Notational comparison of men's singles badminton matches between Olympic Games in Beijing and London

The purpose of the study was to compare the notational structure in men's singles games between the Olympic Games in Beijing and London to observe how badminton evolved from 2008 to 2012. Twenty games of each event (n=40), were analyzed using the official videos of the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games. Game duration (Beijing: 1124.6 +/- 229.9 s vs. London: 1260.3 +/- 267.1 s; P<0.05), real time played (Beijing: 306.9 +/- 45.7 s vs. London: 354.7 +/- 86.5 s; P<0.05), rally time, shots per rally, rest time at point 11, rest time between games and shots per rally were significantly higher in London than in Beijing. Rally time intervals between 0-2.9 s were more frequent in Beijing (P<0.05) than in London and rest time between rallies of 27-29.9 s were more frequent in London (P<0.05); this distribution of time intervals suggests that badminton is evolving towards longer rallies with greater rest intervals pushing the limits of the badminton regulations. No differences were found between Beijing and London in the distribution of the last shot in each rally. In conclusion the timing factors of the badminton game was different in London 2012 from Beijing 2008, badminton is evolving towards longer rallies with greater rest intervals resulting in longer matches.