BWF to trial serve clock at select tournaments in 2026

[alien9113]

Badminton-BWF to trial serve clock at select tournaments in 2026

A time clock which will allow players 25 seconds between each rally will be tested by the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) Council at certain World Tour tournaments from the 2026 season, the governing body said on Wednesday.The new regulations state that the server must be ready to serve...

www.channelnewsasia.com

A time clock which will allow players 25 seconds between each rally will be tested by the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) Council at certain World Tour tournaments from the 2026 season, the governing body said on Wednesday.

 

[samkool]

it's about damn time!

 

[LD rules!]

A preferred option to changing the scoring system imo.

 

[scamp]

Walk to courtside, change shuttle, walk to opposite courtside, towel head and arms, check racket, have a drink, get floor mopped, touch hands with partner...once...twice, prepare to serve, turn around and touch hands again, signal serve tactic to partner, serve. I've seen it!

 

[alien9113]

Walk to courtside, change shuttle, walk to opposite courtside, towel head and arms, check racket, have a drink, get floor mopped, touch hands with partner...once...twice, prepare to serve, turn around and touch hands again, signal serve tactic to partner, serve. I've seen it!

I wonder if those will count into the 25 seconds.

How will BWF implement it?

After umpire announces the score?

After player passes the shuttle over?

So line judges only have less than 20 seconds to mop the court if the player dives? That has safety impact.

Lots of unknown details.

What's the penalty for overshooting it? Yellow card? How many players will cry foul if they get a few red cards and lose points for delays?

 

[thyrif]

I think it's a good idea to quantify the delay rules, and I'm very interested to see how this will play out!
I'm assuming timing counts from the umpire updating the score (AFTER any line call challenge!), until the serves or is clearly ready to serve but is waiting for the opponent. I'm assuming any mopping at the end of time will not result in blaming the player, but the player still has to be ready immediately after; thus waiting on court, not at the equipment box.

Assuming the normal escalation of penalties: verbal warning, Yellow, Red, and Black cards. But seeing the differentiation in how often verbal warnings are used before a Yellow card is shown, perhaps a direct Yellow will eventually be better for fairness.

 

[Cheung]

I really don’t like the inconsistency of verbal warnings given to players. There should only be one warning and then a yellow card. One warning is reasonable. Two verbal warnings before a yellow card has the potential to make more delays. A yellow card itself is a warning as there is no loss of a point.

The interesting thing is in doubles. Does the warning apply to the pair or an individual player? The yellow card so given to the pair.

 

[alien9113]

BWF should also fix the inconsistency of verbal warnings before issuing yellow cards. There's no standard to this.

It's still very unclear how BWF intends to implement the countdown timer, and again, this is discretionary due to various scenarios, such as mopping, medical timeouts.

For some situations, this can also lead to undue delays, e.g. after a medical timeout, if both players on both sides still choose to max out the 25 seconds.

 

[vixter]

BWF should also fix the inconsistency of verbal warnings before issuing yellow cards. There's no standard to this.

It's still very unclear how BWF intends to implement the countdown timer, and again, this is discretionary due to various scenarios, such as mopping, medical timeouts.

For some situations, this can also lead to undue delays, e.g. after a medical timeout, if both players on both sides still choose to max out the 25 seconds.

It shouldn't be hard to implement. It works pretty fine in tennis. The shot clock is started as soon as previous point is finished. If the shot clock reaches 0 but mopper is still busy mopping the court, or in the case of medical timeout, the shot clock is irrelevant and play will resume as soon as mopper is ready/medical time out is over.