I am out of proportion.

I knew when I started weight training again last year I should use the same weight program on each arm for the individual arm exercises. At the time, I just couldn't see the benefit of slowing my right arm development down just to keep keep my body symmetrical. I mean, I'm training my badmintion, not my vanity.

But after a comment in the changing room recently I'm starting to wonder. When I look at myself in the mirror it looks almost freaky. If I wear a short T-shirt, the mucles in my right arm are visible but..... where's the left gone?

I'll have to get one of those tops that one of the female tennis players wear which has one arm long and one arm short!

also compare your back muscles, the one below the shoulder blade. the right one will be much more massive and extend further down the back than the left one.

i know..... i am of not much help here.... :P


but honestly, be proud of it. i remember i used to bike a lot, my thigh and calf muscles are overly developed then my top body. my friend would normally look at me like a freak. but i am proud of it. just like i am proud to show my friends that my right forearm is much more developed than my left....

one more comment. why would you be slowing down your right arm development? if you are doing weight training, it will at least maintain right arm development, and at the same time accelerate your left arm's development.

>> also compare your back muscles, the one below the shoulder blade. the right one will be much more massive and extend further down the back than the left one.

:D I'm not going to look!

No you're right, I should be proud, just finding it a bit odd seeing my body like that's all. I suppose it gives me more character.

The reason I'd have to slow down right arm development is because my right has always been more developed than the left... so I can lift a heavier weight with my right than my left. Since the weight training program I do relies on %'s of max weight to choose the type of exercise, I'd have to bring that % down for the right arm to match with the left which would actually change the type of exercise I'm doing for the right. (endurance is at a low percentage - plyometric at a high percentage). This would happen on individual arm exercises such as rotator cuff. If I'm doing dumbell exercises there's no way I could use the same dumbell I use on my right than my left, it would just wouldn't do anything for my right.

Why don't ypu try adding a extra set of the exercise to your left arm?

It's quite freaky that this topic has come up because about 2 hours ago i was being coached by a ex-england player and he said that it looks like my right leg is slightly m ore developed then my left leg and the reason for thjis is because i do all my lungeing and pushing off with my right leg and only use my left leg as a brake when needed and as a pivot for my right leg.
So he suggested so exercises to help try and bring my left leg into play more as well as suggesting how to change the way that i lunge for the shuttle so to use my left leg more

Actually, this is something all badminton players have to fight against. And I say fight because it has more than aestethical implications. If you develop too assymetric leg and abdomen musculature you will get hip and back problems in the end. This is also so if your front thigh muscles are trained much more than the hamstrings -- another common situation for badders.

So doing lunges on your left leg in training may sound odd, but it is not a bad idea. I know that former world champ Thomas Kihlstrom used to do that regularly to balance the load.

No problems with my legs, but if I added another set to my left arm I'd risk overloading it. If I had to bring my left arm up to my right I'd have to slow down development of right at the moment - no two ways about it. Perhaps once I've hit the top of the curve I can bring my left up.

Who is your coach by the way? Just some intials will do.

UKP

I do shuttle picking with Both hands to develop my Thighs!

He isn't as such my coach, his name is Mike Adams, he plays for Yorkshire, and is the offical talent observer for the BA of E, he went to the 1996 olympics and was the national coach for Mauritus for 5 years

Basically, about this time last year we (by this i mean Cheshire schools badminton) should of been going to the ICT in Nottingham, but because the girls in the squad are so weak we couldn't go. So instead we went to the national badminton centre in Milton Keynes for a coaching weekend, and he was the bloke that was our coach for the weekend. He's a really nice guy

Since then, he has come up to Cheshire a couple of times and has taken a couple of special sessions for us.

And it's pretty handy for me that he plays for Yorkshire, because hopefully i'll be going to Uni in Leeds from September, and so at least i should be-able to get some good coaching and be playing at a decent level because from what i've heard, the leagues in Yorkshire are very strong

Cheers,

Yeah, Uni is a great time to improve your badminton take advantage. I may see you on the BUSA circuit if I start my phD this year.

UKP

FYI Johno

Leeds league still plays with plastic shuttles (so I heard last year).
If you get to play in a Yorkshire league team, that's a lot of travelling. (Yorkshire is pretty big). But at least that's feather shuttles. You're doing well if you can find a club that will include you in their team.
B'ford plus Harrogate league plays with feather shuttles (only 30mins away from Leeds by train)
Headingly club is probably the most convenient club. I think they play up at the Leeds Metropoli Uni site (Beckett's park). If nothing has changed, then they'll be the strongest club in Yorkshire but their Yorkshire league players rarely go to club nights.

How's Leeds Uni badminton team compared to the rest of the Universities?

ukplayer, would u say your left calf muscle is also larger than your right one? (assuming that you are right handed)

Slightly. My right leg is overdeveloped compared to my left and that is natural. The difference is notable if you test the legs individually and look closely enough. They're not going to match up entirely because it's natural for one to be leading the other!!

Leeds are top of the Northern conference, they got knocked out in the first round of the knockouts this year. So they're reasonably strong. In the top 15 or so.

Basically i looked at,

Chester - average, but to close to home plus it's still in cheshire so i wouldn't be pushed the same as in yorkshire

Manchester Met - That that good for badminton from what i've heard, plus it is actually still in cheshire

Bangor - Well this is in Wales so that says it all (joke), but the actually uni isn't to good

Shefield - i'm guessing this is a quite good uni for badminton cos it's in yorkshire and it's a big place.

and i'm going to leeds, the main reason is for the coarse (sport and exercise science) and i want to focus on sport nutrition.
But another reason was because i would of thought it was strong in badminton because it was in yorkshire, plus Leeds met (the one i'm goin) is where the yorkshire squad often train.

I wanted to go on the under 18's circuit this year, but i couldn't find a partner of the same strength as my self (not trying to be big headed), the people my age that i know are either what i would consider to weak to be playing on the circuit or they are playing for there countries at a junior level and so are either to busy or have already got pretty solid partners.
Hopefully at Leeds i'll be-abl to find a decent mens partner and play on the U-19's circuit.
I'll have to wait and see

You should be able to find a good partner at Uni.

When I first got to Birmingham I couldn't believe I got Wednesdays afternoons off just to train and play!!

Usually find there's at least one really strong player per Uni. With a team like Leeds you should get a few.

They are strong if they're winning the Northern Conference. They're in the top 15 anyway which means there will be a couple of senior county level players in the squad at the very least. You should have a ball. Good luck with the A levels.

UKP

Are we talking about Leeds Metro Uni or, Uni of Leeds when considering their strength?

The only problem about finding a doubles partner is to find one that hasn't been distracted by the social life, spent all their money, get up in mornings to travel and a host of other reasons (studying included! :) )

Yeah it's Leeds Met that i'm hoping to go, and i can't wait.

But i'll have to wait and see how strong it really is, thanks for all the infomation

whoops, yeah I was talking about Leeds. Don't know much about leeds met but you're pretty much certain that there will be a player as good as you there.
UKP

well thats the hoping, i'm trying to get into the county 3rd team at the mo, but there are a few really good players around.
I'm in the cheshire colts squad (this is the squad aged 17 - 21) so i'm hoping to find someone as strong, if not stronger, Thats why i thought the Yorkshire leagues would be useful because of how good the actually county is.

They may not be so accomodating to an outsider (not meaning anybody individually but as a management issue). As an example of Yorkshire thinking, one could only play for the county cricket team if one was born within the county boundaries. Is this still true?

I think that used to be the case.Some County's would ask that you were living in the County for more than 3 years. As a whole they've got a lot more relaxed recently, although I don't know the specifics of Yorkshire, you'd have to check with them.

For me it wouldn't be a case of wanting to play for Yorkshire, because firstly i woludn't get into the squad because of how strong they are, i'm pretty close to maybe getting into the cheshire squad soon, but Yorkshire are quite a bit stronger then Cheshire.
Basically i thought that the overall standard of badminton would be higher in Yorkshire then most places in England, both in county play and in terms of strength of the leaugues.

You should find that they are stronger than Cheshire. Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Essex have always been traditionally strong.

But saying that, there are some really good young players coming through for cheshire (2 of which are playing for their countries in there age groups), at the moment the men are coming through a lot more then the women.

Just becasue Yorkshire are a stronger county won't mean you'll definately be able to play against stronger players automatically if you move to a city in Yorkshire.

i understand that, but basically i'm playing a mixture of division 1 and division 3 in cheshire, and i'm holdin my own just fine.
I've only been blown off the court a couple of times in division and that was either by a county first team player or a junior that plays for their country.

The reason i'm saying that the Yorkshire area in general is stronger is from their results in ICC events as well as ICT events and from what i've heard.
Plus one of the players that blew me of the court was given a bit of a beating by Yorkshire.

Basically, i'm just assuming that the league will be stronger