Whilst watching some sports TV presentation, I saw Michael Johnson. A great athelete who has been criticised in the past for his unique running style. Another athelete who has been criticised in a similar fashion was Bjorn Borg for double hand backhand in tennis.

Notably, these people stuck to their styles and made it successfully to the top.

Can a person do this for modern badminton?

People like these are reinventing their respective sports. Doing so you will always have to stand target to criticism from "purists". Look at tennis today, for instance, many top players even do double-handed forehand shots now!

I think we can draw an analogy to what the IBF is trying to do with the scoring system in badminton. The outcome of that has yet to be seen. If they come to a successful change (such as 5x9) that will forever change the face of the sport.

Can techniques be invented in such a radical way for modern badminton?
(scoring system changes aside)

The methods of court movement and stoke formation have been slowly changing over god knows how many years, with people constantly analysing all aspects, so it is hard to see where any sudden or major change of thought will come from, indeed how many have there been in the last ten years or so.

If there is any sudden revelution, we coaches are going to get stomped as our players rush to gllefully inform us that we were wrong........and we will rush gleefully to the bank with the extra coaching fees we gather from re-educating the world.....What a wonderful world

Sure it can, but of course we can't foresee it. If we could we would be doing it right now, wouldn't we? ;)

rule on badminton equipment is a lot stricter than other sport. Look at golf, tennis, racketball, equipment change did most of the changes for these sports

In ye old days it was recommended to follow through on almost all your shots, now that's not the case. Shots such as backhand drives, forehand punches, etc which require you to whip the racquet head back from the shuttle just after contact to play properly would probably never had evolved if people still played with wooden racquets. These shots don't look great for the purist, but boy are they effective. The Koreans led the world in doubles when they first really started to develop the flat, forecourt backhand drive shots, but the rest of the world has caught up.

Also the style of play has changed due to the ability to hit smashes much harder, especially in singles. In the past you'd hardly ever see people serve short in singles, now at pro levels it's quite normal, I could go on.

u can really compare/contrast technique of an individual and changing the format of a scoring system in the context that Cheung was initially talking abt.

But if ur point of view is from the change of badminton as a whole, then i c ur point.

Anyhow, stroke changes have evolved, formations have changed (namely in doubles), so from my observation the tactical side of badminton has changed, much more than the technique.

hmm.....seeems a bit wierd when technique and tactic, seem to go hand-in-hand.

I agree with the incremental change view. We will see small improvements in training, maybe someone will invent a (legal) sports drink that actually gives all the boost that the tv commercials now claim, there might be a slightly better way to do footwork, and so on.
Perhaps players' techniques have now reached the limits of a well-conditioned human body and only tiny improvements are possible.

Most radical changes so far - backhand serve? around the head shot?

What I'd really like to see is better knee braces designed for badminton players. It seems there are a lot of top players who have suffered knee injuries. Also, maybe research on preventive strength training.