Physics of badminton's new killer spin serve
4 comments
·August 20, 2025yogorenapan
rootsu
It takes some practice, but not as much as you’d think. I learned this serve last year at a somewhat intermediate level. It took me about two weeks of practice to hit it consistently. Now I hit it clean about 50 to 60% of the time.
eklitzke
From what I could tell from the article and the linked videos the innovation here is that it essentially lets you serve the shuttlecock while it's facing the wrong direction. Normally even if the shuttlecock has spin when it crosses the court it will move with the cork side forward, at least by the time it crosses the net. Hence I don't think this technique would be applicable to other sports that use a ball.
gsf_emergency_2
In video narrator feels sorry for not explaining how to do it :)
Albeit ime this is something even kids do, not sure why it is "new"?
Edit: I may be referring to the Sidek serve it was based on
From reddit (also not 100% sure):
The sidek serve is an other technique and has been banned for some decades (not 100% sure, but the spinning effect was caused by hitting the feathers first , I think), whereas the new spinning serve resulted from spinning the shuttle with the fingers before hitting the cork.
https://old.reddit.com/r/badminton/comments/1e18zys/comment/...
This is pretty interesting. It's hard to tell from the video exactly how to do it. Looks like it'll take a lot of practice. I wonder if there's anywhere else where you can apply spins similar to table tennis and the like.