Just like the topic says. Is there any way to increase my running speed? Whenever I bike and run, it just increases my endurance. Now that my endurance level is to my expectation, I would like to increase me speed. Any help is appreciated.
Hi Nanashi & all the others! In order to increase your speed, you will have to do very short intervals of high intensity combined with quite long breaks. Your muscles can only work without producing lactic acid for about 7 seconds(!) and your drill should not be longer than that. Apart from that, one should only train quickness in the very beginning of a training session, since your muscles will need to give 110%. So, whenever practising quickness, do a good warmup, then train quickness and then go on with your regular training. An example (for badminton-specific quickness) You start in your central position on court and then do the quick start-stop movement into 6 corners, lunging into all of them except for your backhand corner in which you try todo a malaian step. Do this AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Back in the court center you have a 30 sec break before the next run. Do this 6 to 10 times in a session. ( this depends on your fitness level) Remember: In this drill, your movements needn't be perfect, all that counts is that you go fast, fast, fast. Don't go the full distance into the corners -> only do the first step out of your central position and be sure to push off quickly. One word of warning: If you want to train quickness you will need quite a good overall fitness level, which you should have achieved earlier in the season by regular 45min jogging sessions or something like that. Without the proper fitness level, you will become tired so quickly during a game that it would not make any sense at all. Hope this helps Bokor
I agree fully with Bukor. I often do shadow work on court but find it is best to build up the intensidy gradually, then after 15 minutes go on to racquet skills. Skipping is a very good plyometric exercise and if done regularly will improve speed off the mark and transitional movement, plus help keep you on your toes.
hi, A good way of building power in the legs and endurance is doing a high intensity exercise like interval sprints. say for eg .. you do a sprint for 30 seconds at 80-85% intensity and then jog or run the next 30 seconds at 40-50% intensity. do this 30sec combination(a total of 1 min per pair). start with say a 4 min workout that is 4 pairs of sprint-run. do the same 4 min workout during the next session.After that in the next session increase the 4 min workout by 1 minute.Try adding 1min to every other workout.When u reach say 14-15minutes u will have terrific endurance and power as sprinting buils up the posterior chain of muscles in the body.This one way of improving other than proper weight training.
If I remember correctly (I still have the reference, but just too lazy to dig it up now), your calf muscle is also very important in generating speed, especially the explosive start you need during receiving serves, or directional change. Here's one exercise I remember I tried before, and seemed to help: Do on the spot jogging, without lifting your toes (just left your heels). Can you picture it? Do this "virtual" jogging at as fast a pace as possible. Another one is weight training on your legs. But use moderate weight that you can repeat something like 15-20 times in relatively fast pace (as opposed to the muscle building scheme in which you use super heavy weights that you can only lift a few times in each set). This helps train the fast-twitch (spell?) muscles.
If you are referring to speed on court, this is a very interesting topic and something I have previously referred to in my postings. Whilst the above exercises are important, there is a correct way to move around court using footwork which will increase speed. Some important things are: 1) correct centre of balance, 2) correct positioning of feet, 3) know when to shuffle step, 4) be able to change acceleration - fast and slow. 5) relax your body Point no.1 - Take a look at Zhou Mi's picture on Worldbadminto.net in the article on Danish Open. Notice how her shoulders are forward. This position encourages easier movement in all directions. Even after playing a stroke it is important to try to keep the shoulders forward when returning to base as you may need to produce a sudden movement in a difficult direction. Many people unconciously stand almost straight up with their shoulders very high after playing a shot. This makes moving difficult. Point 2. Having your feet perpendicular to the shuttle makes the initial step difficult Point 3. Sometimes you will need to take a proper step as the first movment from the baseline, sometimes it will be a shuffle step if the shuttle lands closer. Point 4 & 5. These two are interelated. To move fast you have got to be relaxed. If your muscles are very tense all the time as you move around, you expend a lot of effort and yet get tired very easily. Timing of when to tense and when to relax takes some time to learn and can only be taught by somebody who has learnt this before. There are some other points as well like choice of shot to play, type of movement to each shot. Just as a guide, after playing a shot, you should be able to reach any part of the court in 3 steps and most parts in only two steps. When I first heard this, I thought it was impossible for me to do this. After some months of training, it became possible..... Good luck!
