Badminton World Federation hands interim ban on new ‘spin serve’. Photo: BWF Badminton web site
With the new ‘spin serve’ making a flutter in worldwide badminton, world governing physique BWF has determined to place an interim ban on the usage of the experimental serve efficient instantly till May 29, 2023.
“BWF Council has approved a proposal for an ‘experimental variation’ to the Laws of Badminton to forbid the use of the new ‘spin serve’ effective immediately until 29 May 2023,” BWF stated in an announcement.
“The interim ban takes effect at all BWF sanction international tournaments including the BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2023 starting Sunday 14 May 2023 and the Malaysia Masters 2023, the following week.”
A new “unreturnable” spin-serve had caught the eye of the world’s high badminton gamers with even the Indian doubles shuttlers placing within the laborious yards to grasp this newest ability, which many consider can provide “unfair” benefit to the gamers.
It was first began by Danish doubles participant Marcus Rindshoj, who gathered a bunch of factors with this progressive spin serve on the Polish Open final month.
This is a type of serve the place the shuttler holds the cork of the shuttlecock in between his or her thumb and center finger and tries to place a spin to it with a carrom strike movement earlier than sending it throughout the web with the racquet.
This spin serve has proved to be a handful for the opposition gamers, who’ve struggled to ship it again because the shuttle twists and falls throughout the web.
“The amendment to 9.1.5 of Section 4.1 of the BWF Laws of Badminton now states that the server shall release the shuttle without adding spin, and the server’s racket shall initially hit the base of the shuttle.”
“Any failure to adhere to the experimental variation to the law will result in a fault being called.”
BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer stated: “BWF welcomes players creating innovation in our game and experimenting with techniques to create competitive advantage on court.
“However, we have received several points of feedback from within the badminton community, including the BWF Athletes’ Commission, expressing that this ‘spin serve’ could have a negative impact on the game. It’s also been observed internally that this ‘spin serve’ has many similar characteristics to the ‘Sidek serve’ (named after Rashid Sidek), which is not allowed.”
“An knowledgeable panel, subsequently, really helpful to disallow the ‘spin serve’ till additional session may happen with the membership on the upcoming BWF AGM on 27 May 2023.”
The apex body said it wanted to “keep away from a situation the place the upcoming TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2023, and different worldwide tournaments, might be platforms to check the new ‘spin serve’ and in the end disrupt the competitions.
“As such, BWF Council felt it best to impose this experimental variation to disallow the ‘spin serve’ until BWF Council convenes again on 29 May for further discussion and deliberation.”
