Tag badminton

Who would have thought that the 25 second clock between rallies screws up badminton big time. Congratulations BWF. Your mission to screw up badminton is succeeding spectacularly. Please note the sarcasm used here.

Comparison with Basketball

In basketball, there is a 24 second shot clock for the NBA. Other levels have longer shot clock durations like 30 seconds or 35 seconds. Shots which are not made within the 24 seconds would penalise the team in possession, and lead to a transition. The stakes are not particularly high for that as it translates to a missed scoring opportunity. If the defending team was doing a good job of denying space, and they manage to do that so that the attacking team do not have an opportunity to shoot after 24 seconds, then they deserve to get the ball and attack. Hence why it works. The stakes are low, the penalty is a transition. Note, the transition is not 2 points awarded to the team at fault.

The execution of the shot clock is done very well. As it does not penalise the team who run down the shot clock outright. It provides the opponent an opportunity to attack them instead. If the attacking team shoots, misses, but gets the rebound, then the shot clock resets back to 14 seconds. The defending team will again have to deny the attacking team for another 14 seconds to regain possession through a technical default, or they defending team can try to steal the ball and immediately launch a counter attack.

Comparison with Football

In football, there is no clock to count how much time wasting is done. It is only when the referree deems the player is delaying to restart the play after the ball has gone out of play, or after a foul, for an unacceptable amount of time, then the referree provides a verbal warning. A repeat offense, or several repeat offenses will lead to a yellow card. And, the amount of time the player wasted will be added back into injury time.

Note that football do not have a clock which shows the referree how much time is being wasted each time. That is because, these situations are subjective. If the ball bounces out, and there is no spare ball available, then it is not the fault of the player. Or if a foul occurs and a player is down injured, then any delay is not the fault of the player. There are plenty of situations which can happen which does not mean a player is at fault. A referee will have to use human judgement to determine blatant delays, then warn, and follow it up with a yellow card, if it is warranted. Post match, clubs and players can submit appeals to any decisions and it will be subjected to reviews.

Comparison with Tennis

First of all, badminton seems to be trying to follow tennis. Er, why? Tennis matches can last 6 hours or more. Badminton lasts at most an hour and a half. The penalty in tennis for violating the service clock is a service fault. The player still has a second serve. The clock does not apply to the second serve.

That means the penalty is tennis is not severe. It is the loss of the first serve. Each time a player serves, they can have 2 service faults. If the player violates the service clock, they lose 1 of their service opportunities. If they make a service fault after the service clock violation, that means they lose a point.

What has Badminton done?

BWF has implemented a 25 second service clock, like tennis. But, the penalty is a yellow card, followed by a red card which means automatic award of points to the opponent.

Well, badminton wants to make itself unwatchable. I always thought going 15 points was the way BWF intends to do that. I mean, in the Indonesia Open final, we had entertaining finals, but they just lasted under 40 minutes. The women’s singles final between Akane Yamaguchi and An Se Young lasted 39 minutes, but it was entertaining. The match between Jonathan Christie and Victor Lai was not as entertaining and it lasted also 39 minutes. Imagine playing the 15 x 3 format. It would be under 30 minutes.

The rest of the final matches were entertaining and lasted longer because there was more fight. The mixed doubles was won in straight games by Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje in 46 minutes. It was extremely entertaining. Now, cut that down to just over 30 minutes if done using the 15 x 3 format.

The women’s doubles too was entertaining and lasted 1 hour and 6 minutes. Cut that down to 45 minutes. The men’s doubles was super entertaining and it lasted only 49 minutes. Cut that down to 30 minutes.

In the new 15 x 3 format, finals day will last around 3 hours with the prize giving ceremonies. Sounds like damp squibs already. But wait, what if the focus on the day was on the umpires and not the matches? That is what badminton has done. Bravo.

Umpires penalizing players for time wasting, especially Jonathan Christie. Poor guy. He was standing there ready to serve, and then the umpire calls him over, and warns him not to delay. Huh? What a way to make the guy lose concentration.

This happened numerous times in the earlier rounds too. Goh Soon Huat in mixed doubles probably suffered the most injustice. In the quarterfinals, with the crowd roaring, he was getting ready to serve. The umpire calls him over to give him a red card and award a point to the opponent. At 20 all. In the rubber game.

Conclusion

The fastest racquet sport in the world with matches lasting an average of 40 minutes in the 21 x 3 format, wants to reduce the duration of matches and introduce rules to eliminate time wasting.

What’s the objective here? Reduce the sport to under 30 minutes per match? Make it unwatchable by having the umpire be the star or villain?

https://www.olympics.com/en/news/longest-tennis-match-history-grand-slam-record

Tennis needs it because matches can last for several hours with the average length being 90 minutes. Basketball uses it release the pressure on defensive teams so that they have a chance to attack too. Football uses it because the match is timed to end after 90 minutes, and delaying a restart to run down the clock is unsporting behaviour. What the heck does badminton need this for?

BWF has this tendency of trying to create imaginary problems and fixing it. There are bigger problems which need to be fixed in badminton. Making players suffer more is not one of it.

That’s it for this entry.

Until the next entry, eat well, get plenty of rest and keep the badminton going!

It has been long coming. Malaysia does not have a plan when it comes to preserving its position in global ranking, much less improve on it. The last man who did have a plan and help Malaysia win the Thomas Cup in 1992 was brushed aside due to politics. Look at where we are now. Pathetic.

For nearly 2 decades, Malaysia relied on Lee Chong Wei to lead the charge in the Thomas Cup, hoping that the 2 doubles pairs can also win, and that way, Malaysia can win the Thomas Cup by winning 3 out of the 5 matches. The other 2 singles were a lost cause. There was nobody good enough.

A strategy to win a tournament like this is desperation, when a team is ravaged by injuries. We see this often in football, when top teams go into the final with a lot of first team players injured. The coach then employs desperate measure to play the game based on the remaining first team squad members available. That is when they would try something like this. This is Malaysia’s main strategy for as long as Lee Chong Wei was around.

Now there is no Lee Chong Wei to rely on in singles. And the standard of doubles is still high, but consistency is a real issue. I should say, is STILL a real issue. The truth is, Malaysian badminton was always inconsistent even in doubles. Some days, the players seem to be flying, but the next day, they lose tamely. What gives?

Malaysian badminton relies on physical ability, not technique or tactics. The players overwhelmingly try to over power the opponent with strong smashes. They also try to outlast the opponent by keep sending the shuttle high to the back of the court while waiting to unleash their power smash.

This approach is very low skill, and low on tactics. And it reflects the training routine used by Malaysian badminton, specifically the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM). The emphasis has always been run further and harder, lift heavier weights, do more drills than the opponent, etc. All for more injuries and less results. This approach has not changed. It has been in place since Han Jian left the national set up after winning the Thomas Cup in 1992. Han Jian’s methods were dismantled and replaced. And we have got nothing to show for it since then.

For all the new coaches or sporting directors Malaysia brings in, the results remain the same. That is because these coaches and directors are not enabled to do the necessary changes. They are brought in as scapegoats. The top management of Malaysian badminton has remained unchanged. When the top is the same, but they keep changing the middle management, will there be real change? The top management sets the tone and rules. Middle management has to follow.

No, it will never change. BAM has a monopoly on Malaysian badminton. They will continue their shenanigans and milk the country of money without showing results because they can.

Just to showcase the rot, I recently tried to sign Fred up for a national junior tournament and was blocked from doing so. The reason was, Fred needs to get a BAM ID. And I have to jump through a lot of hoops to get the BAM ID. Without it, Fred cannot compete in the tournament.

Now BAM is also blocking local talent from representing the country. The only way to represent the country is to go through BAM. And when going through BAM, they will force the player to play a physical game, and not develop skills and tactics needed to win.

That is the dead loop Malaysia finds ourselves in now. The root cause is politics. And this is not going to change any time soon.

That’s it for this entry.

Until the next entry, eat well, get plenty of rest and keep the badminton going!