Badminton (and squash) should learn from an inferior racquet sport with a superior scoring system: tennis.
It's not about the reducing the length of the matches but increasing the
drama. Tennis has a scoring system more conducive to producing drama. And drama attracts sponsors and
money.
The main difference:
- Badminton has two layers to win matches: points -> sets. 21 points to win a set. 2 sets to win a game.
- Tennis has three layers: points -> games -> sets. 4 points (15, 30, 40, gamepoint/breakpoint)) to win a game (ignoring deuce). 6 games to win a set. 2/3 sets to win a game.
Why is this difference significant? It's designed to stop the leading player running away with a set. It's also designed to maximise periods of drama/tension.
Tennis: You are never more than 4 points away from winning a game in order to iterate your score, even if you are 5-0 or 5-1 down in the set. Within those 4 points there is immediate tension/drama created that most viewers understand:
Within 4 rallies the game will either be at:
- Gamepoints (40-15)
- Breakpoints (15-40)
- Effective deuce (30-30)
- Game to player X or Y
- And then it resets to the next game at 0-0.
5-1 in tennis is about 17-4 in badminton (at which point the losing player will have long given up and so there is no tension - whereas Federer/Nadal/Djokovic almost always fight at 5-1 and are able to come back because you can still afford to lose points here and there so long as you win the game). In badminton's current 21 point system there's no serious tension apparent to a viewer until about 17-17 points into the game - which is just silly. (Note: this is actually a fairer scoring system to find out who is the better player but not for creating drama for the viewer).
I would propose this for badminton:
- Best of 3 sets
- 5 (or 4) games per set - this means a player has to win at least 20 (or 16) points to win a set** (similar to the current system of 21 points)
- 4 points per game (15/30/40/gamepoint).*
*If 40-40 no need for deuce - just have a "super point" where winner takes the game. Again this would immediate drama.
**If the set is at 4-4 in games (and 40-40 then you can have the normal deuce system as currently implemented in tennis and badminton) or simply have a tiebreak/setting system - say first to 4-7 points and 2 clear points difference.
Another small advantage: It means umpire will often call out the players names - "game(point) Momota/break(point) Ginting" or "Minions leads by 3 games to 1" or "Game, Set and Match Tai Tzu Ying" etc etc. This gives/reinforces name recognition of the players to the viewers and audience. In tennis you are seeing on-screen and hearing the players names all the time - not so in badminton.
Red herring: you can choose whether you have the tennis system where one side always serves for a game or badminton where the winner of the previous rally serves - it doesn't matter.
For the reasons given above, 11x5 will not make much difference because it's still only a 2-layer scoring system. 11-point games still create tension-free periods. Timeouts are just gimmicks (tennis has no on-court coaching for the match and is better for it). And most ludicrous of all you could have your star players on and off the court in about 15-20 minutes (you only have to win 33 points instead of 42) - what's the point? Can you imagine travelling to Wimbledon and seeing Federer v Nadal done in that time? Only badminton comes up with such genius ideas.
Additional bonus: for the club I play with I often use the tennis scoring system when playing/coaching kids because it keeps their focus better and gives more opportunity to improve their play under pressure. Same would apply to every club player and professional.
TLDR: Use a scoring system with 3 layers - essentially a modified version of the tennis scoring system. Increased drama for the same game length.