It is called the serve 'that could change badminton forever' and a “serve that’s impossible to return”. There’s a new spin serve doing the rounds on the badminton circuit that some shuttlers are using as an ace up their sleeve.

Various techniques to do spin serves have become popular in the sport from time to time. But the latest one, which gained popularity last month, was first tried on the international stage by Danish doubles player Marcus Rindshoj in the second round of the Polish Open 2023.

In videos that have surfaced on the internet of that game, Rindshoj can be seen serving to Singaporean pair of Loh Kean Hean and Jun Liang Andy Kwek, both of whom are repeatedly flummoxed by the wickedly wobbling shuttle. 

The serve seems to be catching on as South Korean doubles player Choi Sol-gyu has already used it in men’s doubles in the Korean league. 

So what’s the new spin serve about?

Essentially, the technique Rindshoj employs is to spin the shuttle before the racquet makes contact with it. The idea is to hold the shuttle’s cork between the thumb and the nail of the middle finger and to flick it before hitting it across the net with the racquet. There is very limited follow-through of the racquet after making contact with the shuttle. The flick adds a lot of spin to the shuttle, making it hard to control even for the serving player.

Rindshoj’s trick serve adds such wicked spin to the serve that by the time the shuttle reaches the opponent, it's a drunken, wobbling tornado that's falling feathers-first. The returning players only have two options to counter it, either take it very early or wait till the last second before lifting it. Both of these, though, offer very limited control to the returning player over the shot placement and end up setting up an easy kill shot for the serving team’s player.

The case to make it illegal

While it’s beyond argument that the spin serve is an act that requires skill, it’s also something that affects the quality of badminton as a televised sport. The reason doubles games in badminton are so watchable are the intensely fast-paced rallies with players flitting around the court playing shots in fractions of seconds. The spin serve does take that away.

The case to let it stay legal

The BWF has so far not brought in regulation to ban the spin serve. After all, the spin serve is an act that requires skill rather than relying on the tampering of the shuttle. In tennis, the serve is an attacking weapon with players like John Isner and Ivo Karlovic leveraging their height to blast down serves from great altitudes which can make them returnable. In badminton, though, the serve is not usually an attacking weapon. Shuttlers don’t really have too much that they can do with the serve.

The history of trick serves in badminton

In the 80s, Malaysia’s Sidek brothers were credited with creating a serve that was similarly impossible to return. The idea there was to move the racket in a slicing motion while serving and making contact with the feathers rather than the cork. This serve became wildly popular but was soon outlawed by BWF for offering too much advantage to the serving player. The badminton rules now mention that a player must hit the cork first while serving.

There is another spinning variety of serve that is the invention of Indonesian doubles star Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo — who is one half of the Minions along with Marcus Fernaldi Gideon. In that serve, the player holds the shuttle by the feathers with the cork pointing to the body rather than the court. Then the player has to slice at the base of the shuttle, which adds spin to it as it crosses the net.