me of badminton is a fast-paced, dynamic, and exciting sport. It demands peak athleticism, lightning reflexes, and focus as players zoom around the court swinging and smashing their racquets until one team can no longer keep the bird in play.
If you’re new to this fast-paced game or have just been watching pros play on TV untiand l now, learning the rules of badminton can be a little tricky at first. Some badminton rules regulations are complicated and take time to wrap your head around.
As you might have noticed in your exposure to the sport of badminton, it’s ilegal in most instances to hit the net. If you touch the net with your arm, your racquet hits net, or any of your body parts or limbs hit the net while the ball is in play, you’re in trouble!
First, let’s explore when you cannot touch the net during play.
What is considered legal touching?
In pretty much every scenario, the net is off-limits while the shuttlecock is in play. If a play touches the net in any way in badminton, and the shuttlecock is still live, then that is a fault and the opposite team is awarded a point. u
What are examples of illegal touching of the net?
There are a few common scenarios when this happens. Here are a couple:
Swinging your racquet on returns – Sometimes you need to return the shuttlecock very close to the net, and when you swing your racquet you unintentionally hit the net with your request. Even though you didn’t mean to hit the net with your request, this is illegal.
Charging the net to return the shuttlecock –
What is “the net” considered?
The net is considered both the physical net and each net post that are holding it up. So in theory the net post is the net (mind blown…) You cannot hit either net post with your raquet or body parts while the shuttlecock is in play, same as the net.
When Can You Touch the Net During a Game of Badminton?
Pretty much the only scenario where a player can touch the net is when there is a dead shuttlecock aka a dead ball. That means that while the shuttlecock is in play, you can’t touch the net whatsoever with any part of your body or racquet.
This is important to know. Let’s say your opponent sends a volley your way and it is floating up right above the net and crosses over to your side.
You then see a good opportunity to spike the shuttle.
So, you run up to the net, get crazy airtime like Michael Jordan, and then spike the shuttle cock into the ground on your opponents side of your net.
But! On the way down, you hit the net…Oh no! You lost the point!
Not so fast. If the shuttlecock hit the ground on the opponent’s side of the net first, and then you touched the net after, then this is technically a legal touch. It is legal because the shuttlecock was dead before your hit net. Thus, you earn the point.
Conclusion
This is a pretty simple rule. If the shuttlecock is live, you can’t touch the net. If it is dead, you can touch the net. The times where this becomes tricky are bang-bang plays where the shuttlecock might die right as a player touches the net. Unless you have a judge or two refereeing the game, you might have to use the honor rule.