Questions on service rules in different situations

Question 1: While I serve, my opponent makes a fake movement of body, before I make a contact the shuttle with my racquet. Is this a foul?

Question 2: While I serve, my opponent makes a fake movement of racquet, before I make a contact the shuttle with my racquet. Is this a foul?

Question 3: While my opponent serves he keeps his racquet horizontally, above the waist and makes a fake move of racquet and serves. Is this a foul?

Answer:

Hi Prabhoo, thanks for your question.

I see that you have some interesting questions on the badminton service rules. I’ll answer them one by one.

Question 1: When I serve, my opponent makes a fake body movement before I make contact with the shuttle with my racquet. Is this a foul?

The server (you) and receiver (your opponent) must be ready when you deliver the service.

Before delivering the service, every player will stand on a specific spot on the court. Once all the players have taken their positions, the umpire assumes that the players are ready to play.

At this point, the players’ feet (both the server and receiver) must remain on the ground. This means that they cannot move away from their initial ready position until the service has been delivered. Otherwise, it is a fault.

Once your opponent is in a ready position, he is not allowed to remove his feet from the initial ready position. At this point, do not serve IF you find your opponent performing fake body actions.

Wait for your opponent to settle down. This means that your opponent should not be moving and ready to receive the serve.

In professional tournaments, the umpire will warn the receiver to settle down if the player continuously performs the fake body movements that you’ve mentioned.

Another common fault is when your opponent moves during the split second when you’ve started swinging your racket, but have yet to hit the shuttle.

The rule is that once the receiver is in a ready position, he is not allowed to move the feet away from that position UNTIL the server hits the shuttlecock.

Question 2: When I serve, my opponent makes a fake movement of racquet before I make contact with the shuttle with my racquet. Is this a foul?

This question is similar to the previous one. Basically it is not a foul if the receiver’s feet remains stationary on the ground.

I understand that these movements can be very distracting. If your opponent deliberately performs these fake movements before you serve, he or she is NOT considered to be ready to receive.

My advice will be to HOLD your serve until your opponent stops performing these actions. In professional tournaments, the umpire will warn the receiver to get into a ready position.

Question 3: When my opponent serves he keeps his racquet horizontally above the waist and makes a fake movement with his racquet and serves. Is this a foul?

Yes, it is definitely a foul.

Once the server and receiver are at their ready position to start the rally, the server MUST position the racket below his waist line and deliver the serve.

The server must deliver the badminton serve with ONE upward stroke. This means that you have only one chance to hit the serve. Your racket must also swing at an upward direction when performing the serve. Otherwise, it is deemed a foul.

Once your racket swings forward in an upward direction, the service is said to be “delivered”.

The point of contact with the shuttle must also be below the server’s waist line, otherwise it is a service fault.

Given the badminton service rules, you are not allowed to make fake movements when delivering the service. Once you start swinging your racket forward, you must hit the shuttlecock.