A shuttle touching a player or clothing is a fault.

The current BWF international baseline

This page applies BWF Statutes Section 4.1, Laws of Badminton, Version 5.0 (2), in force 26 April 2025. The controlling provisions are Laws 7.3, 13.2.3, 13.3.1, 13.3.4, 13.3.4.1, 15 and 17.

The Para badminton statement below is part of the same BWF law book. National associations and event organisers may appoint additional competition regulations, but this page does not treat a domestic publication or an event-specific variation as the worldwide rule. Check the appointed regulations if a competition announces a different ruleset.

Check whether contact happened before play ended

1. Find the first rally-ending event. Had the shuttle already hit the court, or had another fault or let already occurred?
2. Identify what the shuttle touched. Racket-only contact is judged under the stroke laws; person or dress brings Law 13.3.4 into play.
3. Ignore its predicted destination. If it was travelling out, ask whether it had actually landed out before touching the player.
4. Apply the side and format. In doubles, contact with either partner is a fault by that side.
5. Apply the Para provision where relevant. Law 13.3.4.1 counts a wheelchair or crutch as part of the player's person.

Once the player-contact fault occurs, the rally has ended under Law 15.3. A later landing cannot turn it into an out call, and there is no advantage provision that permits the Umpire to ignore the fault.

Person or dress means a fault

BWF Law 13.3.4 makes it a fault if an in-play shuttle touches the “person or dress” of a player. In ordinary application, that means the player's body—including a hand, arm, leg or hair—and worn items such as a shirt, shorts, skirt, sock or shoe.

The law states the result by contact and adds no intent or material-deflection test. A smash that brushes a defender's sleeve, a mishit that strikes the hitter's own leg, and a player catching a shuttle before it lands therefore all produce the same player-contact fault. Accidental contact is not, by itself, a let under Law 14.

“It was going out” does not prevent the fault

A shuttle does not become out merely by crossing the vertical plane of a boundary line. Under Law 13.3.1, the out fault occurs when the shuttle lands outside the court boundaries. Until a rally-ending event occurs, an airborne shuttle remains in play.

If a player standing behind the back line catches the shuttle, lets it strike a shoulder, or blocks it with a foot before it lands, Law 13.3.4 decides the rally first. The player should move clear and allow the shuttle to touch the surface if the intended claim is that it is out.

A later touch cannot change a completed rally

Law 15 says the shuttle is no longer in play when it hits the court surface, when it strikes the net or post and starts falling toward the surface on the striker's side, or when a fault or let has occurred. Contact after that point does not create a new player-contact fault. This is why the sequence of events, rather than the final resting place of the shuttle, controls the call.

For example, an out shuttle may bounce from the floor into a player's shoe without changing the out decision. Likewise, a shuttle that lands in and then strikes clothing has already ended the rally by touching the court.

The racket hand is still part of the player

The player-contact rule does not exempt the racket hand. If the shuttle touches a finger, knuckle or hand rather than only the racket, it has touched the player's person and the result is a fault.

Racket contact is judged under the separate stroke rules. A shuttle hitting only the racket is not a person-or-clothing fault, although a catch and sling, two successive hits, successive hits by partners, or a racket touch after which the shuttle does not travel toward the opponent's court can create a fault under Laws 13.3.6–13.3.9. See the guide to double hits and continuous strokes.

A touch by either partner is charged to the side

In doubles, the fault applies when the shuttle touches either player or either player's clothing. A partner cannot stand in the flight path to stop an opponent's shot or catch a shuttle that appears to be leaving the doubles court.

The service laws also contain a specific doubles clause: under Law 13.2.3, it is a fault if the served shuttle is hit by the receiver's partner. If the in-play serve instead touches a player's person or dress, the general Law 13.3.4 player-contact rule applies. Neither provision creates a replay merely because the contact was accidental.

A wheelchair or crutch counts as part of the player

BWF Law 13.3.4.1 expressly provides that, in Para badminton, a wheelchair or crutch is considered part of the player's person. An in-play shuttle touching that equipment therefore produces the same fault as contact with the player's body or clothing.

This provision removes any need to ask whether the shuttle struck the athlete or the mobility equipment first. Other class-specific court and service variations do not reverse this stated contact rule.

The Umpire decides whether a touch occurred

Under BWF Law 17.6.1, the Umpire enforces the Laws and calls a fault when one occurs. Whether the shuttle actually brushed a sleeve, hand or hair is a factual decision; the fault consequence follows when that contact is found.

Law 17.5 makes an official's decision final on facts within that official's responsibility. An appeal about a point of dispute must be made before the next service, and Law 17.6.8 sends only an unresolved question of law to the Referee. Law 17.5.2 limits the BWF Instant Review System to line-call challenges, so it is not a replay route for alleged body or clothing contact.

Apply the first rally-ending event

• Shirt before landing: a smash brushes the receiver's shirt and then travels beyond the back line. BWF v5.0 (2): fault by the receiver's side, because Law 13.3.4 occurred before any out landing.
• Catch behind the court: a player catches an airborne shuttle while standing a metre behind the back line. BWF v5.0 (2): fault by that player's side; position outside the lines does not end play.
• Racket then finger: a defensive stroke touches the racket and then the same player's finger while the shuttle remains in play. BWF v5.0 (2): player-contact fault; racket contact did not make the shuttle dead.
• Receiver's partner intercepts serve: the partner hits the served shuttle. BWF v5.0 (2): fault under Law 13.2.3.
• Floor before shoe: the shuttle lands beyond the line and bounces into a player's shoe. BWF v5.0 (2): out under Law 13.3.1, with no later contact fault, because Law 15.2 had already ended play.
• Wheelchair contact: an in-play shuttle strikes a player's wheelchair. BWF v5.0 (2): Para badminton fault under Laws 13.3.4 and 13.3.4.1.

These are explanatory hypotheticals applying the cited Laws, not purported BWF casebook decisions or incidents from real matches.

What the BWF rule does not allow

• “Accidental contact should be a let.” Law 13.3.4 defines a fault and does not depend on intent.
• “The hand holding the racket counts as the racket.” The hand remains part of the player's person.
• “A player may catch an obviously out shuttle.” The shuttle must first land out or otherwise cease to be in play.
• “Standing outside the lines prevents a body-contact fault.” The player's location does not remove the in-play contact.
• “Clothing contact counts only if it changes the shuttle's path.” The law requires a touch, not a visible deflection.

Governing-body source and effective version

• Badminton World Federation, BWF Statutes Section 4.1 — Laws of Badminton, Version 5.0 (2), in force 26 April 2025 — Definitions and Laws 7.3, 13.2.3, 13.3.1, 13.3.4–13.3.9, 14, 15 and 17.

Checked on 15 August 2026 against the BWF-hosted law book above and for later amendments affecting player or clothing contact. Version 5.0 (2) is the current BWF international baseline used here. National and event regulations should be checked for the particular competition; no domestic implementation has been presented as a universal BWF rule.