I signed up for group coaching at a badminton academy the year I started playing. I didn't know I had chronic fatigue yet and I bailed well before the end of the term. The class was said to be for beginners. It was a two hour weekly session. There wasn't any real break from playing. It wasn't rare that you would play a game of singles. Most sessions they would have fitness work either at the start/end of the session, and often would have it at the start and end of the session. The fitness work was pretty tough. Things like shuttles, more than one extended wall sit, planks, burpies I think. I think the first time they spoke of fitness work at the end of the session I thought something like "Fitness work? Isn't playing for two hours including singles already fitness work?" Obviously my recovery isn't that of the average person. Almost all of the participants were kids, who should recover quite well. But surely there are plenty of beginners without chronic fatigue who this is too much for? They spoke about practicing things learned during the week. If I ever played during the week (I think I did once) I'm sure I paid for it. Does this sound tough for a beginners class?
I don't know about chronic fatigue, but it is a good idea to have exercise or fitness elements at the start and end of coaching sessions. Start with a warm up, when the group is warmed up give them a small rest while you explain a shot / tactic or whatever the days learning objectives are. Show with a demo etc, then have the group do the learning with coach or coaches feedback and input. Some warmups i've seen are as follows; Short jogs with high knees for one or two legths of a court. Lunging with the trailing leg behind, making a right angle with the floor. Walking and doing small windmills with both arms. Then do in the opposite direction. Chassé steps in one direction, then the opposite direction. An intermediate to advanced junior group I participate in do runs or sprints sideways across 3 courts. Following the court markings and turning when lines touch. They also do fast feet exercises for helping to improve co-ordination. At the end, do a warm down. Warm downs help lower your heart rate and should reduce risk of injury. Not giving players chance to rest or rehydrate between activities sounds a bit counterproductive. Even pros get a small break at the 11 point mark.
I've seen this too often and I don't agree with fitness work in a coaching session, you can do fitness easily and more effectively on your own. A max 10 min warmup is fine and a warmdown, but doing shuttle runs, burpees and planks is just stupid. Nobody needs to coach you how to do a plank or burpee. It's a bad idea to approach fitness like this even if this was a fitness session and it's not enjoyable for many people either. For beginners, working on the correct grip, stroke and footwork should be priority. Singles and fitness work is a lazy way to run a session. You can be as fit as you like but without technique it's useless. An unfit player with a modicum of technique will run rings round a track athlete with none. As far as I'm concerned it's bad coaching and there are too many bad coaches around. Not just in badminton, this fitness and games approach to sessions happens in many different sports. It makes my blood boil that this goes on. I'd walk out of a session as a junior if the coach was doing this and not return.
