Development of motor skills has always been an important objective in school physical education. Students cannot enjoy physical activity and sports until they can participate in the activity at a competent level. According to the National Standards for Physical Education, a physically educated person needs to demonstrate competency in many movement forms and proficiency in a few (NASPE, 1995). The purpose of this study was to describe the development of competence in badminton game play across skill levels. Badminton has been identified as an appropriate lifetime game (Samuel, 1991). Knowing how students develop competence across skill levels will help us better understand how to teach specific sports. The original data were collected for the South Carolina Physical Education Assessment Program. Three hundred and thirty-three high school students (179 boys and 154 girls) from 16 high schools in South Carolina were part of the original database and selected from within 4 levels of competence to participate in the study. The student performances of badminton game play were videotaped and rated on 4-point scale by physical education teachers using a rubric developed by the assessment program. Only the data determined reliable by a panel of experts using simple percentage of agreement above 80 percent were used. Students'performances were evaluated on grip, contact shuttle, position, understanding rules, long serve, short serve, clear, drop, and smash. The results showed that 66.4% of the participants (n=221) were classified as competent in the activity. Competency was defined as an overall score above 2 on the rubric in badminton game play. More specifically, competent performers demonstrated their competences in grip (99.1%), understand the rules (95.0%), contact the shuttle (94.1%), clear (92.3%), and position (81.4%), short serve (74.7%), smash (74.7), long serve (71.0%), and drop (67.9%). In addition, most of the incompetent performers were able to grip (83.1%) and understand the rules (59.8%). However, small portions of them were rated competent in contacting the shuttle (24.1%), the clear (15.2%), the long serve (10.7%), the smash (6.3%), and the drop (3.6%). The findings imply that developmental patterns of badminton game play may exist. Students may first master the grip and understand the rules, and then learn to contact the shuttle and short serve. Finally, they develop their long serve, drop, smash, and clear. Developmental indicators are described within each of the levels of competence.