Dear All,

Now that players and officials have had a few months experimenting using 5x7, I felt it would be a good time to hear what people have to say.  During the Dutch and Danish Opens and the recent Thomas & Uber Cup in Cuba, I gathered some feedback and thoughts about the experiment so far. 

The views are not a scientifically selected sample and are clearly not worldwide, but they give a good spread of nationalities and I hope that you will find it interesting reading.  I also apologise if I have misquoted anyone in any way. 

We continue to receive questionnaires from tournaments and if you have any points you wish to raise, and you haven’t done so already, I would ask you to complete the questionnaire that is attached. 

I am also attaching information that has been gathered on the average match lengths from the World Grand Prix tournaments that have experimented with 5x7 so far this year. 

We will from time to time continue to send you information on how the experiment is going and will produce a full report before the AGM in May 2002 so that our Members can take as informed a decision as possible.

 Kind regards

Director of Events

Comments are written in no particular order, just the order in which they were taken at each event.

Tim He – Hong Kong coach 

• The coach’s life is much busier
• Hong Kong players like it
• A player can have a longer career playing badminton to 5x7
• Men’s and mixed doubles too fast with two serves, prefer to see 5x9
• Ladies’ doubles should stick to 5x7

Kwan Yoke Meng – Malaysian coach 

• Believes it takes away the skill of the game, but understands that the target audience we want to attract aren’t necessarily interested in the skill of the game
• Thinks that players can have longer careers with 5x7
• Would prefer 5x9
• Playing to 15 is too long
• Men’s doubles to 7 is too short
• Spectators find 5x7 much more exciting
• Juniors are doing very well with the 5x7
• No future in badminton if something doesn’t change

Dan Travers – Scottish coach 

• 5x7 is great for spectators
• keep same score as it is simple
• people who are against changing to 5x7 are the ones that have been brought up with the culture of 15 and feel threatened because of the change.  After a few years they will be fine
• one sided matches are over quickly which is another benefit of the system
• TV have more chances for adverts so they can sell more and importantly more replays
• Scoring system to 15 was only exciting when it got to 12-all
• Players who don’t like the system are not able to cope with getting onto the court ready to attack and focus

Steen Pedersen – Denmark coach 

• 5x7 is good to promote the game
• it is attacking and explosive
• wiser for the Danes to prefer 3x15 as it suits their style of play more, but for the good of the game he thinks 5x7 is the way forward
• likes the length of the doubles to 7
• much more exciting

Gopichand – India player 

• 5x7 tougher on players
• spectators in favour of 5x7 as it is more exciting for them to watch
• Members and clubs don’t like it, but they don’t generally like change
• IBF should deliver what the spectators want and not what the players want.  Spectators and sponsors are the most important for the sport

Andreij Pohar – Slovenia player 

• Likes singles
• Mixed is harder for women.  A woman’s serve is 50% more important than the man serving and it is the girls that win most of the points.

Maja Pohar – Slovenia player 

• Singles and ladies’ doubles is good and more interesting to 5x7, but mixed and men’s doubles could be too short.

Jesper Larsen – Denmark player 

• MD & MS should play to 9
• LS/LD/XD should play to 7
• The duration for matches that can potentially sell the sport and bring in more income should be longer
• Dangerous to go back to 15 as it didn’t work before

Ray Stevens – England coach 

• Changes the game, faster, attacking and more positive
• Doubles having 2 serves is a problem
• Need to change to whatever it takes to get the game on TV
• Kills the long term planning of the game and that is why people who like to mentally break their opponent down don’t like it
• Have to focus all the time
• As the experiment continues you are seeing the players are starting to find more of a balance

Heryanto Arbi – Indonesia player 

• Singles is better to 7
• Ladies’ doubles should keep to 7
• Men’s and mixed doubles should play to 9
• Likes it
• To go back to playing to 15 points is boring

Asger Madsen – Germany Coach/Team Manager 

·        If need to attract new audience then to 7 points is more exciting

·        Should not have setting as it makes it complicated.  It is even more exciting without setting

·        Too short in doubles

·        Prioritise the events to what you can market

Keith Hawthorne – Referee 

• Likes that the scoring system plays to the same points so is simple for all to understand

Bao Tong – China Team Manager 

• During the China Open felt that the spectators did not like 5x7 as much as 3x15
• Media also preferred 3x15

Jan Jorgensen – Denmark Coach 

• Likes 5x7
• Thinks that anything that can be done to generate renewed interest in the game is a must
• Thinks that 5x7 is more appealing and exciting from a spectator’s point of view

Finn Traerup-Hansen – England TeamManager 

• Thinks it is important that the IBF focus on whether or not 5x7 meets the original objectives set out for the experiment before it makes any long-term proposals

Peter Gade – Denmark player 

• The more I see it, the more I think that it is good for badminton. It's good for the media, the audience, it makes badminton quicker, more exciting. Of course, there can be some adjustments, like going to 8 or 9 points. Also, the ladies event could be going to a best of three games instead of 5 games. But I still believe that it is the way to go. If we go back to the old system, it would really be a shame

Gunther Huber - Canada  Coach 

·        Playing to 7 in singles is good, especially for ladies singles and the women in the Canadian team agree

·        This system of course brings about many changes for the coaches as they have to approach it properly and players have to change their attitude because it introduces a game of “speed consistency” and risk management

·        Would like to see further experimentation in doubles either to 9 points or one serve because at the moment you have a big advantage with 2 serves in the doubles

·        The receiver is under more pressure

·        Feels to change back to 3x15 would be a step backwards because it proved not to be attractive in certain events such as women’s doubles

·        The nature of sports are changing and we need to change to attract young people and new spectator audiences, we can only do this by giving them an attractive package and the scoring system is key to that package

·        5x7 should be the high-performance scoring system used for the elite players, but at the national level they could still play to 3x15 if they want to.  It is similar to formula one; people love to watch it on TV, but they don’t drive round in a formula one car!

·        For me this change is an exciting new step in coaching and a new challenge to train players how to think differently

·        My players like 5x7: it has moved up a level/gear of intensity, physical, mental and emotional demands,

Roy Paul - Jamaica player 

·        Likes it, but thinks it is a little too short

·        Would prefer to play to 9 points

·        90 seconds between each match is too long, would prefer 40 or 60 seconds

Ryan Holder - Barbados player 

·        5x7 has raised the intensity of the game making it a lot more exciting

·        Barbados players have been playing to 9 points anyway so it is less of a transition for us

·        You can play more games in a day which is an advantage

Joy Kitzmiller - USA Team Manager and player 

·        Likes the fact that the ladies singles plays to the same points as the other events

·        Gives lesser teams a chance to win as anything can happen

·        Also likes 3x9 points

Shannon Hsu - USA player 

·        Likes it as it is far more intense

·        Prefers 5x7 to 3x15 especially in the ladies doubles

Federico Valdez - Panamerican Badminton Confederation President 

·        Felt that we had to change from 3x15, but is not yet sure if 5x7 is the right solution

·        Likes the singles, but is concerned that the doubles is perhaps too short

Marina Perez - Ladies National Coach Cuba 

·        Likes 5x7 as it is more dynamic and faster which makes it more interesting to watch

·        Players need to be focused, but the players like it very much

Kevin Han – USA player 

• Prefers to play 5x7 to 3x15 and doesn’t think it is too short

Zhou You – Italy player/coach 

• Likes 5x7 as it makes the game far more exciting

Diana Koleva – Bulgaria coach 

• Most important is the marketing – what is best for marketing the game as everything depends on this and money.  If there is no money then you can’t motivate coaches and they in turn can’t motivate players.  We need ambitious coaches which will filter down to the players
• Need a scoring system that is easy to understand for spectators and a scoring system that every mistake is important.  In this case maybe a type of rally points system is attractive.
• IBF and the officials and players must not be afraid to change, we have to change
• Doubles is a bit too short, but don’t go back to 3x15
• Ladies’ singles should perhaps have longer breaks than 90 seconds as recently there was a ladies’ singles that went on for one hour and 45 mins which was a long time for the players
• Would like to see IBF experiment with rally point so that every point is a potential winner.

Average Match Lengths

We have taken the data from the round of the last 16 onwards in each of the World Grand Prix tournaments since the experiment started and the average match lengths follow.  What is quite interesting is that we are starting to see a steady increase, which may imply that players are starting to feel more comfortable with the 5x7 scoring: