Technical and timing characteristics of badminton men’s single: comparison between groups and play-offs stages in 2016 Rio Olympic Games

Badminton match is characterised by intermittent efforts of high intensity and short-duration rallies interspersed by periods of rest. The analyses of technical and timing variables provide important information for understanding the match. The aim of this study was to characterise the technical and timing variables of badminton men’s singles matches and to compare the characteristics between groups and play-offs stages in 2016 Olympic Games. All men’s single matches (groups = 43 and play-offs = 13) from Rio 2016 were used to carry out the post-event analysis. The comparison between phases showed that total time, pause time, points played and shots/rally were significantly higher in the play-offs phase. The frequency of serve, net, smash and total shots was also significantly higher in the play-offs. Only drive presented higher frequency in the group phase. We can conclude that play-offs were more intense than the group stage. Research in this area is relevant for understanding the match and providing information for training planning. The results of this study are important to set the appropriate targeting of workloads in view of the requirements of a match.