![The BWF finally plans to test out a new rule to standardize both service height and the judging thereof. But is it really going to solve the problems that need […]](http://www.badzine.net/wp-content/uploads/ngg_featured/20160601_1016_IndonesiaOpen2016_BP__4554.jpg "POLL – How can we be of service?")
The BWF finally plans to test out a new rule to standardize both service height and the judging thereof. But is it really going to solve the problems that need solving? We ask you to vote on it in our newest Badzine Poll!
We’ve all seen it while watching badminton broadcasts. Play stops seconds into a rally, sometimes with a smasher poised in mid-air. The umpire announces, “Service fault called.”
Then what seems to happen at least 70 percent of the time is that the player turns or walks to the service judge – or possibly asks the umpire’s permission to do so – and pantomimes the illegal service motion they are convinced they didn’t do.
Obviously, there is a problem. Every server faulted insists that they have been serving the same way all match. Some players feel they can’t flick for fear of being faulted for service height or shaft angle. Others appear to have decided they have to flick to avoid facing the flub-it/fault-it/eat-it trilemma plaguing the doubles service situation. The faults often come at the most crucial moments. Court officials maintain that end-of-game tensions lead to players pushing the boundaries in order to avoid giving away the advantage at the beginning of a crucial rally.
Late last year, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) finally announced an experimental change to the rule governing the height of the service, fixing it at 1.15m and replacing the old rule, which said “the whole shuttle shall be below the server’s…bottom rib”. The new rule will get its first test at the All England this coming March but the old rule will continue to be used at events like the World Juniors, and presumably any event not rated high enough to get the new measuring devices. Men’s singles world #1 Viktor Axelsen has famously lampooned the new rule, including with a video of himself and team-mate Mads Pieler Kolding attempting to serve from below 80cm. Many players under 1.75m may welcome the rule after years of being prohibited by the existing rules from striking the shuttle at the same height as taller players. Axelsen has also questioned the advisability of beginning testing of the rule at an event as important as the All England.
Questions about how the rules or their enforcement should be changed are not new. At Badzine, we ran a feature back in 2010 where BWF umpire Michaela Bencová laid out several of the options and one of these has become the new experimental service law. The service height is only one question, however. While viewers are rarely afforded a camera angle on a television replay that is sighted directly at a professional server’s bottom rib, replays routinely reveal the errors of service judges who have ruled that shuttles were struck with an upwardly-angled racquet (rule 9.1.7). The new rules, rather than addressing any possible inconsistencies in the judging of whether a shaft is pointing in a downward direction, state that the 1.15m height restriction will obviate rule 9.1.7 altogether. Another proposal mentioned by Ms. Bencová was removing the back doubles service line. This might relieve some of the pressure that doubles players feel to serve as flat as possible and certainly, service fault calls are less common in singles matches. However, changing a long-standing rule like that will likely have its own opponents and with so many flick serves being called for violations of Rules 9.1.6 and 9.1.7, increasing the incentive to serve high will not necessarily be a complete solution.
The BWF announcement does not make it clear but it could be that the world body has decided that the fixed height was the only way to introduce precision and consistency. In other words, automation of finding and using individual players’ bottom ribs as a reference point may have been deemed infeasible, although it was one of the options mentioned by Ms. Bencová in her article. However, unlike the review system for line calls, which have no effect on the mechanics of how players hit shuttles toward the side and back lines, implementation of the fixed height service rule mean that players will have different allowable heights and shaft angles depending on what technology is available to a given tournament’s court officials. After all, asking a service judge to eyeball 1.15m without specialized equipment would be even more unrealistic than asking them to consistently sight a shuttle relative to a bottom rib.
We ask you to cast your vote in the poll below, on whether you think the new rule is the one we need. You can choose up to two options and feel free to expand on your selection by contributing to the comment section at the bottom of this page.
Photos: Badmintonphoto
What is really needed to improve service rules and judging?
- Have an instant replay system to challenge service fault calls. (35%, 167 Votes)
- The 'lowest rib' rule should be maintained, but with some sort of automation to maintain judging consistency. (29%, 140 Votes)
- The new 1.15m service height should solve the major problems. (15%, 72 Votes)
- There is no problem. Keep serving and judging as they are. (12%, 57 Votes)
- Remove the near service line and let doubles servers flick to the back line. (10%, 47 Votes)
Total Voters: 373
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We can all make a list of notorious highservers in all disciplines I guess. Though badminton is olympic since 1992, 26 years. Is pushing the boundaries new in this? If not, why wait for 26 years? Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of a service judge sometimes. You can’t ask the players to lift their shirt to see where their “last rib” is located. I would assume a Hawk-eye system would be best, but then indeed expensive technology only on high level tournaments. What about trainers and coaches? Sure they can advise their players during that 30h-training every single week? Just a thought. Just hope BWF doesn’t make it worse than it is now…
No matter what rule you bring in it is down to the umpire/ service judges to show some bottle and not look at the personalities involved, ie Boe &Moggenson.
So please service judges, no matter who is involved , call a fault if merited.
I agree that court officials need to be impartial while making decisions but Boe/Mogensen might not be the best of example of sportmanship themselves… Just about the service situation, I lost count of how many times they critized opponents for complaining about a service fault while they do exactly the same thing (or actually even more angrily) when it happens to them.
It is subjective but if we take the point of view that players are humans after all and tend to be carried away by the heat of the moment then we should allow the same thing for the officials. In some cases they do indeed make a service fault, but just in my opinion, some decisions made against boe/mogensen are also a backfire from their own behaviour.
sorry there are some typo in my comments. It’s 3am and i was coughing while typing due to a cold.
Since bwf likely not gonna replying my email, i will discuss my propose solution here. First, i do support moving the back short line to the back single line. Today players can smash way harder than when the rule first written. Just like in golf, the fairway is now longer than in early days because club design + more powerful players of today can drive the golf ball much farther than the old par 3 course. The 2nd idea is have a line (short or long) printed on each player’s shirt to mark where their bottom rib are. This can be printed on at the same time when player’s name and country are done. The rib line shall be in white or black colour only, chosen to maximize colour contrast between rib line and the shirt colour. Each bwf players shall have their measurement sent to their sponsor as part of player’s data profile record. Measurement shall be done and recorded, by a bwf official. The distance shall be measured from shoulder top to the lowest rib. Bwf shall keep all such measurement on their database. Sponsors shall keep such measurement for their sponsored players and responsible for printing the player’s name, country and rib line correctly on each shirt. I had proposed this idea in badmintonforum.com (with photos) many years ago but interest was lacking back then. I am no longer a member of badmintoncentral.com.
just read the new bwf’s 1.15m rule, stupid. It prove again how bwf thinks about themselves to be know it all. I bet bwf didn’t consult or seek ideas with players, coaches or fans.
How this 1.15m height rule is stupid? Tall and short players bring in their own advantages and disadvantages of badminton, that is the beauty of diverse physical attributes they bring to the game, just like heavy weight and light weight players. Should we also set speed limit on smash speed because it put the women players in mix double. Once you set limit that put disadvantage to one class of player over other players, bwf is screwing up the game.
Interesting question about the consultation. As mentioned, Michaela Bencová wrote about this as one thing being considered as far back as 2010 but it still isn’t clear who was considering it. Perhaps it was discussed with the Athletes’ Commission but the recent BWF announcement did not make clear who was involved in the decision-making. There is still a chance that player feedback will play a role in determining whether it makes it past the experimental stage.
As for rules imposing disadvantages, it could be argued that it applies best to the status quo for service height. After all, under existing rules, Debby Susanto is not allowed to serve from above 105cm, while Mads Pieler Kolding is allowed to serve from as high as 130cm or more. Shorter and weaker players are allowed to jump and work out to do their best to compete with taller and stronger smashers but short servers are not allowed to serve like taller ones, under current rules.
that is why my idea of having the rib marker line printed on player’s shirt would work. It retain the original service height rule (lowest rib) but now the service judge can see that rib line height clearly. It would be clear enough even the front row audience and tv viewer can whether the serve is legal or not
if we now can replay hawkeye videos on every line call challenge, why bwf don’t allow players to challenge service fault call? We don’t need hawkeye for that, ordinary tv camera (beside the service judge)can resolve it.
What you say about hawkeye videos of course only refers to the TV court and only at the higher-level tournaments. However, this raises an interesting question about the new measuring equipment. Will it also be reserved for the TV court at big tournaments or will it be economical to allow service judges to use it more broadly?
As for video replays on the serve, wouldn’t the TV camera beside the service judge need to be adjusted every time the server changes? Then again, while service judges may raise or lower their heads, how precise are their efforts to stare directly at servers’ lowest ribs without parallax?
And again, relying on video limits it to very few courts and very few tournaments and it remains to be seen how that will compare to judging under the experimental rules. The advantage, though, is that one’s maximum service height would stay the same regardless of the court or the tournament.
if my suggested rib line on the shirt get implemented, tv camera on service is not require. The problem of 1.15m rule, how do one know exactly where is that imaginary height in from service judge point of view? Unless there is a visible marker as to where is the 1.15m is, it is still a guess just like the imaginary lowest rib position.
A week ago i emailed to BWF on this very matter, that service fault call mainly problem is its INCONSISTENCY from the same service judge on the same game to inconsistency between different service judges. I have seen momentum changed on a rubber game due to a bad service fault call which was not valid or was overdue but applied to only flick serve. I also showed 2 photos showing how bad the service was but no call made. Indonesia Men double players are the worst offenders. When they play in Indonesia, the abuses of height of serve violation is raised to a new level. Of course, i doubt BWF would reply my email. They keep things close to their chest like they know more than us fans.