What is the correct action for an umpire once the shuttle touches the floor within the court, but is played on? I believe this that the best practice and laws have diverged here. In practice, umpires will say [3.53] Fault, announce the score, and if asked will explain that the shuttle touched the ground before being hit (there seems to be no vocabulary for that!?). However, this seems strange since the shuttle touching the ground is not a fault per §13, it just ends the rally per §15.2. So what is the correct procedure if a player plays on after the shuttle has touched the ground?
If a shuttle touches the court surface then not only does it end the rally as per section 15.2 but as per section 7.3 it awards the point to the other side.... therefore i believe that the call should be "point" not "fault" then the score and who is serving.
I have never heard point being called, and I am unable to find it in the vocabulary nor RTTO. For these reasons, I am extremely skeptical towards your claim. Can you elaborate what your sources are?
There's a slight but important difference between the shuttle being struck after it hits the ground and the shuttle simply hitting the ground thus ending the rally. Yes, in both situations the rally ends, but in first case, a fault is immediately called so that it's clear to both sides what occurred, just in case either side hadn't noticed that the shuttle had touched the ground and keeps on playing, instead of stopping since the rally should have the ended. If you're asking for sources to back me up, then sorry you'll have to dig it up.
In the cases I've had, I normally say fault and most players know. If they come over and ask, I just tell them the shuttle hit the floor. Yes, this is one of the cases where it's not under "Faults" in the rulebook, nor covered by anything else, but I cannot see another way to call it to stop the rally. Also, I think fault will give the audience an idea. If you yelled out STOP or something else, the audience would get lost as to what happened.
Ok, so it seems the laws are in need of updating here! I'll try to contact my national federation, since there does not seem to be any way to directly contact the BWF TOC (probably for good reason, since they'd get a lot of basic misunderstandings). Wow, there are more? Would you mind listing them?
