I don't wish to sound melodramatic, but here are some of my thoughts for you, Quacky, and I want to preface them by saying that I gave some very deep thought to whether I should open my mouth or not. What the heck; here they are. That body you are abusing in a way, happens to be yours. In fact it IS you! Abusing? Yes. I am quite sure you know the risk you are taking by playing in your present condition, but you persist. You won't get a body replacement. I think you already know that. You and your body (which IS you) will be "together" until you die. For better or worse. Death is I presume, a long way off. What shape do you want to be in your later years? Besides your body, you also possess common sense, and a sharp mind as evidenced by your post. Those faculties should tell you how to hone your body to serve you better, for longer. I could go on, but I will not, out of deferrence to the sensibilities of the other readers. But suffice to say, Quacky, I don't think much of your wanting play in your present condition. Sorry if this is too strong a post, but its what I honestly feel and think.
Hey quacky, After reading the posts my advice would be to stop badminton for 2 weeks and focus on strength,fitness, & flexibility exercises. From your posting i think you said that, you're skinny but can't do a pushup atm. That to me says that you are stressing your body when ever you are playing. I would definitely say that you will be much less prone to injury if you take 2 weeks off badminton and work on other aspects of your body during that time. I am not a personal trainer but my badminton game has improved dramatically in 2 months , not because i played more but because i was doing 1hr of strength & fitness exercise 4-6 days a week. So minimum i would try this. -10 minutes of light running / jogging with 1 minute of intense running during the middle everyday and before you play(if you cannot do a full 10min, break it up into 5min + 5min) -Strength training for your lower and upper body. You don't need heavy weights , but you should do about 30minutes worth. -Yoga flexibility & balance is pretty important for this game and something most people neglect. Get a yoga video and do it once a week. Somethings you can do for strength training that doesn't require equipment. Upperbody -pushups with your knees on the floor. If you can't do 1 pushup , you should be able to atleast do 2-3 of these. -pullups with 1 leg on chair. use 1 foot to assist you with pulling up. give enough assistance so that you can barely do 10. -punches in the air - this will actually really help you with swing speed. do jabs, hooks, uppercut, and practice the smash swing. 15 reps each (do not use weights for this unless they are under 1lb) some lower body workouts -1 leg squat with no weights. -lunges (if you do 20 on each leg you will feel it even with no weights) if you find it too easy then grab 2 heavy textbooks -sissor jumps (basically have 1 foot in front of the other, jump and do a 180 in the air so the front foot becomes the back foot) great for developing jump smash. I'm sure you can find more on some website but that's pretty much the basic. -5-6 days do the 10minute run. -every other day do some strength training for at least 30minutes. -Yoga video for 1 day of the week (don't do strength training on this day). -Every 4th week take a break from the strength training for that entire week but continue doing your 10minutes run and 1day yoga. After two weeks try playing badminton again. You might feel a little bit tired if you play the day after your strength training that's normal. At this point you can continue to play badminton and do these exercise daily. If you feel after a few months your strength is satisfactory, you can cut down the workout to 1day a week.
If your feet is infront of your body, naturally you will be touching your heel. If your feet is a the back of your body or straight up, then you should be on your toes.
I am sorry Cobalt that my attitude cause you concern. Thank you for being honest. I understand what you are saying in and out of the text. I'm going to go ahead and put my racket down and let my shoulders heal properly. According to my own untrained tests, there is no tear yet. Hopefully the nurse will confirm that this Tuesday. And so I'll do what it takes to get it to heal and enjoy badminton after my arm is ready. In the meantime than spend my badminton class hours watching the more experience players. I still have mind's eye to play badminton. It will be a great opportunity to learn to anticipate opponents =).
I'm apologize Extreme, I do not understand what you mean. Vipjun: Thank you for taking the time to detail different types of exercises and strengthening regiment. I have decided to put my racket down and have a self-valuing mentality in terms of my body. I will bring up some of your suggestions when I talk to the nurse to see which I can incorporate into off-court training.
Quacky: you will not regret your decision! As for the yoga, which I agree is a great suggestion: Here is a link to a good demonstration of an exercise routine that many consider to be the most complete, and has been practised for over 5000 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qV8bNyuyds If after a few months you can get to the next one, you are good to go! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U11OwyWaNc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F51c4WUDT5Q&NR=1 Remember though, to do this routine in the mornings, but only after you have completed your morning "routines."
quacky, a few things... 1. Spontaneous bruising is not normal. It should not occur from muscle contractions or mild contact. Do you have other unexplained bruises on your shins and forearms? Prolonged nosebleeds? If so, then you should get your blood tested for things such as low platelets or clotting disorders. 2. You seem to be quite motivated and focused on learning to play badminton well. That is good. Your hard working attitude and analytical mind will help you go far. Unfortunately, as you say, you're limited by your current body, fitness, and health. As cobalt is concerned, so am I that you don't become too impatient and push your body too fast and too far into injuries. Badminton skills are developed over years, not months. I highly recommend that you hire a good coach to teach you proper techniques, strokes, footwork, fitness, etc so that your body can do what your mind wants it to do. 3. Do you mind telling us your specs, eg. weight, height? How many push-ups in a row? Sit-ups in a row? How much can you bench, curl, squat? This might help us understand you and suggest areas for improvement.
[FONT="] Hi, I just want to go back to the footwork subject, as I am afraid that you missed a very important fact, thought the other already emphasized it several times, it is important (I might be a little too perfectionist for beginner level). Balance [/FONT][FONT="] - balance of balance. If you are like an elephant, to heavy and slow, if like a feather, you loose balance, and the explosiveness of your footwork. So balance it, of course depending on the situation. This is why I don't like the "skimming/floating" metaphor, as I am afraid you then go too much feather thing!!! Also you might have this probably common misconception that badminton is like running/flying around on the court, or even worse that it is like running a marathon! When running a marathon you will find a continuous flow, that suits you for a long distance, thought you might vary the speed a bit, once a while, contrary badminton is for very short running/jumping/stepping, lots of small spurts with varying speed, or you might see them as series of disrupt "jumps"/footwork (thought badminton players talk about flow too, lol, sorry if I got you of balance)! [/FONT]
Dear Visor, 1. I have been told by my classmates that it is weird to have non-contact bruises, but they and I have shrugged it off. I have unexplained bruises randomly since I was a child. Others have told me I probably bruised it and didn't realized. But at least a few of them, I'm certain I did not. As I have gotten healthier they occur less and less often. In particular, since I begin badminton, they often occurred before I knew of warm ups (which I am not sure if I do them right or not, I just doing skip rope, jumping jacks, shadow movements, and slow start and stop movements based on what I read here). As for blood tests, I have always tested to be extremely healthy in blood tests. I also had ultrasound of my heart a few years back and it is in excellent condition. It's perplexing to my the-doctor as well, since I had breathing problems but no physical signs in my lungs, heart, or blood. This issue got resolved and now I am able to wake up in the morning, can focus quite a bit more, do not have narcoleptic-like symptoms, and my memory has improved dramatically. I have had a history of forgetting every little thing -- it was comical but very sad at the same time. I guess in a way, having breathing problems turn my systems, particularly my mind, off when my oxygenation levels went low. 2. I am delightfully motivated; it's a joy to be able to play and feel alive. My body has somewhat lopsided fitness, in much the same way as my mind. I have decent stamina. I do not remember getting tired in my badminton class (though we are 1/2 beginners and 1/2 intermediates with no drills or specific instructions so it's a bit light). I guess the reason I think I have decent stamina is because several of my classmates would get "run out of gas" while I am still quite ready to continue yet I'm usually the one that moves the most on the court. In addition, I'm also willing to do the same movements repeatedly without playing any games. Since I can't practice the same movements at home it is a blessing to be able to practice in an open area that doesn't endanger my knees (wooden flooring on court versus driveway/sidewalk). Lastly, in terms of intelligences, I often score poorly on linguistic aptitude but well on spacial and visual, thus I often need to ask detailed questions to understand foreign topics. If I do not, I tend to take comments too literally and I have found that people often do not say exactly what they mean. This is dangerous for me since I do not pick up on the clues. An example of this is how I followed the lunge instruction online from a random "fitness expert". Much of what is important was left out and so I hurt my left knee. However, despite my physical clumsiness and any communication difficulties, badminton is quite motivating in itself. 3. I'm 5'6'' and 148 lbs now. I am male and others describe me as thin. I used to be "too bony" but I have since then fleshed out a bit. I have slightly longer legs than the average person and a shorter torso. It's not always noticeable to others, but I can tell since I can be slightly taller than my classmates and yet when we sit down I'm suddenly looking slanted up to talk to them. And before I was able to begin badminton again, I did some fitness training using the "200-crunches" and "100 push-ups" program. I started at around 10 sits-ups and 3 push-ups. And after 8 weeks, I finished the 200 crunches and was at ~45 push ups on the program. Now, I stopped for a while on those. And after my arm hurts I can't do any push ups at all. I recently learned about the plank exercises and I can do that for about 1.5 minutes. I feel that I probably have muscle imbalances, but I don't know enough yet to determine the details.
quacky: 1. Blood tests. Your doctor has to specifically look for clotting disorders; a simple blood screen will not detect them. 2. You should still hire a coach to help you out with strokes, technique, footwork, fitness, etc. You can't properly learn badminton skills by reading and watching videos. 3. Proper warmups are lots of stretching of your leg, arm, and core muscles. Not skip rope, shadowing, jumping. 4. It seems like your muscles are comprised of slow firing fibres, instead of fast firing ones. The former is good for endurance and stamina, whereas the latter is good for speed and explosiveness. Both are important, but you need to develop more fast ones because they are very important in badminton. 5. Your BMI and fitness ability seems excellent from your description. Just make sure you eat enough proteins (eg meat) and carbs to buildup muscles and provide energy.
I would actually like to say that I have to disagree with the both of you with regard to a good warmup! A good warm up is one that STARTS by getting the blood moving - for example some gentle skipping or gentle jogging, and then continues to make blood flow through your body. Simply doing stretches as visor suggested is a fairly poor "warmup" by itself and can lead to a lot of injuries IF i am understanding visor correctly. I think visor is implying static stretching is the way to go as a warm up for your muscles -i.e. leaning against the wall to stretch your calves, pulling your arm across your chest for your triceps etc. These are NOT a good form of warm up. Badminton is not static, it is full of explosive movement, and static stretching does not get the blood flowing properly. At the same time, if you go into skipping as fast as you can as a warm up, this is also bad, as is shadowing at full speed. The best warm up, in my opinion, always starts with a gentle jog that becomes a gentle run, some chasses, running backwards, some lunges. Quacky - you could add in some skipping if you wanted, but I wouldn't go with the jumping until you are "very" warm. Shadowing is an EXCELLENT warm up, as it prepares you for exactly what you need. However don't do it FIRST, do the other things first. These are known as dynamic stretches. The point is you should not necessarily FEEL your muscles being STRETCHED, but you should prepare them for playing by helping them to move, slowly at first and then build up the pace. These dynamic stretches I have talked about (the jogging, chasses etc) are only for your leg muscles. Normally a gentle knock up (with the shuttle) is ok for your arm - start at the net with net shots, then move on to pushes, then drives, then drop shots, then clears, then half smashes then full smashes. AFTER you have played, then you do the full body stretching - where you should FEEL your body stretch. This is to promote muscles growth and healing after lots of exercise. I hope people understand my explanation of warming up and then after playing how to stretch. Matt
Damn!!! I couldn't skip if my life depended on it! That's how un-coordinated I am. It's a miracle I don't keep falling over on the court all the time. :crying:
Thanks MSeeley, I understand what warm ups are now. I created my routine based on some of the threads here were people talked about cycling and running to warm up plus doing a lot of clears. But I realized from your posts, this is unhealthy to start off like this. I liked how you described the knock-up as a progressive movement from gentle net play to pushes to drives then gentler overhand movements. That is going to be how I'll do it when my arm heals. Maybe before that I'll do some gentle wrist swaying motions without a racket then some arm waving motions. From some of the threads, I got the impression that jogging is not going to activate the right muscles for badminton so I never added it to my warm ups. But I probably missed the reasoning behind jogging. In the past, my heart would race with any type of activity (even gentle ones) and I would sweat all over. Now, it takes me a long time to get my muscles active. They feel cold and hard unless I do a lot of aerobic activity before playing. Maybe 15 minutes of skipping -- moderate pace. Is this natural? I do sense that if I start with a light jog then slowly picks up speed, by the time I get to skipping, i won't need to do much at all. Should skipping be done before or after shadowing? I really like shadowing because my joints feel much better on days I do it versus not. Visor: 1. I looked up blood clotting tests and went through my blood tests for the last three years, I did not find any test for PT/PTT/INR. I'll have to bring this up on Tuesday with the nurse. 2. I'll save up and get a coach once my arm is heal. It's not helpful to have a coach now is it? 4. Wow, I just learned more about my health. I am reading up on fast and slow twitch muscle fibers right now. You said to develop fast twitch fibers. Would you give me some examples? 5. I used to be 117 maybe less than 2 years ago at this height. I think I might have been in the healthy range as well but at the low end. 18.9 BMI to 24.3 BMI. Pretty cool. Cobalt: Hehe, I can only do the simplest skipping pattern.
I wouldn't consider 5'6 at 148 to be very skinny, actually i think you are in the "healthy weight" band. None the less i have to agree with Matt, and actually i probably need to incorporate more into my warm up after reading his comments. For me i do static stretching first everything that visor said. And then afterwards i do a 10 minute run.
MSeeley: Point well taken re warmups. In our social club plays, we take about 10 mins knocking up on court starting with gentle shots to clears. Then we're laid back in our first game and treat that as a "warmup" game, where we are only playing maybe at 70% capacity. Hence, I considered static stretching as my warmup before I actually warmup on court.
quacky: Plyometric exercises are what you need to increase your fast twitch fibres for greater explosiveness. After all badminton is all about speed, not brute power.
I looked up a few plyometric exercises. And most of them are jumps or movements. Are there training for the upper body? Does the upper body need fast twitch muscle fiber development?
For upper body, you can take a vollyball / basketball and trow it against the wall. 1 handed : Overhand motion, sidehand motion, underhand motion, 2 handed : passing motion overhead, sideways etc. trowing punches is considered polymetric as well. Anything that involves fast explosive movements with none or light weights is considered polymetric.
You're right, most of the plyometric exercises are for lower body, which is helpful for footwork. But I'm sure there are some badminton specific plyometric exercises for upper body. Maybe like pushups with a clap... Perhaps MSeeley may know more about this...
I am awed and humbled Between Matt, Gollum, Visor and Vipjun and some others, we have a panel of guys who can put together a bestselling handbook for all that most people need to know/do to get their badminton (and physical selves, I dare say!) in shape. I feel privileged to be able to read so much information coming forth, so clearly, so thoughtfully, from people who take so much time to just share their knowledge out of love and regard. Gentlemen, I am humbled and truly thankful. And must thank Kwun for providing the ideal environment for this to happen!
