greetings from winfield, b,c canada could someone please answer this question. if i notice my opponent is serving the bird and is bringing his racquet head above his waist can i ask him to serve properly, tell him he's lost the point, or does such a call just come from a referee in tournament play? thank you, rob cosar www.robertjcosar@hotmail.com
You could gently remind him of the serving rules & faults. It's best to have a copy of the laws of badminton on hand. Best to do this at the beginning of the game. When you are receiving and he did an illegal serve. Stop play and apologize and politely point out that his serve is a bit high. After the game, if he is open, suggest that he demostrate his serve slowly and point out where his racquet head is at point of impact. Please note that above the waist is open to interpretation. Usually it is considered the bottom of the rib cage. Good luck. p.s. if you play in a club, then you might want to suggest to a senior player to approach your opponent about his serve (assuming that the senior player sees the same thing).
Please look at this picture: http://www.badmintonplanet.com/news/gallery/bptuprequal/MAS_DBL2_JPG.html Is it legal?
It does look like the point of impact will be a little above the bottom of his rib cage, so I'd say that's an illegal serve. On the other hand, we don't know what we're seeing here. Maybe he's just getting ready, and the actual impact will be lower...
Dear Robert, It is very difficult to be sure that the service is at fault because of waist level. If u have a service Judge it is his duty for service faults, if not the Umpire is in charge of the service faults and if u are Umpiring your own games then u can ask your opponent to lower his racquet or you can consult the organiser of the tournament which usually be the referee. Pl remember that there are more service faults then the one u mentioned and maybe u are faulting the service too The most common fault I notice in Badminton Players is " The first movement u make with the racquet towards the shuttle must be the hitting stroke " I hope that I explained correctly. Sometimes if your opponent is not having a very unfair advantage of the service u better concentate on the game. Norman
I watched Candra/Sigit played in Thomas cup against Danmark 2 years ago. I clearly saw the point of contact when Candra served was right in front of his chest. But the judge never called fault. So I'm just a litter confused what exactly the rule of serve is.
We Are The Robots The rule is clear as crystal, however the application of it can vary. Until they replace the judges by robots we are left to subjective judgement.
When I looked at other players immediately following my umpires course I thought that several people illegal serves. Three years on and I can confidently state that at least fifty percent of al club players serve illegally more than once a game. I have yet to find one who is willing to listen to someone approaching them about their service action. Truth is if they are good enough they will eventually compete in matches with service judges present, if they are not good enough they will never have to change, so get kids into good habits early! Two more things: firstly the judges viewing angle and the camera angle differ significantly drastically altering the perceived legality of a service action, and secondly the guide many judges use for the waist is the part of the body level with the elbow when your arm hangs down.
That really looks like an illegal serve to me. On the other hand, the point of impact might be lower.
I'd agree that fault serving is really common and nod my head to those sensible comments. I didn't know that part about how the service judges use the elbow as a judge of waist. That means I've been serving too low unnecessarily disadvantaging myself.
