A person I played with serves a normal backhand serve except right at point of contact, he swings his birdy holding arm up or to the side quickly. I don't know of any rule against it but then again I haven't seen this kind of serve before so I am wondering if it is legal. Thanks
Ah, then I'm not sure. I can't think of anything off hand that says the shuttle/shuttle arm must remain stationary, just that the server must remain stationary.
Both feet need to be on the ground Difficult to swing a racquet whilst stationary Raising the non- racquet arm is not illegal so long as the striking point is not above the ribs.
I don't remember reading that the arm shouldn't exceed the bottom rib. The shuttle has to be struck from waist level though no matter which way you serve. If the arm can't exceed the bottom rib, the service situation will be a lot more different today, especially in WS. Extracted from 9.1.5: "the whole shuttle shall be below the server's waist at the instant of being hit by the server's racket. The waist shall be considered to be an imaginary line round the body level with the lowest part of the server's bottom rib"
ah. thanks for all the replies and for clearing this up. it's tough for me dealing with this serve because I feel the moving hand is so distracting. what do you guys focus on for the serve? the racquet head movement or the shuttlecock path immediately after the hit? I've been trying to focus on the shuttle but like I said the hand really distracts me.