phihag
Regular Member
The Recommendations to Technical Officials have been renamed to Instructions to Technical Officials and greatly expanded. They now include a lot of information for referees. On the BWF homepage, they can now be found under statues (unfortunately, the old URL /regulations/ is broken).
Interesting points (emphasizes mine):
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All in all, I welcome these changes, and the increased level of detail. Especially the referee parts are now very particular to BWF tournaments and will need significant adaptions when translated to the national regulations.
What do you think? Did I miss any interesting changes?
Interesting points (emphasizes mine):
Huh? I thought the times where discrimination was official ended with the unification of scoring systems across Men's and Women's singles. Or are male players just pickier on average?Instructions to Technical Officials January 2017 said:§3.5.4.1. The shuttles should be tested by an active player in the
tournament, preferably a male player.
Interesting order of play, given that in Germany we basically always play level doubles before singles before mixed doubles.ITTO said:§3.5.20 Particular care should be taken when determining the order of the semi-finals and finals. The Referee should take into account factors such as TV requests, spectator interest, considerations for players in multiple finals (i.e. rest time and playing singles before men’s and women’s doubles (usually), and participation of host Member players).
§3.8.5.1 [in team tournaments ...] players playing both singles and men’s or women’s doubles play singles first.
This is a fix for the problem that when playing an entry from the same country, resigning forfeits all BWF points for that tournament.ITTO said:§ 3.6.1.3.For matches between players/pairs of the same Member in Grade 2 – Levels 2-4 tournaments or in the World Championships, the Referee may initiate a retirement/withdrawal of a player against his wishes if the Doctor’s advice is that it is not in the player’s best interests to continue playing.
In my opinion, this is very good precautionary regulation to avoid feigned injuries.ITTO said:§3.6.1.5. The Referee shall resolve the injury situation as quickly as possible and well within a few minutes so that play can be resumed or abandoned. The Referee may need to point to potential disqualification if it is suspected that the player is exploiting the injury situation to regain wind or if the player repeatedly hesitates in deciding to continue or abandon play.
This is also stressed at multiple points before: In case of umpire error, referees should come onto court without the umpire requesting them. As a German, I'm also very surprised about the gendering (his instead of their, or switching between his and her every paragraph).ITTO said:§ 3.6.2 The Referee shall be called on court by the Umpire or intervene on his own initiative in case of flagrant or other misbehaviour resulting in a red card (Law 16.7) or when the Umpire needs his assistance to resolve other issues.
In theory, this could be a recipe for disaster. I hope referees are exceptionally conservative in overruling umpires this way.ITTO said:§ 3.7.3.1. The Referee may decide not to report a card given by an Umpire if the Referee or a Deputy has observed the situation where the card was given and decides that the card should not have been issued.
Great to have that written down! By starting when the umpire sits, conveniently the umpire software's clock can be usedITTO said:§5.2.3.1. [the umpire should (...)] time the warm-up period. The two-minute warm-up starts when the Umpire sits in his chair and ends with the calling of “Play” to start the match.

I think it's very surprising that this has not been adapted to the actual practice of calling fault only when necessary, for instance omitting the call in many cases of §13.3.9.ITTO said:§5.4.9 ”Fault” shall be called by the Umpire when a “fault” occurs, except
when:
- [service / receiver faults]
- (..) §§13.2.1, 13.2.2, 13.3.1, 13.3.2
This is already standard practice with electronic scoresheets; great to have it written down. Of course, any good software will archive the scoresheets nevertheless, it's not like they need a lot of storage space.ITTO said:§5.7.3. If no incidents happened on court, the Umpire may discard the scoresheet after the match, unless otherwise instructed by the Referee.
Many umpires had already handled it this way, and this is a great fix for the lack of "In" in the vocabulary.ITTO said:§5.8.3.2 Where there is no Line Judge or if a Line Judge is unsighted, the Umpire shall immediately call (..) the score or “service over” and then the score when the shuttle lands in; or
Again, this codifies current practice. I think it's very good to have that written down.ITTO said:5.9.1.5. A player attempting to influence or intimidate the Service Judge or a Line Judge shall be reminded that such conduct is unacceptable, with Law 16.7 applied if necessary.
I'm eager to see how this is handled in practice, for example with Carolina Marin.ITTO said:§5.9.1.7. After a rally, a player celebrating excessively or offensively (e.g. raising a clenched fist or screaming in the direction of the opponent) shall be reminded that unsportsmanlike and offensive conduct is unacceptable (Laws 16.6.3 and 16.6.4), with Law 16.7 applied if necessary.
In other words, coaching between points remains allowed, but should be limited.ITTO said:§5.12.1. Coaching is not allowed from the moment the player(s) is ready to play and while the shuttle is in play.
Probably not a problem at high international levels with professional coaches, but this could generate some conflict at lower levels. At national (youth) tournaments, I often see coaches fiddling with cellphones. Also, any electronic device would include pacemakers and hearing aids. In my opinion, both of them should be allowed for coaches.ITTO said:§ 5.12.6. Coaches at courtside must not use any electronic device for any purpose.
At international levels: Sure, that sounds like a good idea. At national levels, this would be complete chaos; it's not uncommon for tipping to be decided differently for every shuttle or at least for every court. Again, I'm eager about how the national translations will look.ITTO said:§5.13.3. The Referee shall be the sole judge for deciding the speed of the shuttles to be used. If both sides wish to change the shuttle speed, the Referee shall be called immediately.
Great, this finally avoids the possibility of having to disqualify players for a tiny cut or nosebleed.ITTO said:§5.14.2. For a blood flowing injury, the game should be delayed until the bleeding stops or the wound is suitably dressed.
While this regulation makes sense, I'd bet this wording will trip up some umpires. In particular, how will the electronic scoresheet look in these cases?ITTO said:Match Stopped by the Referee
§5.16.1. When the Referee comes onto court during a match in a qualifying competition and informs the Umpire that a player(s) in the match is to be promoted to the main draw then the Umpire shall announce: “Match ended by the Referee. Player W (or players W and X) promoted to the main draw”; and “Player Y (or players Y and Z), proceeds to the next round/main draw”.
So the rumors were true: We're getting a lot of new vocabulary! Unfortunately, the vocabulary is not publicly available yet.ITTO said:[on yellow cards]: §5.17.3.1. The Umpire shall use the standard vocabulary to explain the specific misconduct.
A very sensible change. Previously, the call was just "[name of player], faulted", and not spelled out in detail.ITTO said:§5.17.8.1. In cases of misconduct during an interval where a player has been faulted under Law 16.7.1.2 or 16.7.1.3, after the interval the Umpire shall call: “11- [score]” “... [name of player], faulted **for misconduct**”
5.17.8.2. “..... game; love all ”...[name of player], faulted for misconduct” followed by “service over”, where appropriate, the “new score” and then “play” (after intervals between games).
Finally! A good service judge was always working as a team with the umpire, but allowing the umpire to change the decision upon service judge makes it much easier to smooth over umpiring mistakes.ITTO said:Advice to Umpires
§6.3. Change your call if you have been quickly and convincingly advised by your Service Judge to that effect.
Does this really need to be written down? Apparently so.ITTO said:§6.5.Listen to your Service Judge when he delivers an important message. Together you form one team.
Excellent to have that extremely common practice written down!ITTO said:§7.6. The Umpire may arrange for the Service Judge to perform additional duties such as (...) to call the sideline closest to the Service Judge where there is no Line Judge appointed, with the players so advised.
All in all, I welcome these changes, and the increased level of detail. Especially the referee parts are now very particular to BWF tournaments and will need significant adaptions when translated to the national regulations.
What do you think? Did I miss any interesting changes?