In a big update, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has put an interim ban on ‘spin serve’ from the upcoming tournaments. It is to be noted that the spin serve has been getting more and more traction as many elite badminton players found it difficult to deal with. It was first used by Danish doubles shuttler Marcus Rindshoj who got many points at the Polish Open last month.
BWF in a statement said, “BWF welcomes players creating innovation in our game and experimenting with techniques to create competitive advantage on the 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.” 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.
The interim ban comes into effect from the Sudirman Cup, which starts May 14 in Suzhou, China, and the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur the following week. It is to be noted that while playing the spin serve the shuttler holds the cork of the shuttlecock in between his or her thumb and middle finger and tries to put a spin to it with a carrom strike motion before sending it across the net with the racquet. Instead of rotating horizontally, it rotates vertically to make the opponent's job more difficult.
Earlier Rindshoj had himself said that the serve should be banned if too many people figured out how to do it. Rindshoj had told Indian Express, “As it is not illegal when I hit the cork with my racket, I just think it is a brilliant idea, but not very nice for those who watch badminton as the rallies will be finished faster. So if many players start using it, I think it should be banned because it gives you an incredible advantage.” Further decisions on a permanent ban will be taken in the AGM on May 29.
