Yes your feet may go under the net. I should have made that clear as part of the misconception. it is commonly thought that your feet cannot cross the net. However, it may cross as long as doing so does not distract the receiver in a way that they were affected in performing the shot.
Thanks, but this rule (9.7) makes no mention of shuttle, just server and receiver! So the block of the shuttle view is not illegal.
9. SERVICE 9.7 In doubles, the partners may take up any positions which do not unsight the opposing server or receiver. The main point of interest on the service in doubles is able to see the shuttle at the serve. OK, so how would you propose a legal service in doubles with the partner blocking the "view" of the shuttle? Remember the shuttle cannot touch the partner's body, clothes or racquet and still go over the net. I can only think of high serve to go over my partner's head. I do not think in doubles serving high all the time is a wise move. If "unsight the opposing server or receiver", then most of the female players in XD will be violating this rule. As most of the female players is at the front during service but she will likely block the "sight" of her male partner or parts of his body from the receiver sight line.
Thanks, but I didn't mention partner blocking the view of shuttle only mentioned server blocking view of shuttle, which under the current rules is not mentioned! As to second paragraph, it is dowm to defonition of unsight opposing server or reciever, as most female players do not totaly block the view of the reciever, and as to your point in previous paragraph if they did this then the server would only be able to execute a high serve over their heads.
I remember that it was the Malaysian men's doubles players (not Chinese) who used to serve by brushing the feather, making the shuttle so wobbly that even if you can return the serve it would go in wild directions. I think it was the Sidek brothers. As I remember IBF changed the rule on that one very quickly, within a couple of years.
While the "shuttle below the waist" is definitely in IBF rules, if you see the doubles matches at the WC05, so many players were hitting the serve above the waist that I thought that maybe they've changed the rules. For example, look at the Danish men's doubles (the pair that Tony/Howard beat in the qf) or Lilyana Natsir -- they practically hit the shuttle chest-high, but with the racket head always below the hand. I would like to have a definitive agreement on this. Is the "shuttle below the waist" rule still in effect????
I have had many people complain when I do an abrupt backswing in advance of the serve. I place the racquet head in front of me, then the shuttle in front of that. Then I jerk the racquet head back toward my body, pause, and then begin the forward motion. Many players expect an immediate forward motion so when it doesn't come, they complain that I have had two movements. I thought that only the forward movement needed to be continuous and that a separate backswing was okay. Nothing in the rules contradicts this. Even a coach from Kim Dong-moon's professional team accused me of this (which is ironic since I'm convinced one of his top players breaks rule 9.7 on almost every serve) when I did this against him. The only thing I can think of is that jerking a racquet head back may produce a tiny bit of instability when the backward motion is stopped but I don't think my opponents are keen enough to detect this. When people are miffed at having been caught off-guard, it isn't uncommon to conclude that there must have been something wrong with it. The other weird thing about where I'm from is that no one ever calls a net touch violation unless the tape is touched. When an arm or hip contacts the mesh, no one says "boo". I think I've seen glancing contact with mesh go uncalled in an international match, too, but I can't remember where. In local club games, though, I've seen entire torsos go crashing into the mesh (the bottoms are never tied off) and no opponent even considers calling a fault whereas contact with the tape is always called with vigilance.
What you describe about your serve is perfectly legal, as long as there is only one continuous forward movement which no inadvertent jerk forward at the end of the backswing. Most people expect that the serve starts from the first backward movement but this is definitely not the case, as quoted above. I guess it causes grief to people mainly when you normally serve without the pause and occasionally do the pause becasue they are using the backward movement as their cue to move - which is itself illegal. You could always carry a copy of the rules with you - which is good advice for anyone, really - to show the doubters who challenge you. You should start calling net touches properly yourself. Local variations are not valid and the rule talks about the net in its entirety - not just the tape. Some will argue that it should not matter, but the fact is that it does and they are being penalised for lack of control, effectively.
