Sometimes before serving I will move my racquet and the shuttle together from side-to-side. I do this to line up where I am serving to, make it less obvious to where I plan to serve and to create uncertainty in the mind of the receiver. I was lambasted for doing this at my club last night. I said I think it's legal as the serve only starts from the moment I move my racquet forward and at most I take only 2 or 3 seconds to line up my serve. I also pointed out that it's something I've seen professionals do e.g. Kevin Sukamuljo and Christina Pedersen. My action is as per Kevin's in this clip (starting at 29:48): So is this legal or not?
Legal. Boe does this all the time. Just tell the whiners to watch his matches... Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
@visor is correct, but doesn't mention the actual rules, so here goes: So the question whether this serve is legal hinges on the interpretation of when you are ready for the service. The widespread interpretation, and the reason for Kevin Sukamuljo and Christina Pedersen not being called faults, is that if the pattern is common and does not vary too much per serve, then the movements are before the server is ready for the service. This doesn't come out of nowhere; it is justified by ITTO §6.7: Therefore, this serve is generally legal, but there may be exceptions; for instance if you feint a longline serve and then do a second serve to the sideline, it would be a fault.
