BWF Badminton Umpire - What Do They Actually Do? Challenges, Tablet, Coin & Cards

Many people don’t realise that badminton umpires are volunteers who dedicate their own time, often taking leave from work, to officiate at BWF events. I recently spoke with Dr. David Evans, who has been an umpire for 14 years, has officiated over 1,000 badminton matches, and also holds the title of the youngest BWF-certified umpire!

David walks us through what umpires actually do and also what it looks like to be in the umpire chair too! This includes where they stand, the coin toss, their tablet, how challenges work and also the misconduct cards.

Initial Walk & Coin Toss

Umpires would normally stay off the court and walk alongside it, until they reach around the service line area, in which they will then walk onto the court. The umpire should then stand on the singles tramline at the service line facing the inside of the court, with the service judge standing next to them closer to the net.

Then, they will shake hands with the players, step into the court a bit more and it's now time for the coin toss! This is the BWF coin with a red or black background.

One side then chooses a colour, and the toss is done. It's important for umpires to not drop the coin, and also to show the coin to the camera too if relevant. This allows the audience to see what the coin toss was, who won the toss, and what they decide to do.

Umpire's Tablet

After the coin toss, the umpire goes up to their chair to their tablet. This is the standard demo mode of the tournament software live score.

Then, the umpire clicks play to start the match. Then, they select which players are on which side of the court, then select who is serving and who is receiving first. After this, the screen will show what the court should look like in terms of which player is standing where. Then, as each side scores a point, the umpire simply clicks the 'score' button to add a point to the relevant side.

The tablet will also prompt the umpire when the service is over, as this is something they need to say out loud every time the service is over. So this feature is a good reminder for them!

The most important thing for the tablet to show is where each player should be standing on the court after each rally, and the arrow showing who should be serving and receiving.

There is also a button to count the number of shuttles used during a match, so each time there is a shuttle change, the button is pressed and it can be tracked.

What happens if the umpire accidentally presses the wrong button?

Mistakes happen! And luckily there is a 'back' or 'undo' button that can be used in any case that the umpire accidentally adds a point to a side. There is also a 'minus shuttle' button, in case the umpire accidentally presses the 'add shuttle' button too many times.

Challenge

In badminton, each side is allowed 2 unsuccessful challenges in a match, which means unlimited successful challenges. When one side challenges, the umpire presses 'Challenge' on the tablet, then the umpire will announce who challenged, which should then show up on the scoreboard and also inform Hawkeye that a challenge has been made.

After Hawkeye makes the final decision, the umpire selects if the challenge was 'Successful', 'Unsuccessful' or 'No Decision'. The tablet will automatically update based on what the umpire selects.

There is also a table at the bottom of the tablet that shows the progression of the match, including challenges, which are indicated by 'CW' (challenge won), or 'CL' (challenge lost).

Misconduct Cards

There are 3 cards for misconduct. Umpires will only have two of them: Yellow and Red. These cards are given when players misbehave and do not follow the rules correctly. For example, they could be tampering with the shuttle, swearing, trying to influence line judges, or showing violence or physical abuse (to themselves or others).

What is the difference between a yellow and red card in badminton?

In badminton, a yellow card is a warning for misconduct, which means no point is given to the opponent. A red card however, is a fault for misconduct, meaning a point is given to the other side.

As well as this, there is a monetary fine for receiving a yellow or red card too. The exact amount can depend on the specific tournament, but typically a yellow card will be a USD$250 fine and a red card will be a USD$500 fine.

The 3rd type of card is a black card, which only the tournament referee has. If a player receives a black card, it means they are disqualified from the match. This happens if a player continually misbehaves very badly, in which the umpire has to call the referee onto the court. The umpire will explain the situation, and if the referee agrees that the player needs to be disqualified, the referee will hand the black card to the umpire to issue the disqualification to the player.

Net Height

The net in the centre of the court should be 5ft (or 152.4cm), and the posts should be 5ft 1 (or 155.45cm).

Umpires will have a measuring stick, that is exactly the height of what the net should be at. As you can see in the images above, the net is slightly lower than what it should be and will need to be adjusted before play.

There is also a small red line on the stick to check the height of the service device, which should be at 1.15m. You can learn more about the service device here!

So hopefully you've learned something interesting about what a BWF umpire actually does! I want to say a huge thank you to David for giving up his time to chat with me and also to Badminton Wales for making this all possible. You can check out all things badminton in Wales here!

David also talks us through what the most common service faults and service judge signs are, which you can check out here! Otherwise, you can also check out my full BWF umpire video below. I'll see you in the next one!