Badminton Shuttle on the Line: In, Out, and Reviews

Last checked: August 2026 · Written by the player-led team at Badminton House

Is a Shuttle on the Line In?

Yes: a shuttle that lands on any part of a boundary line is in, because the Laws of Badminton define every court line as part of the area it marks. The shuttle is out only once it lands completely clear of every line bounding that area, and the rally is over the instant that happens.

This surprises players used to sports where only the inside of a line counts. Under the BWF Laws of Badminton, all court lines "form part of the area which they define," so a shuttle clipping the outer edge of a sideline or the back boundary is in, full stop. The shuttle stops being in play, and the rally ends, the instant it touches the floor. Nothing that happens next, including a swing at a shuttle that has already grounded, changes that result.

This cuts both ways for a shuttle still in the air. Let it fall, and it is judged only by where it lands. Play it first, and there is nothing yet to call: the rally simply continues with your return, and you have traded the chance at a line call for staying in the point. Once the shuttle does land, the point is decided at that instant, whatever anyone does afterward.

Which Lines Are Live: Singles, Doubles, and the Serve

Singles and doubles use different sidelines, and doubles adds a second boundary that only matters on the serve. The net posts sit on the wider doubles sidelines on every court, so singles plays to the inner line while doubles plays to the outer one, and a doubles serve must clear a smaller box than the rally that follows it.

The posts sit on the doubles sidelines "irrespective of whether singles or doubles is being played," per the Laws, so that wider strip of court physically exists on every setup even when nobody is using it. In singles, anything landing between the two sidelines is out. In doubles, the identical spot is in. For the full court diagram and every line's exact position, see our guide to badminton court dimensions and lines.

The serve adds its own narrower target. A correct serve must land in the receiver's service court, a smaller boxed area than the full court, not simply anywhere inbounds. Once the return is struck and the rally is underway, that smaller box stops applying, and a fault now needs the shuttle to land outside the boundaries of the full court, the same boundary used for the rest of the rally. A serve that dies just past the service box is out. The identical landing spot one shot later, mid-rally, is comfortably in.

How Automated Review Decides a Close Line Call

Where a court runs an Instant Review System, a player may challenge a line call, and cameras decide it. The system tracks the shuttle from several angles at once and reconstructs its flight, rather than reading one camera's frame. BWF introduced this system in 2014, and the Laws now let its ruling stand unless it is clearly wrong.

Hawk-Eye is the tracking system the sport uses. It follows the shuttle with several cameras positioned around the court, each watching from a different angle, then triangulates those views into one three-dimensional flight path instead of relying on any single camera's picture. That is why a review can rule against what looks obvious on the one broadcast angle you happen to be watching. Your camera saw one view; the system saw all of them at once and worked out where the lines and the shuttle's path actually met.

The same tracking cameras that decide close calls also generate the shuttle speed figures shown on broadcasts, since both jobs read the same flight data. Hawk-Eye's adoption history records BWF testing earlier instant-review options before adopting this system in 2014, with its first tournament use at that year's India Super Series. The Laws now let that system decide a challenge outright, sending only an inconsistent or obviously wrong result up to the referee, per BWF's Instant Review System regulation. For how a player invokes a challenge, and the two-failed-challenge budget per game, see our guide to badminton challenge rules.

Calling Your Own Lines Without a Review System

Most club and drop-in badminton has no umpire and no camera system, so players call their own lines by the honor code. Call against yourself when you are genuinely unsure, let one player per side own each call, and never re-litigate a shuttle once it has already landed and the rally has moved on.

This is the same shuttle-on-the-line rule from the first section, minus a referee to lean on. The player closest to the landing spot makes the call, out loud and immediately, because a call made after the next rally has started has already lost its usefulness. When you and an opponent (or your own doubles partner) genuinely disagree and neither of you had a clean look, replay the point instead of arguing it. A shuttle you already played past is not something to reopen five points later. Our guide to calling your own lines in badminton covers the full honor-system script for the disputes that come up most.

Banner photo: Dee'lite, Flickr, CC BY 2.0, cropped.