What is your opinion on how long a player can delay the service. Is there any concrete rule in badminton that a player should serve before 'n' secs after coming to ready position to serve. Some say 5 secs but I am pretty sure in few occasions, players like Choi/Boe have delayed more than that. If there is no rule, do you think there should be one to avoid unwanted delay in serve?
Play hard. Train harder.
Copied from badmintonbible:
Delays
9.1.1
Neither side shall cause undue delay to the delivery of the service once the server and the receiver are ready for the service. On completion of the backward movement of the server’s racket head, any delay in the start of the service (Law 9.2) shall be considered an undue delay.
This is really two rules rolled into one. First,
you cannot hold your serve indefinitely, hoping that the receiver will lose concentration or become uncomfortable. Similarly, the receiver cannot delay indefinitely.
How long is an undue delay? The rules don’t say, because it’s left to the umpire’s discretion. In club play, you just have to be reasonable. I suggest you should not take more than five seconds to serve (once ready).
The second part of the rule is a convoluted way of saying something quite simple: when serving, you cannot pause between backswing and forwards swing. Many club players use this pause to upset the receiver’s timing. That is against the rules: it’s a fault.
You might be sceptical about my interpretation here, but I am following official guidance from
Badminton England. If you pause between backswing and forwards swing when serving, you’re breaking the rules.
Of course, you don’t have to keep the same
speed of swing, and you can also serve without using a backswing at all.
Note that this rule also forbids an extremely slow serving action, because that would constitute an
undue delay.