NEW: Fixed Height Experiment for Service

The latest edition of BWF Shuttle World Magazines No.20 (November 2017-January 2018) page 7 have an article about this fixed height experiment:

TESTING TIMES AHEAD!

The Badminton World Federation will start testing an Experimental Service Law (Fixed Height) from 1 March, this year, including at the TOTAL BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2018 in Bangkok and at the TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018 in Nanjing.

It will mandate that “the whole of the shuttle shall be below 1.15 metres from the surface of the court at the instant of being hit by the server’s racket”. The first event at which this experimental law will be introduced is the YONEX German Open 2018 (6-11 March) which is a week later on the events calendar this year, thus preceding the All England Open Badminton Championships 2018 in testing.

All Grade 1 events – except the BWF World Junior Championships – will undergo testing as will Grade 2 events (the HSBC BWF World Tour and BWF Tour Super 100 events) and continental championships in April. As of now, testing is expected to run until year-end.

“The serve is an integral part of badminton. Over the years, we have been looking for ways to improve how the service laws are applied,” said BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer.

“Therefore, after various investigations and deliberations, the Council has determined to implement this Experimental Service Law in an effort to improve the application of the service laws at BWF tournaments. We hope this will yield positive feedback from our membership.”

Ahead of the testing, the BWF will host a training workshop for BWF Umpire Assessors in Kuala Lumpur in January and thereafter those BWF Umpire Assessors will hold training courses at the continental team championships in February. Training will include how to use the measuring devices that will determine service height.

[Source]

 

I'm wondering which 'rules' at the club people will start playing with now?
The experimental ones, or the old waist rule?

I mean the official rulebook hasn't changed, but it seems inconsistent when people playing at the big tournaments use different rules than the rest of us.

 

I am asking; is the racket pointing to downward direction still implemented in this rule? And are there already updated version of the law with this rule?

 

Short answers: No and Yes.

For fixed ht as long as the whole shuttle is hit below the 115cm mark of the device, the service will be considered legal, the other factors also remaining legal.

 

Really? So.... Flick service from the bottom with going up racket motion will ve legal? Sukamuljo will be happy.

 

Soo... this just occurred to me.. what impact will this have on junior tournaments? Are we gonna see 11 year olds doing head height serves?

 

BWF specifically exempted the World Junior Championships from the new rule, so for now no youth tournaments use it.

As discussed previously in this thread, this will indeed be a problem, with no clear solution so far. To summarize, the options are

• Keep the old rules for youth tournaments (maybe only in U15 and younger). A mess for the umpires, but we've dealt with worse.
• Vary height by age, e.g. U11 80cm U13 90cm, U15 100cm, U17 110cm. The judging devices then should include multiple lines.
• Mandate 115cm for everyone, and live with overhand or even overhead serves, especially at high national and international levels. Sure, it looks funny, and coaches will have a trade-off between immediate results and long-term, development, but as long as the shuttle is coming from below the net, it shouldn't change that much, should it?

It's not only junior players; para SS6 (short statue) players will have the same problem, although there is more precedence of para-specific rules.

 

Alright that makes a lot of sense. I guess perhaps a reasonable work around would be:
'Below waist height and/or below 115cm' for those events, this would mean you would have the old service rules up to 115cm, but then it caps in line with senior tournaments.

 

I don't see anything wrong with serving about head height. If you are able to physically do it, why not?
The rules are supposed to be universal. It's weird it's a fixed height experiment at the top of the game, but not everywhere else.

There's literally three people at the top possibly disadvantaged by this rule. Mads kolding, viktor, and ivanov.

 

And other tall lanky people..

 

Lol, I mentioned at the top, so other tall lanky people probably don't apply unless I'm missing someone obvious.

German open starts in two days? That's when the new rules start. Well, time to bring up my own service by about 5-10 centimeters.
I took a look at Mads Kolding's serve with the bar at 1.15m. It did seem rather awkward for him. I think a fixed height of 1.2m is better. I think bwf is worried about flicks being too mainstream at this height. But I'd say try it. Right now the receivers have about a 56% win rate, so that number could go down a bit anyway.

 

What about Li Junhui and Lui Yuchen?

 

Yup I forgot Li Junhui (6ft 5). I don't think That guy is goddamn tall, moves fast, and hits hard for someone so skinny. I could only wish he paired with Zhang Nan. He's the best back court player currently in China imo.
Didn't notice Liu Yuchen was like 6ft 4, guess his serve will be slightly lowered.
Li Junhui surprisingly has like a super safe serve prior to the rule change so I doubt this affects him at all.

 

I feel like it'd be out of the spirit of the game to have 10 year olds serve at head height. It'd also make for some bad habits. I do agree that this change won't impact many players all that much.

 

if player should stand behind the back line during service (just like volleyball or tennis), I don't think we have to worry about the new fixed height of 115cm or the old above-the-waist rule again!!

 

But that would not really work, as it would be much much harder for beginners and very young kids to start playing. In high-level doubles, it could also lead to positive feedback, which is highly undesirable in any competition.

So for the benefit of slightly less service fault calls, this rule change would incur massive problems in other areas of the sport, far far far worse.

 

Lol as ridiculous as it sounds, that proposal isn't that insane. Throwing a shuttle up and smashing it behind the baseline wouldn't exactly be an effective and easy to play even at the top. But obviously beginners are screwed.

I don't really see anything comes bad out of it. Having the option of 1.15 is ok for kids. If it's uncomfortable to serve so high, serve at chest height. They can adjust slowly when they get taller. Applies to the serve, as well as every other shot.

That being said I still think 1.2m is a better rule. Who knows, they are trying to play it safe in case flicks suddenly dominate the game.