Rally Points Scoring information
The following information may be of use to people who have not yet had the opportunity to try out the new Rally Points Scoring system.
This system has been adopted by the Bracknell and District Badminton Association, starting in the 2007-08 season, so it would be wise to have a go before the start of the season!
Details of Rally Point Scoring
The full, official details can be found here:
http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/core/core_picker/download.asp?documenttable=libraryfiles&id=1029&log_stat=0
(I think that we can ignore the rule which says "when the leading score reaches 11, players have a 60 second interval" - at least until our TV-sponsorship deal comes through!)
There's also a somewhat simplified version of the rules here:
http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/text.asp?section=0001000100030010&itemTitle=Scoring+system
One of the problems that I most frequently hear about, regarding rally-point scoring, is that people find it difficult to remember a) the score, b) who is serving and c) who should be standing where. Hopefully once people get familiar with the new system it will become second-nature.
In case it is any help, I have my own way of remembering what is going on, which I believe is pretty simple to follow:
The key (and indeed only) thing to remember is the order in which each of the players serve.
Imagine that in the following example, player A is serving first.
When player A finishes serving (i.e. loses a rally), the next person to serve will be player B. They will serve from the right if their score is even, and from the left if their score is odd (exactly the same as in singles).
When player B finishes serving, the next person to serve will be player C. Then player D, and then back to player A.
Of course, there's slightly more to it, in that you have to remember to add one to your score every time you win a rally, but I think the above system may help people.
No doubt there are plenty of other techniques for remembering what you are doing in rally-point scoring, if you look around the various badminton websites and forums.
If anyone else has a useful technique for remembering what is going on, please send it to me at match.secretary@bdba.co.uk
