I wonder if BWF decided to use slower shuttles then up until now - possibly to make rallys longer and more attractive to watch. In all the tournaments since the olympics, rallys have been really long, matches often go to 3 sets and you can see players getting completely exhaustet. Does anyone else have the same impression? Why is that?
BWF doesn't have a say in which shuttles are used. Fist and foremost, the shuttles they use depends on the sponsor. Then the speed that is chosen is up to each referee. The shuttles go through a blind test, and tested in accordance to the Laws of Badminton. That decides which shuttle speeds are used for the tournament. Normally there are 3 speeds to choose from.
...but when testing them you can easily land all 3 speeds into the correct speed zone markings on the court.
The slow shuttle that make Viktor was not a "1 hit 1 kill -Viktor" at Olympic Turn Zheng Siwei to be a normal smashing player, and make Jordan become a sluggish man on court. Reducing the super smashing power of Lee Zii Jia and Ginting Causing Higashino become a good defencing player but hurting to Watanabe's back. The slow shuttle make Yamaguchi become a Momota in women's single. If Watanabe-Endo still play until now, they would become an unstoppable pair with super defence
Yes it may benefit Endo-Watanabe, but in the same time Watanabe will have more backpain from playing 2 disciplines
