The high serve is the singles standard. Learn how to send the shuttle deep, stay legal below 1.15 m and avoid the typical mistakes.
The honest answer: The high serve is the standard serve in singles. You hit the shuttle from below steeply upwards so that it flies high and drops almost vertically in the back of the court. Your opponent has to go far back and cannot attack straight away.
That sounds minor, but it is the first stroke of every rally that you control yourself. And it is harder than it looks: in a study with eight players the short serve landed clearly more accurately on target than the long serve, which additionally needs power [2]. Your consolation: on the short serve the players got more accurate with every attempt; repetition pays off.
The rules are clear and are checked in competitions. If you learn them from the start, you will not have to relearn later.
Stand in your service court. According to the Laws of Badminton, server and receiver must stand in diagonally opposite courts and both feet must keep contact with the floor and stay still until the serve is delivered [1]. Do not touch a line.
Hold the shuttle with two fingers by the feathers. Release it without adding spin [1], at about hip height in front of you. The racket head must hit the base of the shuttle first [1].
Milestone: Ten releases where the shuttle falls straight in front of you.
Take the racket back loosely, the weight goes onto the back foot. The racket head stays below the hip. The point of contact must be below 1.15 m [1], which is roughly your hip.
Now shift your weight forward and swing the racket continuously forward and up. The rule requires that the racket moves continuously forward from the start of the motion, with no stopping or pulling back [1]. The impulse comes from legs and hips, forearm and hand pass it on. The racket finishes high, over the shoulder of the hitting arm.
Place a towel in the back court, close to the baseline. Hit ten serves and count how many land on it or in front of it.
Milestone: Seven out of ten land in the back third. Only then do you make the swing more variable.
Your opponents read your serve from the arm and racket. In a study with experienced and inexperienced players, the experts recognised the serve type better because they looked at exactly those body parts where serves differ most (shoulder, elbow, wrist, racket) [4]. If you play high and short from nearly the same preparation, you become harder to read. That is a conclusion, not proven; try it in training.
The whole shuttle must be below 1.15 m from the court surface at the moment of contact [1]. That is roughly your hip height. The racket head must also hit the base of the shuttle first. Stay clearly below the limit, because just above it even officials often misjudge [3].
In singles the high, deep serve is common because it forces the opponent backwards. That is coaching practice. The short serve is the rule in doubles. A serve fault ends the rally before it begins; that is why repetition pays off [2].
Usually you swing too flat or only with the arm. Shift your weight actively forward and swing steeper upwards. The long serve needs more power and is therefore less accurate than the short one [2]; be patient with yourself.
No. The server must release the shuttle without spin [1]. Both feet must also stay on the floor and the racket must move forward without a pause [1]. If in doubt, ask a coach or umpire about the current rule.
Ideally ten to twenty serves at a towel in the back court at the end of each session, with counting. Short, regular repetitions beat one long series. This is coaching practice; how many repetitions are ideal has not been settled scientifically.
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