Well, I have had shin splints for a while now, and my coaches told me to rest my leg and not run or jump for a full month. Anyways, 1 of them told me to practice swings by swinging something like a hammer since I can't really get on the courts. Does anyone know if this really works? He's a really credible coach so I trust him but I want to make sure if it really helps you out.
If you are a badminton player, you'd be better off swinging something closer to the weight of your badminton racquet
Well in a way, if I get used to swinging a hammer for a while without touching a badminton racket, I believe that once I touch my racket it would feel more lighter. Like when I swing the hammer, the longer I swing it for, the heavier it feels. The hammer is like about 1-2 lbs.
Swinging a hammer into a tire is a pretty good exercise, though this is usually done with a sledgehammer. The great thing about this exercise is that it develops your ability to deal with impact forces, something that is not dealt with by any other general upper body exercise. Something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI3KuI33DaY&feature=related
i say you just pick a place with a high roof and swing your racket. i do that a lot when i cant get to badminton courts
haha too bad I live in an apartment. hard to get to places with high roof, can't really go outside and put much pressure by standing on concrete so yeah...swinging a hammer is easy because I can sit and do stuff while I just swing it. Thanks for the help though!
Please dont swing hammer with single arm cos you will hurt your wrist. Since you mention sitting down, i suggest you to hold your racket at the end to train swinging for speed/control.
Shin Splints was a problem I had for many years. Its usually a sign that you're running on your toes ie, sprinters get it more than longer distance runners. The problem is likely to be caused more by your training off court than on. You could also try some Sorbothane Footbeds in your trainers. Try not to do too much running in your badminton shoes, these are too flat for running.
Swinging a hammer at very high speed and impacting against sandbag or other semi-solid objects are a useful way of strengthening the forearm muscles. Swinging a beat-up 3U racket with a racquet cover is an additional exercise to develop explosive forearm power.
I have tried both. Also, doing high reps & medium to low weight gym exercises build up the upper body's explosive power.
You could always take up Bricklaying. The act of transferring the mortar from the muck board to the course of bricks levelling the bed has similar actions used in racket sports.
So I picked up a racket for the 1st time in 22 days. Of those 22 days, I swung a hammer for about 7-10 days. After I picked it up, my light felt so much lighter and I can tell my swings have gotten a little faster.
This exercise helps develop your muscle for sure. But I think this makes the player drift away from the dynamics of a badminton forehand stroke. There is simply no wrist action in this move. I'm afraid the more one does it the more one forgets the wrist. After all you could have a big smash, but it would be flat, and you may lose all the subtleness of your drop shots.
what about muscle memory. swinging a hammer will probably screw you up with how hard you hit, won't it?
My smashes has gotten faster, I still need a little more work to get my clears back, but it hasn't really affected it much.
