So I hit the gym yesterday after quite a long time! There was no Badminton and I really wanted to do something to improve my fitness/strength. Since it was my first session back, I did: 3x5 squats @ 60kg 3x5 military press @ 20kg 5x8 lat pull downs @ 45kg I tried doing skipping as well. I can't do double unders yet. Nor can I keep the rhythm for more than 100 skips. So I just skipped for 5 - 10 minutes, taking a break whenever I felt tired. Also varying the pace. All of this was done on a whim. I need to plan/have specific goals when doing this kind of training. But I'm not sure what exactly these goals should be. Any help with that? What should my focus be? What exercises should I concentrate on? What should I try to aim for when skipping? I think I'll go to gym once or twice a week. And Badminton 2/3 times a week. I don't want to over do it. Last time I over did it, I got injured and was out of the game for a solid 7-8 months. I also did some yoga later on in the evening! A little sore today. I'll stretch out again before hitting the bed. As for warming up on court before the match, I've never really done it properly and treated it sometimes like half court singles... Sorry guys. The one time I did warm up properly though, I noticed my game was significantly better: way less mistakes. I think we started of with clears, then drops, then drives and ended with smashes. The smashes part was kind of like a drill: I smash, partner blocks, I lift, partner smash etc. What sequence do you guys follow? Also, I'm not exactly sure what you guys mean by not getting into rhythm of you warmed up inadequately. @MSeeley, @Cheung, @Borkya Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
What's your standard of play? Do you train badminton on a regular basis? Do you work with a coach? Do you enter competitions regularly or play competitive matches? What do you want to improve in your game? You give too little information about yourself. PS. This has been moved to a separate thread
For me with warm-up I guess I mean mentally. I need a good warm-up that brings me through all the motions so my body kinda "locks into" proper badminton thinking. If I have a poor warm-up with someone who just hits it wildly, or the same way never varying shots, I can't get into "badminton mode" and my thinking and playing won't be as good that day. I need to start right to play right. If I start wrong it takes a lot more work to get me to play right that day. (Which usually means a lot of yelling by my coach, haha)
Watch this. Can you see they are hitting the same shots to each other. Playing continuous shots like this enables to you to get used teh flight of the shuttle, the speed of the shuttle and the surroundings. If you only play three shots, then have to pick up the shuttle from the floor, then you cannot get into timing your bounce and leg movements.
I'd say I'm intermediate/higher intermediate. I've been playing for around 2.5 years now, although one year was with some old people and using plastics - this has made me develop some bad habits. Now I'm playing at places with a higher average standard. Currently I'm playing around 5-6 hours a week at some local clubs. Sometimes there are group coaching sessions which I go to. This would be around 5/6 students and one coach. I've not played many tournaments, but definitely would like to. I want to play in the leagues when the season starts again, hopefully in a high division. The matches at the clubs are quite competitive - there is like a ranking system so everyone tries hard to win. The hard part now is picking an area to improve. I haven't narrowed anything down yet. My game tends to be quite singles-y, but at the clubs they only do doubles so sometimes by habit I make a singles shot and get us in trouble. My defense is quite weak and I am not doing well when the tempo gets quite fast - I think this is because at the place I used to play at before, everyone was easy going, quite weak and didn't really play all that hard/fast. I'll try get some videos this week and try uploading it. Hopefully, you guys can point out some weaknesses. I think the thing that will make the most difference to my game currently is shot selection. Technical stuff will have to be decided after posting a video I guess. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
It sounds like you are still mastering the basics: footwork, technique etc. At your stage, I would be focusing on: Plyometric Strength in the legs (jumping lunges, jumping squats, skipping, box jumps, high knees, fast feet etc) - high volume work done in bursts with little rest to create endurance I would also be working some general joint protection work for the upper body: building good core strength with planks, build good shoulder and wrist mobility/stability with appropriate bodyweight movements (e.g. locomotive movements). This is probably enough to 1. build your fitness and speed whilst, 2. protecting your body from injury. Depending on your history, you may need some lower body strength/stability work e.g. low volume low weight squats, deep squat isometric holds (think kung fu horse stance) etc to generally help strength your knees and hips. If your ankles need work, then do any kind of balance work e.g. standing on one leg, jumping on one leg, standing on a wobble board etc. Over time you could work on genuine strength work for the legs e.g. weighted squats and lunges etc, but you will probably get more benefit from endurance at the moment, rather than building muscle bulk. Thats my view - note: the above doesn't really involve gym work with weights at all - you could do most with bodyweight only. If anyone has done weight training with real benefits on stamina, plyometric strength/endurance and stability, I am always interested to learn. The above training would have a few main goals: develop joint stability and muscular endurance so you can keep playing injury free, whilst improving on court movement and fitness. This won't improve the height of your jump or the power of your smash... but it will keep you playing injury free. Keep going with the Yoga - its amazing for everything! Regarding warm up: I prefer to start near the net with pushes, then drives. Then dropshots form the back, then clears, then the smash drill as you describe - working from half through to full smashes. I like to finish with defence, where my partner stands at the net and hits fast and flat at me whilst I return the shuttle with control. The warm up is about getting your shots as good as possible today - and if you achieve that you are probably in a good rhythm!
It sounds like you are progressing from the social badminton to competitive stage. It is quite a big step up and at this stage, you may not be ready for higher league matches. Experience does help I would stick with the yoga and light gym work. If you have the discipline then you can do those other exercises @MSeeley suggested. However, I think those other exercises are not essential at this stage. I agree your techniques are still developing and incorrect technique is one cause of injuries. The reason why you are not sure what to focus on is probably incomplete knowledge of the basic techniques and when to use them in the games. For somebody like you who can already hit the shuttle, usually, I start off with footwork patterns, foot placement and control of centre of gravity. So these are practiced with clears, smashes, netshots and blocks to the net. It can be surprisingly difficult! Probably multiple issues: grip, stance, hitting point and not yet experienced enough.
