Does a decade of rally-point-system impact match characteristics in elite badminton?

INTRODUCTION: Numerous studies have investigated match characteristics (e.g. ‘rally time’) in elite Badminton, addressing an impact of
different scoring systems (e.g. the the ‘old’ scoring system before 2006 and the Rally-Point-System since 2006) and the Rally-Point-System
(e.g. from Olympic Games 2008 and 2012). Previous research mainly focused on the men’s finals at Olympic Games between 1992 until
2012; however, a comprehensive approach covering the entire period in which the Rally-Point-System has been practiced is lacking.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate match characteristics in elite Badminton over the entire period of the Rally-Point-
System with a particular focus on changes in match duration.
METHODS: Based on video recordings of the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) World Championship tournaments from 2006 to 2017,
the focus has been on men´s singles quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals (i.e. 7 matches per tournament) to cover elite Badminton
matches. Videos were accessed via the BWF BadmintonWorld.TV archives and, wherever applicable, via open-to-public YouTube®
channels to collect a total data set of 56 matches. Herein, the following temporal and notational parameters have been subject to a
preliminary analysis: official match duration (stated on BWFs result sites); rally time (the time from the service until the shuttlecock touched
the ground on each point); rest time (the time that elapsed from when the shuttlecock touched the ground until the next service was
performed).
RESULTS: While an increase in ‘official match duration’ by 20.36% failed significance (p=0.101) from 47.00 minutes (± 9.90) in 2006 compared
to 56.57 minutes (± 11.22) in 2017, ‘rally time’ increased (p=0.002) by 64.43% with 7.45 (± 1.60) seconds in 2006 compared to 12.25
(± 2.85) seconds in 2017. In addition, ‘rest time’ increased (p=0.001) by 45.64% with 20.40 (± 0.91) seconds in 2006 compared to 29.71 (±
3.27) seconds in 2017.
CONCLUSION: The present preliminary findings reveal an impact of a decade of the Rally-Point-System on the rally time and the rest time.
It seems reasonable that further (planned) analyses support this impact on e.g. the ‘real time played’, ‘total points played’, ‘work density’,
‘shots per rally’ and ‘shot frequency’. Annual developments are further hypothesized also have an impact. The present preliminary findings
in support of the hypothesized impact may serve the on-going discussion to change the scoring system (again) to a Best-of-Five (until
11 points).
This study is funded by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).