Stats Place of Birth: Seoul, Korea Height: 180.00cm Current Residence: Seoul, Korea Language(s): Korean International Debut: 2011 Professional Since: 2005 National Team Member: 2011
That was neither the Swiss Open nor was it a final. That was the second round of the World Championships, which were held in Switzerland. Actually, some might dispute whether that was a flick serve, too. It is more of a drive serve, which is why Gideon was able to get a racquet on it without either jumping or running back.
Hello. First of all, thank you for your reply. And you’re right that was the world championship, round of 32. I’ll modify my original writing And about service rule was changed that the whole shuttle shall be below 1.15 metres from surface of te court. So I think that was not a fault. And Gideon, Sukamuljo and many players use flick serve like that.
I didn't mean it was a fault. I'm just saying there is a difference between a flick serve and a drive serve. A flick arcs higher so that the shuttle will be out of reach of the receiver and force him/her to jump or run back and hit it near the back of the service area. A drive serve flies flatter and lower but still tries to get to basically the same place. The difference is that the drive serve can be intercepted by a receiver with quick reflexes, who can thus return it without jumping or running back, as Gideon attempts to do in the video. The drive serve relies on surprise and also the speed of the shuttle to make it difficult for the receiver to react in time to produce an effective return. I would say that's what Choi did on that point. You are correct in your observation that the drive serve was basically non-existent in the international game before they changed to the 1.15m rule. Before that, in international badminton, we only had low serves and flick serves.
Why a thread for him only but not his partner? Frankly the way he delayed his serve deliberately to make his opponents off balance has put me off from being a fan of his. Even now with the umpires being stricter he still tries to vary the duration he takes to serve, even if it’s not as long, is pretty much still aimed at disrupting his opponents’ balance. His partner plays way cleaner. But I still respect his play. He’s a great net rusher, has good defence and flat play. One of the pairs that can produce an upset.
is the serve the only part of the game you're not allowed to mix up? do anything and everything you can to disrupt your opponent... that's the game.
In any game there are certain taboos that most players conform to. An example would be the underhand serve in tennis, which also serves to disrupt the opponent. Of course nothing in the rule states that they can’t, just that it’s somewhat implicit from most players’ behaviour (and a certain degree of backlash should one choose to defy e.g umpires tightening their watch of Choi’s serve after R1 of WC). In any case, it’s just a personal opinion to dislike that tactic, no way am I imposing that opinion on others.
