I think the recent changes are the ones I would have made. There are still ambiguities, but most major changes to the serving rule would change our game too much. I think the Below horizontal on the shaft rule is much more tangible than the top of the acket head rule, as the shaft is a memorable visual cue. The main ambiguity now is one that cannot be solved - the definition of what is a waist? Ribs/hips/shorts/shirts and opinion can cloud judgement, but IMO it cannot be solved since every player is made up different. I think overall the judges in Badminton do a good job. It would be interesting to hear what Service judges/umpires think of the rule changes............
I agree, the most difficult thing to judge is the waist... We should ask ourselves, what is the purpose of the service? Should it be such a pressure shot?
The only thing you could do about the waist is to make the height objective instead of subjective to each person. This would make it more equal between short and tall players. Put a red line on the net 500mm from the top that is maximum height of service, then it makes the orientation of the racket immaterial.
Would that not advantage or disadvantage a height group...? ie... a tall player would have to serve far lower than a shorter person... What about moving service lines? eg remove the back service line in doubles, therefore the receiver would have to stand further back and not be able to "toe the line"
I agree that it would disadvantage taller people if you set a service height but it would take one aspect of the serve (downward angle of racket) out of the equation and also make it much easier for the service judges to judge. Right now it's very difficult to determine the "waist" of the players unless everyone played topless (might make womens badminton more enjoyable to watch though)....
What about abolishing the waist ruling on short serves? After all its not an attacking shot, just the flick has to be judged on upward trajectory, therefore taking all the pressure off of the service.
But how do they judge this as te elbow may not be free hanging during the serve? (Apologies if you don't know)
As some point the either during the warm up or game, the player will present you with the chance to judge the height of his/her serving line. This you can then measure in your mind against the players t-shirt or a point in the background. Then when that player serves, you have your fault line.
"Remove the back service line." Hmm.. why did they draw it there in first place? Now the receiver can get the point by pushing, not after a nice rally. And those criminal servers fight back by serving from too high. If we remove the back service line the receiver would not stand so near the net and the server don't have to be so nervous if he can start the rally at all. Somebody can say that we can not have good play if the receiver is forced to lift at first but in doubles the attack from back is not too dangerous.
Hmmm..sounds like a lot of guess work & room for error. Also is is a fact that this is the waist measurement?