Have anyone tried playing badminton with a squash racket? Does it help in improving your strength? I'm planning to train with it and hope that I can improve my strength especially on my backhand lobs and drives. Btw I used to be a competitive squash player, so I don't think I will break my wrist or something like that! But I've never tried hitting badminton strokes with a squash racket.
Never I've tried playing squash before, it was fine. Not that great though. To tell you the truth, I hated it though. Some people told me I was very good, lol, asked if I even went training! lol. I told them it was my first time.
I haven't seen anyone playing badminton with a squash racquet, but I have seen people improve their strength by using a tennis racquet to knock the birdie dowards when they are standing very close to the net.
I've played a few sessions with a cheap tennis racquet... the thing was both massive and huge. It's really hard to get much power of that thing when hitting a birdie so I'd stick to badminton racquets It feels really heavy at first, but it's easy to get adapted to it after a few games. I was mostly restricted to clears and drops as I don't think it would have been too good for me to try anything else. When hitting, I also didn't use any wrist at all. The racquet must have weighted 2-3 times what my badminton racquet normally weights. After 2 hours of casual play, I switched over to a badminton racquet, and felt a HUGE increase in the power of my shots. I was hitting far harder than I would have if i started off with the badminton racquet. My muscles felt sore afterwards too. I think it's great for working out your badminton muscles, and it levels the playing field if you are playing against begginners. If you don't mind looking like a fool and won't try to swing too fast, I'd say go for it! Squash racquet is probably better than a tennis racquet for this, but i've never used a squash racquet for this. Odd though, I've tried the "extended warm up" methods using some older heavier racquets, and didn't felt the extra strength I felt before. In fact, my game ended up being much worse for some reason. Using a heavier racquet doesn't automatically mean a good idea. The pattern seems to be using a much heavier racquet (about twice as heavy) and swing it without wrist, for best result. Go ahead and see what works for you.
Yes I used to do this occasionally, mainly just practise strokes that requires smooth swings, nothing that requires rapid acceleration or deceleration since I can really live without a wrist injury (and it'd just be too embarassing to say I had a sprained wrist ). However there is one guy in the club who uses his old squash racquet (none of this 170 gram stuff, this is at least 250 g) and plays every single stroke, even driving with guys that are using typically light badminton racquets. This guy is a freak though, his forearms, and arms in general are huge, and he's an excellent around player that still can move well, easily the best doubles players in the club, and one of the best singles players. Oh I also remember using my squash racquet a lot to maintain arm and wrist strength when I damaged my achilles, just sitting in the chair watching tv, hitting clears and lifts.
Re: Never OMG, I forgot to post about my answer.......I've tried playing badminton with the squash racquet before, it's worse than playing badminton with a cheap and heavy racquet. lol. Anyway, it's up to you....if you don't mind all the weird looks you're going to you.
played with a tennis racquet once.... not good on the elbow... doing drives with a squash racquet is good... work on the wrist..
I know I used to swing tennis racket just to improve my physcial strength (wrist + arm) when I was off court. However, I never really use tennis or squash racket in badminton game. I was worried about hurting myself. Plus, I don't think heavy racket can ever give me the necessary quick response.
If you really want to gain strength, for example after using a squash racket to play, you could try to play basketball instead. It also works out your arm and wrist and you will feel a large increase of your arm strength. You also would not be lugging around a squash racket. That sounds better, isn't it?
I have done some training with a squash racket. My opinion is that the best exercise is to have an oponent with a 'normal' badminton racket and let him or her try to smash your eyes out. The only thing you do is short smash returning. When you change after a couple of minutes to your badminton racket, you will notice the improvement. I do not like other exercises, your arm starts to hurt after a while and it is more powerplay than preciseless...but for smash return it is excellent!
Its supposed to act as wrist exercise. Strengthening your arm and all that stuff. But i don't see the point playing games with it, i mean exercises ok, but not games. It doesn't seem logical to me, why play with a racket thats too heavy? It'll mess your timing up. And mongoose, yes, i have seen someone play with a squash racket. Where? The same place u did. If the rest are wondering, it was Aman Santoso.
This is an interesting discussion. I am very, very new to badminton, but have played other racquet sports (tennis, squash, and racquetball) for 35 years, including over 10 years of ranked tournament play in racquetball, so I may have a few things to contribute. One thing missing from this discussion is weight training. Concentrate on developing upper body strength with light weight, fast repititions. Also consider cross-training. For racquetball, I would play squash for foot speed; tennis for forearm strength; cycling and running for endurance. The stroke mechanics of badminton are very different from these racquet sports, but the use of a squash racquet seems appropriate. For cross traning, has anyone investigated volleyball? I would think that the jumping (especially near the net) and spiking would simulate similar badminton motions and develop forearm and wrist dexterity.
I can see how using a squash or tennis racquet and practice swinging with it can help build wrist strength but actually playing with it? why would you do that? just seems like you are asking for an injury to your wrist and other parts of the arm. I mean you don't see people using baseball bats to drive a ball in golf.
I'm not advocating playing with it, particularly without strength conditioning to avoid injuries as you point out. using one to go through the motions as opposed to actual play makes more sense. The baseball bat and golf analogy does not hold. For baseball players, they use weighted rings on the bats for warm up and some strength. Since I don't golf, I don't know what golfers do for conditioning other than the 19th hole. I suppose they could play cricket.
my baseball and golf analogy was just a silly attempt to say using sports equipment from one sport for another. I pretty much agree with using squash racquet and tennis racquet to increase your wrist strength but using it in an actual game is well, risky. If it works out, like the guy that was mentioned earlier in the thread, more power to him.
Re: Re: Using a Squash Racket to play badminton FYI, Aman Santoso is a former Singapore national player who specializes in doubles. Used to partner Patrick Lau or Hendry Kurniawan.
I personally like to use a squash racquet at home (when i'm lonely thinking about badminton), look at the mirror and practice my overhead shot slowly and make sure its smooth... i think hitting with a squash or tennis racquet for badminton could result in injurying your wrist.... maybe if you can get a really light squash racquet, you can do drives with it.... I heard people string light squash racquets with badminton strings to practice drives...
