Is it legal to hold your racket straight up and down on your own side of the net to block an opponents shot?

by Anonymous
(Canada)

Question: Is it legal to hold your racket straight up and down on your own side of the net to block an opponents shot? (Especially when you made a poor return and gave your opponent an easy smash)

Hi, thank you for your question.

It's NOT a foul as long as your racket doesn't cross over your opponent's side of the court. If you move your racket around YOUR side of the court, it should be safe.

Like you said, you might need to do this especially when you return a poor net shot. Your opponent might be fast enough to smash or perform a net kill when you return a weak net shot.

After you returned a poor net shot, you can move your racket around in front of the shuttle (hoping that your opponent's smash or net kill hits your racket and gets returned) but your racket MUST NOT cross the net.

The basic idea is that you're not allowed to hit the shuttle when it's still at your opponent's side of the court.

You must also be aware to NOT touch the net -- it'll be a foul if you do so. This is pretty common in casual badminton games.

If you're interested to improve the quality of your net shots, you can learn the different net play skills here