Hi All, When playing a match with no umpire, what's the accepted protocol for calling foul serves? Is it customary to give a warning or go straight to calling it? Cheers
There's no polite way to call a foul serve on someone. Bring it up before they next serve, just say "Sorry mate I think you're serving a bit high, needs to be below your lowest rib", or whatever the fault is, but I wouldn't start expecting points, or to get much love for it.
This one was racket pointing up on the serve, and yeah we didn't expect points from it, but at the same time it didn't feel right. Cheers for the tips people
In theory, it is a fault, and does not even need to be called. Analogous to §14.1 of the laws, you could simply call fault. In practice, many players will disagree when it comes to service (and receiver) faults. Therefore, it is indeed best to get an umpire. Of course a certified umpire would be best, but in a tournament, any player who knows the rules and is impartial will do. In a local club game, you can as well request an umpire, for instance from the head coach or so. Again, simply talking and saying that serve is illegal will likely be the best course of action. In the end, in a social club game that's just supposed to be fun/training, you can simply play against other players.
I usually just bite my tongue. I've had people moan at me for doing a drive serve. I've seen people serve at almost neck height, one that does a loopy S action before hitting the shuttle etc, it's a bit annoying because it's kind of cheating.
This was a match between clubs, so not the option of playing others. @Charlie-SWUK it was the drive serves that were particularly annoying with the action.
And you're 100% their racket was pointing upwards at the point of contact? After point of contact has been made the racket can point whichever way the player ways it to.
Yes - he rotated it from slightly pointing down to pointing a little up through the service action before he struck the shuttle. He did change his action after we mentioned it - so from then on it was ok.
Then have a look at your country's regulations - they will likely cover how you get an umpire! The rough process tends to be: Look for a certified umpire from an unrelated club (for instance, another team of the home club may be playing in the same hall) Look for a certified umpire among the non-players Look for an impartial player from an unrelated club Look for a player from one of the clubs (say, another player of the home club, who is not in one of the teams) If all else fails, both team captains serve as umpire, and can decide how to progress.
i think it depends on a few things.... 1.First and foremost i dont think an on court player is qualified to make any calls like that. call a neutral party to make the call. which basically means an umpire and you will only get these in higher quality tournaments. 2. Does it really make a difference? are they gaining an advantage? or are you just not liking the way they serve? if they are gaining a small advantage are you actually even good enough to take advantage of it? 3. Is all this talk of fault or not take away from the enjoyment of the game? I see a lot of people complain about other peoples serves particularly in the social league level in UK. In all honesty i think there really is no point. By all means mention it to the player at the end of the game. you know... hey fella.... has anybody mentioned to you that if seems like you have a bit of a double action? or hey it seems like your serve is a bit high. They will probably say yes it has been mentioned before... and hopefully they are trying to correct it. If they do it in any kind of important tournament ie they will get called for it with an umpire which will be available. But a local league... who really cares? and a club night? it really doesn't matter! Mention it to them so they might try to correct it. But really if someone is serving incorrectly their general standard of play isnt going to be that high anyway. How much advantage have they really gained? Its a serve. Just hit the damn thing and play on!
We offered a choice of give the point to us or play a let. Played a let. Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk
In a social club game where players aren't really aware of the rules, you can gently tell them after the game. But be careful how you tell them, because sometimes pride and adrenaline can get in the way and some people will take offence and think that you're just being legalistic, petty and picky.
Not too sure about it not being an advantage. It depends on the receiver. Some people return really well and their opponents end up using a pretty illegal serve to counter the advantage.
I usually watch the games going on when waiting my turn at badminton drop ins. If I see an obviously illegal serve, I usually call it out. So far, people haven't reacted to that because I would be impartial to the game result. I think its best if the spectators are the ones making line calls too for the same reason.
