Plymouth & District Badminton League

Law Change Summary 2006

Badminton Law Changes

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) recently met at its annual meeting and approved revised changes to the, ‘Laws of Badminton (Laws)’ and, ‘Recommendations to Technical Officials (RTTO)’ for the Season 06/07.

The full version of these documents can be downloaded from the IBF website www.internationalbadminton.org.

For umpires, coaches and players this will means fundamental changes to some areas of the game and we shall all be on a steep learning curve for the new season. Please read below for details about this changes and how they may affect you.

Rally Point Scoring

The main law change is to the scoring system. Rally point scoring has been introduced and works like this:

Rally Points (Laws 7, 10, 11 & 12.2)

At the end of every rally the winner scores a point.

A match is the best of 3 games to 21 points.

The extended game (replacing setting) is played from 20-all. The winner is the one with 2 clear points or whose score reaches 30 first.

In doubles, there is no second server. As in singles, the server continues to serve until his side loses a rally and then the right to serve passes to the other side.

The serve is delivered from the right-hand court if the score is even and the left-hand court if the score is odd.

Players in doubles stay in the same service court unless they win a point on their service, when they change service courts.

Service Court Errors shall be corrected when discovered but the existing score shall stand.

Service Law Changes

There are also important changes to the service laws:

Service Laws (Laws 9.1.1, 9.1.5, 9.1.6)

A new interpretation of ‘service delayed’ is added so that the backward movement of the racket head becomes significant. This is mainly intended to prevent the ‘stop’ that is sometimes used on the backhand serve. It is therefore now a fault if after the backward movement the racket does not immediately move forwards towards the shuttle.

Badminton Law Changes

	The definition of the waist (line level with bottom rib) is now included in the Laws.
	The racket head is no longer restricted to be below the hand holding the racket. This law simply requires the shaft of the racket to be pointing downwards at the moment of delivery. The signal for racket head fault is still used for this service fault.

The photo below is featured on Page 25 of the BADMINTON England Level 1 – Assistant Coach Manual as a Service Fault. Following the Service Law changes this is now a legal serve.

Legal Serve

Intervals

In the new Laws, intervals and coaching are allowed as below but note that BADMINTON England has decided that for the Inter County Championships there will be no intervals and no coaching allowed. Further decisions regarding other domestic events will be made in due course.

Intervals (Ref Law 16.2, RTTO 3.3.5 to 3.3.12, 3.5.4)

	There is an interval of up to 1 minute in each game when the first side reaches 11. The start of this mid-game interval is at the call of ‘interval’.
	Between games there is an interval of up to 2 minutes. The start of this between-game interval is at the call of ‘game’.

Badminton Law Changes

	Drinking and towelling down should normally only be allowed during intervals but at the discretion of the umpire may be permissible if the game is not delayed by it.
	Coaching/advice are now permitted between rallies so long as no distraction or delay is caused. (Law 16.5.1 and 14.2.5; RTTO 3.5.6)

Other Law Changes include:

Decisions by Line Judges may be overruled when the umpire considers that a clear error has been made. (Law 17.5; RTTO 2.4, 3.4, 6.2). Therefore when an umpire delegates the line calls to the players, as is common practice, the umpire now clearly is empowered to overrule a line call if s/he believes that the call was clearly incorrect.

The umpire has more control over when the shuttle is changed (RTTO 3.5.7). The instruction that the umpire should not object if both players agree to the change has been removed to prevent unnecessary shuttle changing.

In the case of an injury, it has been clarified that the referee decides who comes on court, whether that be a medical official or anyone else. (RTTO 3.5.8.2)

The responsibility for judging disadvantage to the uninjured side has been clarified and now clearly falls with the umpire rather than the referee (RTTO 3.5.8.4)

What we currently understand as the traditional scoring system (3x15 or 11 etc) remains an option under Appendix 3 where Laws 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 & 16 are re-stated.

This information is based on an article written by Umpire Phil James and was first featured in Issue 11 of the Power & Precision Magazine.

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	At the end of every rally the winner scores a point.
	A match is the best of 3 games to 21 points.
	The extended game (replacing setting) is played from 20-all. The winner is the one with 2 clear points or whose score reaches 30 first.
	In doubles, there is no second server. As in singles, the server continues to serve until his side loses a rally and then the right to serve passes to the other side.
	The serve is delivered from the right-hand court if the score is even and the left-hand court if the score is odd.
	Players in doubles stay in the same service court unless they win a point on their service, when they change service courts.
	Service Court Errors shall be corrected when discovered but the existing score shall stand.

	Decisions by Line Judges may be overruled when the umpire considers that a clear error has been made. (Law 17.5; RTTO 2.4, 3.4, 6.2). Therefore when an umpire delegates the line calls to the players, as is common practice, the umpire now clearly is empowered to overrule a line call if s/he believes that the call was clearly incorrect.
	The umpire has more control over when the shuttle is changed (RTTO 3.5.7). The instruction that the umpire should not object if both players agree to the change has been removed to prevent unnecessary shuttle changing.
	In the case of an injury, it has been clarified that the referee decides who comes on court, whether that be a medical official or anyone else. (RTTO 3.5.8.2)
	The responsibility for judging disadvantage to the uninjured side has been clarified and now clearly falls with the umpire rather than the referee (RTTO 3.5.8.4)