Is it necesary to be very physically fit to play badminton? I was just wondering, because I aspire to play badminton on a much more professional level, but I am not of highest fitness. Thanks Rik
Fitness Specific fitness and adaption to the sport you play is the key. Matt - I thought you were supposed to be playing at the Bonanza tournament in Birmingham ? Sean
The level of fitness you require depends on your skills relative to your opponent's. If both you and your opponent have a good set of skills, rallies and games can last a long time and fitness will be a factor. If the two of you are very unevenly matched...well, one or two hits and the rally is over, and it won't matter. You can be a world-class triathlete, but it won't mean a thing to your game if you can't move around the court fast enough to get to the shot, or you hit it out or into the net all the time. Get out there and play, and you will find out how fit you need to be. Work on developing your skills first. A certain amount of fitness will naturally develop just from playing or developing skills.
Play to get fit OR get fit to play? I strongly believe that if you inspire to play at a higher level then you better be reasonably fit before you play otherwise you will be discourage and leave this game all together or lose your inspiration. What is physically fit for badminton? My opinion is that a player need both abitlities of sprint and marathon. Sprint running/dashing (11/17mph or better)-fast shadow practice on and off for one hour with rest time equal or less than run time: To cover all corners of badminton court in speed without losing balance. Marathon runing: 8-10mph for min 7 miles or better so you can last in three set games without feeling weak and exhausted. Above IMO should be minimum standards or upcoming players. What do the experts on this forum think? I would be very interested in learning other views.
Sean, Sorry mate, did you go? The thing is, my coaching badge is at the end of this month at the national badminton centre. That will cost me £150, and i figure the cost of a a return train ticket to Birmingham to be £60. That means £210 in one month, which my parents couldn't afford. So i had to make the choice, and i went for the coaching badge money. I would of loved to of gone though. Matt
I think being fit for the game is a little irrelevant for me. It is the fitness for the training that counts. Playing a game is one thing. Training for 2-3 hours and getting the most out of it is where true fitness comes into play.
Just to avoid any confusion, I think LiPlayer means long distance running, rather than Marathon running. 7 miles is NOT marathon running. The length of a marathon, by definition, is 26.2 miles.
Having a high level of fitness is a benefit in life that goes beyond badminton, so I would recommend it in any case. However, I feel traning for endurance should progress as the skills progress. It is first necessary to develop good footwork and strokes by means of doing drills first so the player can keep a rally going. A certain amount of fitness will come from that. Any training for endurance beyond that will have some benefit, but if the skill level isn't up there to keep the shuttle in play, the cardiovascular system will not be taxed to its full extent. I think a person will get more discouraged from poor play than fatigue. It is disappointing to work very hard on developing endurance in order to win, only to lose without even breathing hard. When you get to the point where you lose a rally (or game or match or tournament) due to fatigue, that may be the time to add extra training for endurance.
Thanks for your correction. You are right I meant long distance running. My opinion of 7 miles is obviously just an opinion for minimum capability needed to play at higher-level. A player with good racket skills, footwork and tactics may need less running ability for long distance but again you never know when you will be playing an important game against a good physically fit player then you would wish to have good long distance running ability. Many people suggest that you don't worry about improving your fitness JUST practice and you will improve. Yes but NO. It takes an awful time to improve by just playing unless you are playing 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Not many can spare such time to badminton. Therefore, in order to expedite, you need to get out and built your physical endurance first. You only need one to two hours a day and 4/5 days a week to increase your sprint/fast shadow practice and long distance running (treadmill running) abilities. Once you have BASIC fitness as I suggested in my earlier post, you would obviously acquire Speed, Footwork and Stamina- (Three pillars of badminton basic). Now when you play, you will enjoy more, learn more from training, take on to higher-level player etc.
A person, who loses without breathing hard either, is playing against much higher-level player or he is just a beginner or may be injured. Same-level players often, not exclusively, win or lose depending who is in better shape. What is discouraging to me is when you have better racket skills, good footwork, good tactical know-how but still some lower level player beat you good because after 10 points you are huffing and puffing and no energy is left in you to return his lousy shots. That is discouraging to me, I believe.
Maybe we're coming at this from different experiences. I've always placed high emphasis on my own conditioning, not only because I realize how important it is in a close or long game, but also because it is something I can work on without access to a court or gym, which I usually don't have much of. When I'm not able to work on footwork or shots, at least I can do that. As a result, I've only lost 3 or 4 games ever where better conditioning may have made enabled me to win (I say MAY HAVE because these games were against better players who may have beaten me anyway). I've lost many times to players with lesser skills because of my unforced errors or poor shot selection or execution, but never because of fatigue.
But wouldn't you say fatigue and shortage of breath is one of the primary causes for making unforced errors or poor shot selections? When you're tired, your focus, hand-eye co-ordination, reflex, will power, and mental power will all be affected, thus increasing the probability of making more unforce errors.
That's true but Edwin made a good point that unforced errors and poor shot selection often are directly related to your physical condition. In my case, as my physical condition improved, my game improved. At first, just getting to shuttle was a big deal in terms of my speed, muscle power and stamina. I used to made lots of unforced errors due to tiredness. My confidence level was very low. After first few points, I could hear my heart pounding. Obviously, I could not think of tactics when just getting to the shuttle was a major project. My rallies usually lasted only few shots and that's all. But as my sprint ability, footwork (through fast shadow practice) and long distance running (through treadmill running) improved, I noticed that I started thinking during rally-What a novel concept! Now, maybe my brain does not worry too much in bringing my body and racket to the shuttle so it could think of tactics. Obviously, my shots selection, and returns also improved. Above all, I felt more confident during game then I used to before. I still have to improve a lot more. My point was that had I known that just an hour a day exercise for improving my cardiovascular abilities, I could probably saved many months if not years of my time when I was JUST playing in hope for improving game. If there is any shortcut, then I certainly believe get fit first then play. I am not saying that you completely stop playing rather my point is that player should first concentrate to improve their fitness and when they reach a decent fitness level then they should start focusing on skills. They will save lot of their time not to mention hundreds of dollars worth of coaching too.
Sorry, but that's not the case. In fact, I make more errors early in the match when I'm fresh than later on--and I mean ridiculous errors, like hitting serves out. It's because I don't have the chance to drill or practice shots as I'd like and need to, nor do I get many chances to play singles, so that, even with a long warm-up, the first half of the first game is almost a throw-away--like an extended warm-up time. If I can get into a close match with long rallies, it comes together and I have full confidence in my ability to hold up. I developed that attitude from watching many-time US champion Chris Kinard when I was starting out in the 70s. He was a fitness fanatic and often won by simply wearing his opponents out.
I guess that we have two things in common. Passion for badminton and second our age. What is not common is physical fitness. Though I am getting there very fast. It seems that you are physically fit to play against your skill level to next higher level player therefore, it is really a mute question for you -Play to get fit OR get fit to play. When you make errors at the beginning of a game, it does reflect deficiency of either practice or worm up. I agree, these errors are not related to lack of fitness. I make similar errors at times but such errors does not upset me as much when I make unforced errors later in a game due to exhaustion and fatigue. You may agree that we don't want to assume that every other player would have similar fitness level as you have. If true then yes we all should focus on skills but unfortunately, all the places where I played, there is abundance of players who shy away from singles because they don’t want to be embarrassed. They make all kind of excuses of not playing singles though some do admits lack of fitness. My advice on this tread is actually directed to these players and players who have talents but lack fitness. Fitness alone will not make anyone a great player. However, fitness is first important step toward greatness. The sooner we take this step, the sooner we will reach our destination.
Just finished watching some badminton videos of professional players and what really struck me was their level of fitness. They always seemed to be constantly moving and adapting to their competitors. I work out 5 times a week (including a regimen of weights, sprinting, jogging, squash and badminton). I found that after competitive pick up games in Badminton, I was dripping in sweat. Playing players that were of lower competitive ability did not work up a sweat. In a competitive game, you will see almost constant movement from back to front, from side to side, corner to corner and then of course the swinging, smashing, lunging, and possibly jumping combinations. I would highly suggest to the original poster that if you are interested in playing at a professional level, that you consider playing some superior players that will make you run all over the court.
After playing indoor football after a laspe of many years, I found I could keep up with the pace. However, the next day I really suffered with muscle aches. But I can play two hours of badminton without getting any muscle aches. Fitness training has to be adjusted to the sport you want to improve in.
Hi Rik!! You can get some tips if you want on how to become better in my forum. Just ask some questions there and I´ll be glad to answer them. Jonas Rasmussen
i'd just like to point out one thing running long distance, such as Cross Country running(on the road or on grass) is totally different from running on a tread mill. Tread mills are by far easier to run on and less tiring in my opinion this year i started running cross country at my school and it was a lot harder than my experiences with a tread mill. how? its more tiring, you control the pace, you're actually going somewhere (and u just can't stop cuz walking home will take forever), there is resistance at your feet, you have to cross roads, and by god its always cold in canada! i suggest anyone who wants to run long distance try out both the tread mill and the cross country. i did approximately one month of cross country and i found that it helped my leg muscle endurance a lot. i'm now a lot less tired from footworking my way around the court than i was last year. be sure to stretch before you run, and don't drink too much water! might get cramps!
