Hey JR, Watched you guys in the Thomas Cup finals. Excellent work and gutsy performance! I reviewed the match a few times on the DVD and notice that you guys were hopping all over the place. I also notice that Sigit and Candra did similar explosive footworks in their All-England finals against Halim and Tony. What are the specific drills and method to train that kind of movement around the court? Your positions seems alot more central and closer together... more like mixed formations except the positions are interchangeable between partners. Almost like playing against a four handed giant in a singles game. How did this formation evolved from the classic front/back formation? Also who goes for the sides, if it lands between the two of you on either side?
Maybe i can help a little? In the 2001 all england finals, it is noticeable that Candra is always doing this 'hopping' movement. This is there for explosive purposes. For example, he's always slightly up and down, then when the shot is played it also allows for an explosive moment as you are already moving, if you watch the racket, he also shakes that slightly too for the same reason. Also, the bouncing is always there to keep you on your feet. A way of training for it? Not too sure, just pratice i guess in games for those big tournaments. Multi shuttle may help? What do you do Jonas? Shuttle placement? Well, if you are front and back, and the shuttle is placed mid-court then it should be the person behind that takes it. This is beause if the net person leaps back to take the shot, he doesn't really see the net or the opposite side and can make an error. If the person at the back takes the shot, they can clearly see where the people are etc. If you are sides, and the smash comes to the middle from one of the corners, then it should be the person on the diagonal to the shot that takes it. If the smash is coming from the middle, i have no idea! Something you shoud arrange between you and your partner. Of course, Jonas is the expert but thats my two pennies worth!!
Hey Matt Ross, Thanks for your take! I do know that loading the muscles prior to improve movement and reflex actions. I am wondering if the Danish team has any particular exercise routine to strengthen those legs, or drills that facilitates coverage from side to side. I have started to do some muscle loading (bouncing) whenever I am on the defensive. Makes it much easier to move around, but oh so exhausting and really tensed me up.
Leg endurance is what you need then, can be done in a number of ways: 1. Shadow badminton 2. Hill Sprints 3. Lean up against a wall, arms out infront of you parallel to the ground. Then squat so you can feel some tension in your legs, hold it for about 1 minute 30 seconds and then slow progress up.
hi cappy75, apart from what matt has mentioned, there's four other exercises that i'd recommend: 1) ankle raise 2) skipping (double step or tripple step) 3) squats 4) squat jumps (focus on the height of your jump, not so much on how much weight you carry. you can increase it gradually though.)
Hi Cappy, Following up what Matt Ross said, I'll add that when I am just doing chores, brushing my teeth, or just watching TV, I just squat down and hold that position as long as I could. Used to be only a few minutes, but now I'm approaching 10-12 minutes at a time. I do little hops too every minute or so to keep from totally exhausting the muscles and just falling on the ground hahah.... It has helped in one area of my game, and that's the jump backwards to get a flick serve. I can get a much stronger explosion from the T (which I'm really hugging) now that my muscles are stronger from the squats. If you want a drill partner to hussle you around, gimme a call.
Hey 604badder, Heh! Thanks dude, I just might take you up on that offer! Anyway, I am well acqainted with the wall-sitting exercise. Used to incorporated that when I weight train a few years ago. I think 3 sets of two minute is all I did. Really strengthens the muscles and ligament around your knees. Also thanks to Iwan and Matt for their suggestions, I will incorporate some of those stuff when I start weight training again. I also hope that JR could shed some light into the Danish team's footwork training.
Footwork Hey Cappy75!! In Denmark we do a lot of very fast footwork. That is inspired from China. More than 10 years ago we brought in two chinese coaches one for Copenhagen and one for Aarhus in jutland where I lived at that time. Zhang Qiang was a doublesplayer and he had a lot of succes with the chines national team. He once told me that he never lost a match in Europe when he played. He also told me that I could be no.1 a lot of times so he gave me confidence to train hard. He brought some new trainning methods with him from China and it´s for example doing different kinds of excercises down the hall and back. It will be too difficult to explain what kind of excercises but in general it´s very hard for your legs because there is a lot of explosive moves. Maybe Laybourn and I can auction a training lesson in the up and coming Auction section here on the Badmintonforum and show you some of the moves we do??? Quick footwork very explosive moves is our way!! JR
Hey JR, Thank you for your response! This does shed some light into your team's transformation. Was the whole doubles contingent under training from the Chinese coaches or just you and Lars? It's just simply amazing to watch you guys move around the court. In the first game, you went toe to toe with Cai/Fu. Matching speed for speed! And it didn't take you guys too long in the second game to roll over them... a definite case of experience over power. I am really inspired now... probably gonna try a poor man's version of your training method. ie. old fashion squats and jumping-jacks! Thanks again, JR! Time to build up those quads!
Im guessing what Jonas means is a regime called the 'pyramid'. What you do is you start off running up the hall, and then back. Once you return, you do something like tuck jumps, of lunges etc, and then you run up the hall but this time you do it TWICE, then do some exercise at the end, then THREE times etc. Once you reach say five, you work your way down. So from running five times, to four times until you run once and then stop
Now that there's bandwidth offered by some BF'ers, it might be worth it to have demonstration videos collected and compiled for this site, much like the Photo forum. So, Matt, how bout a short MPG clip of your explanation? -dave
Hi, Sure, i would love to but the problem is getting video footage onto a computer? I'm not computer literate, so if any one knows please PM me and i'll see what i can do. Matt