Current training regime

[Cheung]

Had a few minor injuries and busy work schedule which meant I wasn't very serious about matches and competitions for a number of years.

However, I am back in training for competitions and as an ageing warrior, I thought it might interest some people what regime I currently follow. In fact, I started last year but had to take half a year off for my plantar fasciitis to get better.

Aim: improve doubles competition play to the finals. Singles really needs some regular schedule at the level I would be happy at.

Level of play : previously trained singles. Strong foundation in footwork, controlling centre of gravity for singles.
Doubles not as strong, more midcourt forecourt player controlling rallies. Recognise I have deficiencies in technique and certain tactical plays. Whilst I can certainly play doubles, there are many aspects to tighten up to consistently win.

Problems and solutions : all these are integrated to some extent

A) injuries last year - a physio identified right knee cap pain (right side dominant player) and plantar fasiciitis as due to inadequate leg strength. The leg exercises given targeted gluteus medius and minimus. However, it was very hard to do these exercises by myself at home.

B) strength and conditioning - obviously my body was deconditioned. I did some preliminary gym work for three to four weeks. Core exercises for back extension (holding extra weights), body rotation (left and right) and body flexion. Bench press for quadriceps. Light cable weights for arms. Cable weights for arms need to be taken with caution. From past experience, going too heavy too quickly risks shoulder injury and shoulder injuries take longer to heal.

C) leg work in the gym is inadequate. Taking the physios input, I thought extra supplementary exercises in a cross training style would be helpful. My daughter started taekwon do and I felt that would be helpful first to increase leg strength and conditioning and second to increase foot speed. It worked better than expected. Following a class helped motivate me into doing exercises, do leg speed exercises for kicking and movement and general all round cardiovascular fitness. Fortunately, I had done the gym work and core exercises for a few weeks beforehand otherwise I would have collapsed in the first session. Have to add that I already know the basic martial arts kicking techniques.

Future directions : probably will start more shoulder exercises with free weights (again, light weights but multiple reps) to strengthen my rotator cuff.

Just started wearing ankle weights (2.5lbs each leg) for some general walking. If I come to some stairs, I try to do some short sharp bursts up the stairs a few steps at a time. Will try to do this with the ankle weights on.

 

[Cheung]

Had a coaching session today. Basically practicing defensive drives.

I have a few problems. When the racquet head comes back in preparation, the face starts facing upwards. We worked out that if I have a larger movement, this error becomes a factor. It makes your drives pop up at the net if you are slightly off with your contact point. So, I practiced trying to use an even smaller movement for the drive. With a smaller movement, my arm and shoulder doesn't relax as much and by the fourth drive or more, I am losing control of the situation.

Couple of strange strategies helped.
A) counting the drives. Coach thinks the counting split my concentration making me more relaxed.
B) Instead of watching the shuttle come all the way to my racquet head, I just watched it until halfway towards me, made the calculation, kept my eyes forward and hit the drive.

I might be focussing too much and it's affecting my arms and fingers. Sometimes I need to step backwards mentally and not worry about the impact on the bed of strings.

 

[Fidget]

Please keep up this blog on your training, Cheung.
It is inspiring for some of us other busy, "ageing warriors".

 

[skelro314]

Bench press for quadriceps?

Had a few minor injuries and busy work schedule which meant I wasn't very serious about matches and competitions for a number of years.

However, I am back in training for competitions and as an ageing warrior, I thought it might interest some people what regime I currently follow. In fact, I started last year but had to the half a year off for my plantar fasciitis to get better.

Aim: improve doubles competition play to the finals. Singles really needs some regular schedule at the level I would be happy at.

Level of play : previously trained singles. Strong foundation in footwork, controlling centre of gravity for singles.
Doubles not as strong, more midcourt forecourt player controlling rallies. Recognise I have deficiencies in technique and certain tactical plays. Whilst I can certainly play doubles, there are many aspects to tighten up to consistently win.

Problems and solutions : all these are integrated to some extent

A) injuries last year - a physio identified right knee cap pain (right side dominant player) and plantar fasiciitis as due to inadequate leg strength. The leg exercises given targeted gluteus medius and minimus. However, it was very hard to do these exercises by myself at home.

B) strength and conditioning - obviously my body was deconditioned. I did some preliminary gym work for three to four weeks. Core exercises for back extension (holding extra weights), body rotation (left and right) and body flexion. Bench press for quadriceps. Light cable weights for arms. Cable weights for arms need to be taken with caution. From past experience, going too heavy too quickly risks shoulder injury and shoulder injuries take longer to heal.

C) leg work in the gym is inadequate. Taking the physios input, I thought extra supplementary exercises in a cross training style would be helpful. My daughter started taekwon do and I felt that would be helpful first to increase leg strength and conditioning and second to increase foot speed. It worked better than expected. Following a class helped motivate me into doing exercises, do leg speed exercises for kicking and movement and general all round cardiovascular fitness. Fortunately, I had done the gym work and core exercises for a few weeks beforehand otherwise I would have collapsed in the first session. Have to add that I already know the basic martial arts kicking techniques.

Future directions : probably will start more shoulder exercises with free weights (again, light weights but multiple reps) to strengthen my rotator cuff.

Just started wearing ankle weights (2.5lbs each leg) for some general walking. If I come to some stairs, I try to do some short sharp bursts up the stairs a few steps at a time. Will try to do this with the ankle weights on.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[Cheung]

Bench press for quadriceps?

Yes. I do that.

Also, leg extensors.

A bit difficult to work the muscles at the back of the upper leg.

 

[pepe54]

Yes. I do that.

Also, leg extensors.

A bit difficult to work the muscles at the back of the upper leg.

Unique and original approach there, very nice!
Normally you'd think of doing leg presses or box squat jumps but this definitely sounds easier on the joints.

 

[Cheung]

Unique and original approach there, very nice!
Normally you'd think of doing leg presses or box squat jumps but this definitely sounds easier on the joints.

Due to a previous meniscus injury, I cannot go very deep on squats. 90 degree knee flexion is OK but very reluctant to go deeper than that.

 

[skelro314]

I thought bench press works the chest and triceps. Am I getting it confused with something else?

Also, have you guys ever thought about incorporating yoga into your training? It helped me a lot when I was suffering from tendonitis (due to overtraining and then ignoring it). I'm thinking it might work well for injury prevention.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[pepe54]

@Cheung:
Joint injuries are no joke, I can definitely relate to your issues; although I am not a qualified or trained exercise physiologist, it does sound like you have found a suitable rehab / conditioning exercise without risking further injury to the affected areas. All the best with the rehab, recovery & conditioning. On that note, i'll end with the fact that there is a 50+ member at my local club who has similar knee issues and has undergone surgery. Prior to him mentioning that, I never would have suspected any sort of injury. Currently he's back in fighting fit form and able to play semi competitive singles. There's also another 68 year old at a different club who can keep up at singles but that's a story for a different day lol (go ageing warriors I say!).

@skeltro314
I have considered yoga briefly but am confused about what form of yoga and which exercises are relevant to my requirements. It definitely looks promising for enhancing joint flexibility however! Would you have any recommendations?

As for joint injury prevention, I recently posed the question to someone in the field of sports medicine of: "Is there anything we can do to strengthen joints themselves?" - to which the short answer was "no.", long answer being the standard protocols of strengthening surrounding muscles.

 

[Cheung]

I thought bench press works the chest and triceps. Am I getting it confused with something else?

Maybe I should use leg press? I don't really know the terms very well. I sit in a seat, set the weights to about 85 kg (20% more than my body weight), push forward on the platform with my legs and at the end, use the balls of my feet to push to the very end. I do 3 sets of 12 reps. I haven't gone for pushing high loads as last year I had some issues which the physio said was pushing up the training load too quickly - namely off tracking patella giving right knee pain and the plantar fasciitis. In fact, last year, I didn't feel I pushed things too much too quickly on the training side per se, but I didn't do enough exercises for other muscles groups. One thing I do agree I overdid was sometimes having three hours of badminton sessions. Looking back, I feel that it was too long and too much when fatigued (the games were really good quality though!)

I have considered Yoga but the class is not as convenient as going to Tae Kwon Do. The Tae Kwon Do session is only one hour long. The first 10-15 minutes are warms up, fitness exercises, cardio work, raising legs etc so nothing very extreme. The leg exercises are more on speed within one's own range of flexibility so I think this is good.

On that note, i'll end with the fact that there is a 50+ member at my local club who has similar knee issues and has undergone surgery. Prior to him mentioning that, I never would have suspected any sort of injury. Currently he's back in fighting fit form and able to play semi competitive singles

I would rather play singles but reality strikes. For the singles I like to play, I am amongst the top strata of players for my age group. My best result was quarter finals of my age group in HK annual championships where I lost to an ex HK player. I looked around the other quarter finalists. At that level, basically they are either ex-pros or fulltime coaches so to jump to that level needs an exponential increase in training. I felt satisfied that I had acheived the best result possible under circumstances of having a full time job and irregular training schedule. To keep up singles, you really need to train fitness and a lot of routines which now: a) will be hard to fit in, and b) if I have already achieved my best as an amateur, what am I going for...? i.e. motivation issues

Hence, the switch to doubles. I think I can still improve and can be a little more flexible in terms of training schedule. I got to the last eight of the doubles last year HK annual championships (age group division again) and lost on a very tight match 21-19, 21-19 (ex China player on the opposite side - play on his partner !) and want to get a bit further this year... I may enter some other divisions - still weighing those up but probably will enter for the fun and to get used to playing conditions and shuttles.

One thing to explain is these matches, unlike local competitions in other countries, are not all played on the same day. Each round is played on a different day. It means you can prepare for a match very well. I like to go to a court a few hours before a match and spend some times doing routines with a partner going at about 70-80% speed and lastly practicing some serves. Just like international competitions, we only get a couple of minutes on the court to get a warm up. Any other time to hit on court at the venue is opportunistic. Basically, at the HK Open, I saw the players practicing for quite a while before their matches later the same day. So I copied that idea and I think it really helps a lot. Something I can write about later.

 

[Rob3rt]

The way I experience it Badminton players seem to acquire a huge list of injuries - some of them permanent, meaning they never fully subside - over the years. Most players I talked to, even very young ones, have a fair share of injuries/pain. And the older players either stop or have to live with the injuries preventing them from getting to 100 % again. I wonder if this is the same for other sports too?

 

[MSeeley]

@Cheung:
I have considered yoga briefly but am confused about what form of yoga and which exercises are relevant to my requirements. It definitely looks promising for enhancing joint flexibility however! Would you have any recommendations?

As for joint injury prevention, I recently posed the question to someone in the field of sports medicine of: "Is there anything we can do to strengthen joints themselves?" - to which the short answer was "no.", long answer being the standard protocols of strengthening surrounding muscles.

Without knowing what your requirements are, I can only speak generally... but yoga is an incredible way to promote full body stability. And stability is a huge part of injury prevention. If you typed "yoga" into youtube, you would probably stumble across the correct type of yoga (is it called vinyasa yoga?) - but anything that focuses on flexibility and balance through flows and stances is going to be beneficial.

Working on balance greatly increases proprioception, which reduces the likelihood of you accidentally tripping or stumbling, and increase the chances that you will come out unscathed if you do happen to stumble. Working on flexibility means that your joints gain an improved "safe" range of motion - meaning that if you trip on something, rather than tearing a muscle, you may be fine as the muscle does not go beyond its safe range of motion. When you start considering the hand balancing poses (e.g. crow or crane) then you can see how shoulder, wrist and elbow stability comes into play. Seriously... loads of benefits of yoga to all athletes. But many sports share similar components e.g. martial arts, gymnastics, parkour etc. all focus on building strong, stable, flexible bodies.

As for your "joint injury prevention" question, I would question the response you have given. On the one hand, you cannot in some way strengthen the actual bones of the joint... you can strengthen the muscles, the tendons and the ligaments. And certainly ligaments require specific types of training to improve their strength - weight lifting and general strength/hypertrophy training may not do the trick!

Cheers!

 

[Cheung]

The way I experience it Badminton players seem to acquire a huge list of injuries - some of them permanent, meaning they never fully subside - over the years. Most players I talked to, even very young ones, have a fair share of injuries/pain. And the older players either stop or have to live with the injuries preventing them from getting to 100 % again. I wonder if this is the same for other sports too?

Yes. It's the same for other sports.

 

[Cheung]

Update;
What did I do the last few days?

Went to the gym, added a few weights onto my normal routine so pushing a bit harder for two sets of ten, then lightening the load but doing a last set with 14 reps. I added some free weights (just very light) for arms exercises.

Tae Kwon Do was good. All that leg work and balancing on one foot. I am not very good at balancing steadily on one foot. I blame it on past ankle sprains causing lost elasticiy of the ligaments and loss of proprioception. Something to train up.

Got back from a coaching session which was followed by a games session. First thing I did on getting home was mix up a shake with whey protein and drink that. Maybe some placebo effect but my muscles don't feel as tired the next day. The coaching session comprised of, guess what.....more backhand drives, like one hour! My last session as described before wasn't that good but I did notice somethings at the end of that session which I incorporated into today's session. This time was a very productive exercise. The best analogy I can use is martial arts. So I am doing backhand drives and this time, really doing some good quality drives. The movement is a bit similar to Bruce Lee's lightning fast backhand fist strike - short movement forward, tighten fingers on impact, immediately relax with natural recoil setting up position for the next drive.

Since these are going well and coach sees my hand finally getting the technique he wants, we work on changing direction of the shuttle, again from the left side of the court (my end). I am always standing on the left hand side of the as I face coach, he is directly opposite feeding shuttles. I have to direct the drive down into the tramlines, through to not quite the centreline of the court or cross court it to the other side. A drive to the sidelines is to pull the smasher to the side. Pretty obvious. But it's effect during the game is to start to pull the players wider and open channels down the middle of the court. Now if I give the smasher a slightly short lift opposite me, he is going to smash and run in, whilst his partner at the net steps back and sideways. This give me a channel to play a drive inbetween the opposite pair. The cross court drive is to be used more at the beginning of the game. When we play it after receiving a smash, we play this shot to pull the front player to their left. Again, this is to open up the middle of the court. Near end game, you yourself won't be aiming for the tramlines because of the lower margin of error and it's safer tto attack the space inbetween the two opponents.

In order to change direction of the shuttle, previously, I was letting the shuttle come close to my body and then using wrist extension to change direction of the shuttle. Coach asked me to keep the hitting point in front but change the ready position of the racquet slightly to be directed to the area I want to play the shuttle. Then when I hit the shuttle, my hand's slight follow through goes in the direction I am aiming the shuttle. I noticed even slight deviations of the follow through direction with my hand would cause two or three feet difference in accuracy.

We also practiced playing the backhand drives that come to my right upper shoulder zone. A bit of a weak point for me and I play a lot of forehand shots in this area which are pushes but I don't have the option of driving the shuttle back. Usually, if I do play a backhand in this area it's sometimes lucky to go over or the shuttle hits the net. It hits the net because I pull my forearm downwards in an arc whereas the forearm has to go forward. it was quite difficult before. but today I noticed the forearm movement and direction is like a wing chun punch except at the end, you have to tighten the fingers and press with the thumb. As I was playing the shots, coach was giving many grunts of approval - I guess that means I was doing something right.....

On for my game with new found confidence. It wa a bit deflating to not be able to put many of the drives into practice! But I did remember about playing to the tramlines to open up the centre of the court. Frankly speaking, the guys were tough opponents and boy do they hit hard. yeah, I had been practicing drive defence but it was a lot of pressure to even get my racquet to their smashes and just half control the shuttle. Today, the shuttle were also a bit slow so you can imagine how hard they hit. Then, they put in drops...life is tough. I did notice that overall, my game today was actually a bit more stable compared to last week moving around a bit better and my reach is better than last week. Maybe it was the attempt to do the splits yesterday that helped. I had some good moments when the pace was fast. I pushed the shuttle from the net into the tramlines, switched my feet into position with my hand coming straight up for the straight return. The guys said this movement was very fast and impressive so that helped me retain a bit of confidence in myself. I had retained this play from a coaching session few weeks ago with my coach and although today the shot came off sucessfully, I know my feet and body are not quite in the correct position.

My most interesting game was against two female players. They were winners of the amateur division for ladies doubles last year in the open section of HK annual championships. They are certainly no pushovers. Luckily they don't smash as hard as the guys but this makes the rallies longer. You definitely cannot smash and expect a weak return; they are looking for the opportunity to play a counter attack off the smash. Physically, I was pretty dead after the game but generally satisfied with my game as I had a little more time to think to place my shots. My slightly weaker shots were punished when playing the guys but not always so against the girls. However, the girls push you and make you stretch around the court. I have to be careful not suffer a groin strain. One of my good friends from the side of the court said lucky he's not playing the girls!

Serves were pretty good today. I practiced about 80-100 low serves before the games started.

Overall, the rest of the gang were saying I look fast (being cheeky because of my age?). I can feel improvement from last week and the week before which is very good. Normally, one would only notice a more gradual improvement. The cross training and speed work in kicking must be helping.

Things to work on:
a) Drives in the game situation - basically having the presence of mind to make the plays coach was telling me about.
b) back court movement to the corners. I am used to using singles footwork which is a bit slower.

Let's see what happens when I discuss with coach on our next session together. Ideally, twice a week would be good to meet up with him but I don't think that is going to happen.

 

[Fidget]

When do we get to see video?

 

[Rob3rt]

Yes. It's the same for other sports.

But I'm still wondering if this is the same for the pros or if they kind of avoid it by having good physios, doctors and technique...

 

[MSeeley]

But I'm still wondering if this is the same for the pros or if they kind of avoid it by having good physios, doctors and technique...

Ask any professional sportsman you like, and they will all tell you that it is rare for them to be fully fit - there is always some injury or other.

Professionals avoid the debilitating injuries of most club players because they have good support staff (like phsios, nutritionists etc), and good technique to alleviate stress on their body... and most of all because they actually physically train off court to prepare their bodies to play badminton.

Extensive hours in the gym, stretching etc... all geared towards making sure their body is strong enough to withstand the pressure of the sport. Most amateurs sit at a desk all day, turn up to club, don't warm up, and hit and move with bad technique. Its actually a wonder they are not more seriously hurt. However, the moment someone does yoga and skipping twice a week, they have then started keeping their body in good condition to play the sport. This is where players really need to stop seeing badminton as a means of getting fit. Badminton provides cardiovascular fitness, but it wreaks havoc on the body otherwise. If you want longevity, you need to protect your joints and muscles. But this is true of any sport (but some sports have it baked into them e.g. martial arts).

 

[Cheung]

What happened this week.

Tae Kwon Do went well with good leg work exercises. Instructor is also a physical trainer so our warm ups are like burpees, leg raisers etc. in fact, they are quite effective for aerobic and anaerobic activity. Just for a laugh I started grading in Tae Kwon Do. Helps keep the pressure up on the kids for their own Tae Kwon Do otherwise Dad is going to catch up. I had a reminder to take things a bit easy. I tried doing a few turns of a tornado kick. It hurt the inside of my knee. Luckily I don't have much of a pot belly otherwise the pain would have been worse. The next day, the knee was aching a bit but straight extension/flexion was fine. The discomfort had practically gone three days after the injury.

Weights - still the same weights. Depending on my condition for the day I sometimes do more or sometimes less. I am trying to push for more reps in the same number of sets. I also lift some free weights (not heavy) and continue with cable as these also activate core muscles better. Sometimes I can get half an hour in the gym which is enough for a light routine. Happened to pass an Adidas Sports shop and there were some wrist weights (0.5lb each weight) for sale - about USD25. Just for curiosity, I bought pair. I put them on at home and shadow my drive returns with racquet in hand trying to make sure I have the right technique rather than just purely train strength. That means concentrating on moving the forearm forward and then creating that little explosive impact with the fingers on striking the shuttle. Not just blindly trying to shadow a stroke as afast as possible without paying attention to technique.

On court training - lucky enough to fit two sessions in this week. It costs $$$ but I have missed so much before that I have really not spent as much. 15 minutes before the session starts, I do some of those Tae Kwon Do warm up exercises using the stop watch as a target. A minute of running on the spot with knees coming up to hip height. Then 40 seconds in press up position, alternately bringing each knee up to lower chest diagonally. Then about 30 kicks with each leg - with badminton shoes on, it feels a little harder.

Service training - a lot of times my serve falls a bit short. Actually, it doesn't look like they are short from my angle as a server. I put the shuttlecock tubes along the opposite service line. If my serve doesn't hit the tube, then it is definitely short. I went through a bad patch with 24 practice serves, two were in , 15 were short, 5 in the net. Very poor statistics and good job I am doing them now like that and not in a match.

Drives - coach has me practicing backhand drives again! Still not happy with me.... No, there is some progress. Timing is a lot better, I am staying more relaxed in my shoulder, explosive power of the fingers is much better. I would say about a 25% increase in quality of shot. The drive is much more solid and I can do a number of solid drives in a row, change the pace of the drive and yet still keep the rhythm and control. Previously, after three drives, I would feel increasingly unstable and tense in my shoulder starting to lose control over the driving rally. This two sessions, we did a routine of two drives and then a block to the forecourt and then I come in to control the netshot. In UK, you might have heard of it as "chip and charge". After the chip, it's two steps forward, split step on service line legs, pelvis and shoulders square on to the direction of the shuttle. My previous singles footwork training habits are a bit hard to overcome. Not use to split stepping square on right on the service line being so close to the net. I tend to wanting to be side on as a singles player would be. We went through some game scenarios when the opponent plays a netshot from my chip and charge. If I play a tramline push, get ready for a drive return placing myself at the service line. If I play a netshot, stand a bit closer, with my racquet held up in front of the body, racquet head around the level of the shoulders.

In another variation, I practiced lifting off a smash either straight or cross court. Crosscourts are not natural for me, Just one of those things.

Had my few games of high level doubles. I had a couple of compliments on my body stability whilst playing - Basically looking controlled when running around. So, all that gym work and kicking is doing something good . Definitely some tactical errors to sort out because sometimes, I am not fully committed to covering certain areas during play. Will try to describe these later.

 

[VSiva]

Hey Cheung, thanks for posting your training regimen in detail which is most helpful.

Just wondering how much does a private training session cost in your part of the world? (If I'm allowed to ask that In my part of the world in NA, I find it quite expensive, upwards of $80 a session which is usually an hour. This is a big hurdle for me currently trying to get some coaching time. I'm finding training by yourself does have limits and after a certain point even amateurs need to get help in order to improve.

 

[Cheung]

In my part of the world in NA, I find it quite expensive, upwards of $80 a session which is usually an hour.

This really depends. There are coaches who are about the same standard as I am making a living. These will charge cheaper than US$80. For ex-professional players, definitely above US$80. This does not include court fee for which we have to pay an extra US$9.

As mentioned before, training fees can be pretty expensive. Here are some ways to look at it and get more value. If you can add to it with more ideas, that would be great.

Here are my thoughts :

- you spend it on something you enjoy. There are other hobbies that cost more: handbags, shopping, hifi, smoking, gambling(!), cars

- it's not something you always do. My first real one to one coaching period was a summer holiday when I was 17 years old. I had about 6 sessions over 6 weeks. I basically learnt to clear. 6 sessions of just clearing! After that I moved to University and it's the life of a student living cheaply. No more badminton coaching. In the middle of Uni life, I started with martial arts group which was really cheap and more accessible. Later in working life, I decided to get badminton coaching from a professional singles player. That lasted about a year and a half. Last year, I worked with the present coach for about 3 months (until injury) and just restarted. So over a lifetime, we are still looking at total of 2 years for a person >40 years old.... In the context of things, not a lot compared to a lifetime.

- how much is a badminton lesson compared to other lessons with one on one tuition? In HK, one to one tuition in other subjects can be comparable in price. Once met some Singaporean friends on holiday who moaned a bit about the cost of skiing lessons for their kids. They stopped moaning when I asked them how much they paid for piano lessons for their kids over what period of time!

- you can get better value for money by taking more frequent lessons. Let's say you take one year of lessons once a week. That's about 50 lessons. Compare that to 50 lessons in 26 weeks and then not having lessons for half a year. The improvement in 26 week twice a week lessons will be far greater. At present, I am on once and maybe twice a week (our times don't match up). After my tournament, I will be busier with work and may not be able to maintain classes.

- remember all that stuff I do for cross training, weights and taekwon do? It's not just to strengthen my body to prevent injury. Strengthening my lower body allows me to do physically more work in a lesson. I can get more work done in a session without feeling physically tired and that means better quality training. The taekwon do class and gym are comparatively inexpensive.

- the pre training warmup. Time and time again, I see people who walk on court using lesson time to warm up. I am guilty of this in the past. This time, I am doing exercises before the session starts to raise my muscle temperature, get the blood moving through the muscles and heighten my brain activity. Thus I can almost go straight into the session just needing a couple of minutes stroking the shuttle around the court just adapting my hand eye coordination. Then we are straight into routines.

- I prepare the shuttles beforehand. All my training shuttles are in tubes. Very quick to push them out and lie them neatly in rows for the coach to pick up and use right from the beginning. I have roughly two hundred of my own shuttles for training.

- if you use the coach's shuttles and he is coaching someone beforehand, arrive 15 minutes beforehand for your warmup. Give an acknowledgement to coach and his pupil. Do your warm up. Then after your warm up, on his court start collecting the shuttles up to put them neatly into rows. Collect shuttles a few minutes before your lessons starts. This means you save a few minutes of your lessons time.

- during breaks in the session where you walk off and have water. What do you do and what does coach do? I frequently see other people taking their own time in having drink and just standing by courtside catching their breath. Their coach is then picking up shuttles. Not me... I quickly get my drink, run back on court and during the time of catching my breath or taking a break, I am helping pick up shuttles and putting them in a row. During that time of picking up shuttles, it's a chat time having light discussion about badminton related things.

- try not to talk too much during the actual training! I see adults who take classes talking and discussing when they should be hitting shuttles and practicing what they should be improving on! Verbal diarrhoea also interrupts the rhythm of the lesson - well for me it does. It's OK to ask one or two questions but to stop and talk for a few minutes is not my style. Coach doesn't mind though. He still gets paid for talking or training

- I take notes post lesson to remind myself of what we did, what tips he gave me, do some sketches of the court for tactics, position, placement of the feet etc. I basically cannot remember all the details from one lesson to the next. So taking notes serves as a good reminder for small tips. I always seem to have something to write down. I had a few notes from last year's lessons that I forgot.

- you can video some lessons and review. Put it on a tablet and then review a specific point with the coach and ask the question. Then, you can target very quickly where the problem is.

- I focus very hard during the lesson, possibly a bit too hard. Sometimes I criticise myself, sometimes I am self analysing when I can't do a play. But what is the effect on coach? I like to think this creates positive reinforcement on the coach to help me better. If anybody is trying to teach and the student is doesn't look keen, it's tough on the tutor. But, to teach somebody who works hard and shows their keenest interest is so much easier. At the least, showing to be keen won't do any harm. Then again, I do think this is sometimes coach dependent.