hey i play highschool badminton, and as a result, mostly play on basketball/volleyball courts.. theres two types of wood floors i play on, long 2x4 pieces of wood, or little 5inch by 5 inch squares.. i heard its harder on ones joints playing on the long wood (lack of a better term..). This true? it feels more hollow, as the squares have a more solid feeling.. personally, i feel far more tired after playing on the long wood.. opinions?
I think there are two types of wooden floor - solid and sprung. The one with little squares will be solid, so sitting on a hard concrete base. The one with strips may be solid or may be sprung, that is hollow underneath with the strips laid across joists, themsleves suspended across the hall. To find out for sure ask the caretaker. I prefer sprung floors. Since they have some give they are easier on the knees, etc. But you probably get more power on a solid floor since the floor is not flexing under you. John
My school is also using sprung floor as it willn not hurt ur feets there much compare to solid ones but solid ones are more good for smashing as u can push urself up to the air and smash w/o landing flat on the ground. As sprung floor is more flex, when u jump down, ur feets seems to feel funny...
Its annoying playing on wooden floors. I've played on the professional surface only once when i was in Indonesia but i have to play on the wooden surfaces here in Singapore. The best way to tackle this problem of sliding that may cause extra work of tiredness is to wear badminton rubber soled shoes.... This may sound stupid but it works... Wet the soles of the shoes and put them on. Then rub the shoes on the floor surface until you hear the screeching sound. This allows more grip on your movements around the court.
Found this thread from the search Here's a discussion on wooden floors. Quite surprisingly, a few people don't like wooden floors. It seems more to do with the surface being slippery. That, I beleive is more due to the preparation of the court. If the wooden floor gets waxed regularly, the grip is there. Also the floor has to be swept of dust. Personally, if you give me the concrete floor, that's harder work on the legs. why? Because wooden floor has a little spring in it after you jump so making work of movement a little easier. One facility I know has a synthetic surface which actually absorbs the energy from your bounce. As a result, I feel really tired playing on that, even with less than two hours playing time.
I'm not sure about waxing the floor for we had bad experience with this. Maybe it has to do with the 'preparation' as Cheung said, but with contract workers at our Club to do the cleaning and probably not trained properly for the job, this has proved to be a problem. Our sprung courts are definitely kinder on the knee joints and are preferred by most of our members, who are mainly working adults in their thirties and above. On a few occasions when the courts were freshly waxed, many of our players fell on the slippery surface. Play was abandoned after a few unsuccessful rallies to keep one's balance. Therefore given a choice, I rather not have the wooden floors waxed as they can prove to be dangerous. But to have the floors regulary swept of dust, this I totally support. One of the most annoying sights on the courts is colour markings, especially black ones, on our light beige-coloured surfaces! This is despite notices being posted to remind players not to wear marking shoes.
Not sure if 'waxed' is the proper word. Can't tell what it is but don't think it's wax. It's a layer/coating applied to the wood surface which makes it shiny and not slippery. It serves to protect the wood surface. I had this problem before when a newly built indoor sports facility had it wooden floors waxed. Playing badminton then was dangerous and anybody venturing a bigger step would surely slip. Until one day the management, after many complains requested assistance from experts who recommended this coating.
I had the fortune (or misfortune) of playing on a newly and beautifully waxed wooden floor. Being so used to slightly slippery (read "dusty") floors, I executed a sudden change in direction in my usual form and my shoes gripped the floor so well during the stop that the momentum in my upper body caused me to topple over! It took me completely by surprise but it was an interesting experience. The floor was actually still a bit sticky from the freshly dried wax and being so clean. Anyway, personally I feel that I lose quite a bit of height when jumping on floors that flex. I think the best feeling is when playing on one of those professional court mats on top of non-flexing floor.
A Plyometric reference that I read deliberately warns its reader not to do these exercises on a hard floor/grond. Those exercises primarily involves lots of jumping. You can compare that to jump smashes in badminton.
I agree with Cheung that preparation makes all the difference. But it just seems that every time i play on a wooden surface, it's not properly maintained. It could be that my opion about wooden floors is a bit influenced because i've played for many years on a carpet floor (!). But i like synthetic floors most .... a 'good' one that is, because in synthetic floors there are also lots of differend kinds. I really hate dust on floors. Happily i play in clean places most of the time.