are slice-serves legal????

yeah... as long as the point of contact for the shuttle is not too high (roughly around the hip area) and the base of the shuttle is the first contact with the racquet.

 

I believe that slice serves are allowed as long as they meet the stupilations for legal serving -- with regards to the waist and the orientation of the shaft (downward). The serve should also meet the following requirements:

9.1.4 - the server’s racket shall initially hit the base of the shuttle;

9.1.7 - the movement of the server’s racket shall continue forwards from the start of the service (Law 9.2) until the service is delivered (Law 9.3);


Not quite sure about the strict interpretation on the 9.1.7 law. If the racket intially starts moving in a forward direction and then suddenly chops down just prior to contact to impart slice, this action may be a violation of the this law.

Can NE1 out there confirm this?

 

Yes, they are..

..and if one can master it, that's one more "ammunition" to combat your opponent..As a matter of fact, i personally play with and against another person(much older than me) who always(90% of the time) serves with a slice-serve(backhand), weekly...And to add, he is very good at it(his wrist is very2 strong/flexible)...To put it mildly, the serves are hard to read and sometimes hard to return, because of the speed, spin & location of the serve, for me and most of everyone he plays against..

 

We used sliced forehand serves all the time - they're a great way to add tumble to the bird and ruin the receiver's return and they seem to clip the tape more often. As to their legality, a slicing movement seems to satisfy the rubric "continuous forward motion", since the racket head doesn't actually STOP at any point (which would be necessary for rule-breaking backwards motion).

 

Rubric! That's not a word that I see very often (perhaps it is more common in the UK or maybe I'm just not reading enough).

Some time back, 2 ppl informed me that my slice serve was not legal. The claim was that I had suddenly changed directions in the forward movement of my racket in delivering the serve. They could not cite the Law that was violated but I assume that they were referring to the 9.1.7 statute.

If the racket travels thru a smooth curve in its forward motion, I believe that a server is still in compliance with that rule. But how about a path that incorporates a discontinuity?

I am using discontinuity in the mathematical sense -- a function is said to be discontinuous if it contains a point that is not continuous -- this would happen if that function exhibits a sudden change at some point rather than following a smooth curve. The slope of the function at that point is undefined.

In the case of the racket trajectory, the motion might be said to be discontinuous if the path direction changes such that an obtuse angle is described. It also might be argued that the racket experiences a slight hesitation (an imperceptible stop) in order to realize the direction change.

Does any of this make sense?

 

It does to me (2 Maths A-Levels). Might be going a bit deep by considering continuity vs differentiability, but the idea is spot on - can the racket head zig and zag crazily as long as the overall motion is "forwards"?

"Forwards", to me, means towards the net, so any deranged service motion where the racket head keeps moving towards the net satisfies 9.17. Since this would include slices, slice away. Besides, it is VERY difficult to serve without the racket moving towards the net anyway!

We might be overanalysing somewhat here, since none of my matches has ever been umpired, let alone service judged.

(Btw, "rubric" is as obscure here as everywhere else - my club's coach is also a former teacher of mine and, thanks to him, we share a Cambridge education. I am virtually unintelligible where I live nowadays)

 

slice serves are legal, as long as you hit the base first and do not violate other laws.

 

yeh, i was wodering about this myself actually, cus i tried slice serving it forehand the other day and my opponent seemed to struggle a bit to return it, then i asked a friend about it and he said it was illegal. But i searched on here and some people say its legal, in fact i was going to make a thread, so thx for asking about it .

 

personally.. i never got any complaint from doing slice serves. I usually do a backhand slice serve with my racquet moving diagonally forward-right (i believe.. haha)
I haven't perfected it though since a lot of time.. my slice serves go short

 

I have the same problem.

 

sliced serve

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. As long as there are amateur athletes playing in friendly competition there are going to be individuals that bend the rules to win. These are individuals that lack the skill or fitness level to compete. The way I deal with the sliced tumbling shuttle is to snatch it in midair with my non racquet hand and hand it back to the server asking him to take it over. If he protests I point out one or more faults such as double hit, carry, balk, contact at nipple height,etc. I have found this to have a strong influence in the overall compliance with the rules.

 

sliced serve

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. As long as there are amateur athletes playing in friendly competition there are going to be individuals that bend the rules to win. These are individuals that lack the skill or fitness level to compete. The way I deal with the sliced tumbling shuttle is to snatch it in midair with my non racquet hand and hand it back to the server asking him to take it over. If he protests I point out one or more faults such as double hit, carry, balk, contact at nipple height,etc.

 

slice serves are hard to hit back? most are either short or ready to be pushed at in the face with =P good slice serves can be sliced back with a tumbling net drop =D or a cross drop... no? last but not least... just clear...? O_O

as far as i know it...some people can do a slice serve with a single motion without discontinuity. so i'm assuming it is legal... it does comply to rules

 

I will try and describe what I taught myself on Friday.
I hit the shuttle below waist, but I slice across the base of the shuttle, at a quick pace, my opponent always goes back expecting the flick serve and is suprised every time, they also seem to find it difficult, to return, usually getting a short lift.
Is it legal? I am slicing accross the cork.

 

Yes it's legal, just like doing a slice drop shot. As long as all the other rules are followed then it really doesn't matter.

Continuous forward motion does not mean constant speed or direction, you just can't pause.

 

I suspect that slice serves aren't seen much at club level because they're actually quite difficult to control. For most people it takes a lot of practice before they can consistently slice the serve, keep it low over the net, without it either hitting the net or landing short, and also come up with a slice service action where a well disguised flick serve is possible. If you can't get all of these things right, the slice serve won't win you any more points than a "normal" serve. But if you can pull it off, then it certainly is legal!

 

I'll just comment on the law abt moving forwards:

9.1.7 - the movement of the server’s racket shall continue forwards from the start of the service (Law 9.2) until the service is delivered (Law 9.3);

from my understanding, 9.1.7, together with 9.2 and 9.3 is
to prevent players whom, after racket starts to move forewards 9.2,
stop the serve altogether as a fake serve,

or racket starts to move in some s-direction forwards & backwards b4 finally decide to deliver the shuttle across.

as long as the server continues his forward motion and delivers the serve after "start of the serve", he should be fine.

 

Idk but its mainly forehand servers in double that does the slice serve because its easier to angle their racquet perfectly in starting position to slice, whereas for me a backhand serve slicing it is dangerous cause your hand maybe be below the racquet head.

ie: Notably ppl serve with backhand often slice the shuttle with the racquet moving from a upward motion so the shuttle curves down on the oppnents court

 

eh? you grab the shuttle from the air and call fault when sliced serves are not inherently ilegal?