more!
