See when you serve does the racket head have to be below your waist or no cos one guy told me that it has to be below my waist so I'm not sure if he's right cos he's a cheater
No, the shuttle has to be below the waist, not the racket. 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; 9.1.6 the shaft of the server's racket at the instant of hitting the shuttle shall be pointing in a downward direction; Nothing is said about the height of the racket head..
Yep, that's it but here's the entire laws of badminton if you want to read through it. http://www.worldbadminton.com/rules/
Yes, when struck above the waist. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most players serve slightly above their waist and nobody ever complains. I've only seen one umpire take this rule seriously in a mens double match. I can't remember the name of it, but the player got really annoyed and lifted up his shorts lol...
that sounds like the final of the All English 2009 with hang sang hoon/hwang ji man v cai yun/fu hai feng, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5BoLwneB9k
Its a really unfair rule. Should be relative to the height of the net or some absolute height. Short people get disadvantaged enough in badminton as it is. The height from which you serve from really makes a difference in service quality IMO.
... to what point should we take the "fairness"? Maybe we should make the stronger players use really heavy rackets? Maybe faster players should have to wear weights? How about other sports like basketball? Maybe they should have a height restriction so that it's more fair and shorter players can compete? How many points in professional badminton are won off the serve? Taller players can also get better angle on attacking smashes. Maybe we should make a rule that they can't jump, only shorter players can jump? If you haven't noticed yet, I'm pretty sarcastic, especially to comments that while true, have no practical value.
There is a new rule in preparation, already tested somwhere in Finland and Italy, that the height of the serve would be limited on 110 cm above floor. A special mark on the net and on the posts will indicate that height and help a service judge to make a correct call ...
Are you 2m tall and enjoy drive-serving at people by any chance? Your suggestions to improve fairness are clearly ridiculous. I have no idea what you are trying to say. Your statement about impractical is very wrong. It is quite practical to draw a line on the net and use that as a guide instead of trying to guess the position of someone's ribcage. In fact, arrange the service judges chair so its at service-eye level. Makes it really easy to tell. The ideal game should have a simple set of rules, but create a complex game. In general, the simpler the rules, the better. In your suggestions, you are suggesting ADDING rules to artificially handicap taller people. I am merely suggesting CHANGING a rule to a more precise one.
NanoBatien, I believe what he was trying to say was accommodating players for their physical limitations/disadvantages is ridiculous because if you truly wish to make the game "fair" you would have to make everyone exactly the same with respect to heigh, physique, etc... Imagine lowering a basketball hoop for shorter people in the NBA... If your short, life sucks. I think it's unfair too, but what can I say.. life is unfair ...
Of course there is always going to be "unfairness" in life. But my point is that there is no need to give (tall) people an artificial advantage if you can easily write the rule such that this is not the case.
thats not going to work for BC member, Jerby he is over 2m tall. Seriously that wouldn't work either, that would be unfair for tall people and good for short people, that means that tall people (over 1.90m) are going to have to crouch to serve, and shorter people are able to bring the shuttle above waist, so it's unfair both ways. I vote to keep the rules the same.
As I stated in my last post... life is unfair and being tall is an advantage... so is being fast, having quick reflexes, being stronger... etc. You can't artificially make it so that everyone is exactly the same, what would be the point? The point to competition is that people are different, have different skills and yes different advantages in physical abilities including height. Part of being an athlete is to use your own advantages and over come the opponents advantages. I hate playing against left handers, I think they have the advantage in that the vast majority of players are right handed. I have to adapt my game so that I don't unintentionally hit it to a left handers forehand (a right handers backhand). I vote that all left handers should be forced to play right handed.... what do you think? I also don't see anything "artificial" about being tall... they just have those genetics.
