Hi all, I recently bought a Grip Exercise for training for forearm, since I was hoping it would help my weak Clears and Smashes. Does anyone have any experience with these? Are they effective for increasing forearm strength? Gary
they are effective for strength but IMO technique is more important. pronation of the forearm is more effective than wrist strength from my own experience.
Sorry, when I say wrist I mean all the muscles that those grip exercisers strengthen. I would never argue against have more strength, just that you should not expect a miracle boost in power. I myself am pretty skinny but have a good hard smash. This comes from tecnique more than it does from forearm strength. Of course having both can probably create even more power.
Yup. the whole package matters more. Ying Yang kinda thing. from your body, to the shoulder, arm and to the finger tips.
If you want to exercise the correct muscles then what's usually recommended is to sit, rest your elbow on your knee and with a 5 lbs weight in your hand rotate the hand clockwise and counter clockwise. This will help strengthen the specific muscles.
I'm assuming that you have sufficient strength in your muscles to do normal everyday things. If that's the case, I'm inclined to agree with druss in that technique is the important part. While you can improve your strength in certain muscles, technique will allow you to transfer your body weight and force effectively into your shots. This involves more than just the muscles you are working on. I think being relaxed and allowing your body to move with technique (i.e. timing, coordination, rotation, etc) is the starting point. Building strength into the movements after that will help to enhance your power shots. However of you start with building strength in your muscles but end up using the wrong techniques, you could: 1. Injure yourself as you use the wrong movements => very very bad 2. Use too much energy in your shots => reduced stamina 3. Eventually hit a limit in muscle strength where building extra muscle reduces effectiveness Gollum's Badminton Bible is a good place to start on techniques. The articles on Footwork and the Grips Guide may help you with your clears and smashes. I have found this thread on Body Kinetics for power strokes to be especially useful for understanding forearm rotation. And of course, practice and have fun
For those who don't want to spend money on a grip exerciser, I have an alternative suggestion. Find a spray bottle, fill it with water, then start watering plants with it. Do it till your bottle is completely empty. Haha.
