BWF, which is the governing body of badminton extended its ban on the “spin serve” until after the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The service is one of the key elements in the sport of badminton. If done well then it can do wonders for the players. One of the common service techniques is the flick serve. Flick service is one of the great art that the badminton shuttlers spend hours on. However, a recent development in this flick serve is going around the badminton world which is one of the hardest to return. It’s such a deadly serve that even elite players are facing a problem returning it. In this serve basically, a player holds the shuttlecock by the cork in between the thumb and middle finger of his left hand and spins it anticlockwise while serving. Without giving the shuttlecock much time to fall, the server has to hit it with the racquet, thus, giving it a rotation while on its path towards the receiver.
The service has been subjected to a lot of debate and discussions amongst the netizens. Spin serve was first brought to the notice of the public by a Danish player named Marcus Rindshoj. However, it cannot be said with certainty that Marcus was the inventor of such a deadly serve. This service was used for the first time during the Polish Open 2023 in March. The service was banned by the BWF in the recently concluded Sudirman Cup as well as the Malaysia Masters.
Read more: What is the new spin serve technique, banned by the BWF?
BWF, which is the governing body of badminton extended its ban on the “spin serve” until after the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. After much debate and deliberations, the verdict came on Monday. The new style of serving makes it difficult for the opponent to return. This decision to ban this serve came as a result to keep the fairness of the game.
The organising committee are of the opinion, “After consultation with the badminton community, BWF Council believed it best to forbid the ‘spin serve’ for another 15 months so as to not impact the Olympic and Paralympic qualifying periods and the Games themselves.” BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund has been affirmative with the latest development in the game. However, he added that “more evidence” is needed before the true potential of this service can be confirmed. The recent ruling will also be applied at the Thailand Open 2023 starting on Tuesday.
Spin serve has received a mixed bag of emotions from the people. Many people were in awe for the first time after seeing the effectiveness of the service. However, it became quite clear later on that this will kill the endurance of rallies in the game of badminton. It also made the game unwatchable cause no one is interested in watching a match where one has to just receive unplayable service. Commentator Gill Clark has said in a tweet “Is it an exciting innovation and development for the sport, or is it creating an unfair advantage for the server? Let me know your thoughts”. This innovation is yet to be registered in the playing styles of the badminton players. Denmark’s singles player Hans Kristian Vittinghus has tweeted, “If it’s near impossible to return for a pro, imagine the impact it can have on badminton as a recreational sport.”
Now time will only tell whether this service is seen as a ‘new invention’ or as an ‘unfair’ advantage of one player over another.
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