Explosive power

well, i find that my sudden acceleration greatly improves after jumping rope... maybe you do something similar...

 

cheung

hard to say, u r comparing abilities based on different body condition state. Until u are trained and conditioned as much as he is, no conclusion can be drawn at the present moment between genetics and the muscle fibretype ratio. However, u did say that u presently have more explosivenss in certain area than him meaning that u might have more fast contracting muscles from genetic.

 

I think its based on intensity

 

Do you "bounce" when waiting for your opponent to make a shot? This quickens sudden acceleration speed as well as reactions. I find that I return smashes and generally react better to the game when "bouncing."

Of course, if this guy you know also "bounces," then it is a different story as to why you have better sudden acceleration.

Phil

 

There are so many factors to consider even in something as simple as acceleration from the centre

build....height , weight , body type

technical....posture, pre tension(bounce) ,do you push one or both legs, angle of knee bend

Physical...strength,speed, explosiveness

Even mental...relaxation and anticipation

 

If just moving to the 4 corners doing drills, quite often depends on the individual. Some are just not too motivated to run them. Actually I was one of those.

I would think other situations could help to evaluate more precisely; i.e. reaction from base to return an unexpected fast drop for example.

 

Yes, partly fibretype, and the more FT (Fast Twitch) fibres you have the faster your legs will be. Conversely the more ST (Slow Twitch) fibres you have the slower you will be but the longer you will endure. Some people are born sprinters, others are born long distance runners. There are also fibres which can be both FT and ST, and these are the ones you can train to give you more speed and jump height.

If you are doing on court training, this may be a better way of training the FT fibres than weights. Until you get to the later stages of weight training, the type of training you do may in fact slow you down. It is only when you get to a plyometric level that you will begin to speed up. Early stages are all about endurance and basic strength. Once you have these you can take the strain of plyometric weight routines & exercises. No point in doing hundreds of rim jumps and depth jumps if you are going to cause injury!

So, unless the guy you are talking about has done plyometrics, there is no reason as tho why you won't have a natural advantage.

Question is can you last as long? Better to keep jumping 2 feet all game than 3 feet for half of it. Better to be reasonably fast for the whole game than very fast for half of it.

 

When you mentioned this, first thing occurred to me was an old team mate of mine. He is 1 year younger than me. He started to play badminton at about 10. His father was an average player. My friend was never coached by any professional coach and as a junior he won all individual inter school tournaments. He beat all other players from other schools, includind those who were coached in clubs by ex-professional players. What make this friend of mine more interesting is that he does not even practice regularly then. He would fool around with his friends who at best were at beginners level.

Though young (about 15/16) at that time, can't say his opponents were weak. I would say they were about intermediate level players and have won against HK top 2nd division players in exhibition games.

My freind reactions are very quick. He seems to be able to return strong smashes even from very good level players - Hau Wang Chang or Wong Man Hing for example. When my coach came and played a game with him mentioned that he had the potential to become a national level player if he were trained in China.

Cheung, probably my coach's opinion about my friend could also apply to you!?