Can’t believe it’s been this long since I created the thread. I think for that competition I was targeting, I still got to the quarter final so no improvement. I did pick up being the Masters Champion for men’s doubles in HK along the way. Can’t remember when exactly so maybe that’s a post covid memory loss thing. During the pandemic and after having covid. I became very deconditioned with weight gain. I also suffered a knee meniscus tear that was quite debilitating. Nearly went for surgery and then one day, there was a click inside the knee. Strangely, the knee got better and I got back full range of motion back without pain. The orthopaedic surgeon reviewed again and changed his opinion to no surgery required for now but early osteoarthritis is on the cards. Definitely no singles anymore for me and that’s something one just has to accept. The last half year, things have become much more settled re covid and knee. I decided I can try to be a bit fitter and try to lose the covid era weight gain. I have started off with Muay Thai group training - I felt that could improve overall fitness at my own pace. Knee has held up quite well. I also started playing badminton doubles games again. I’m absolutely atrocious compared to my previous level. The group I am playing with have had training before and competitive experience. I don’t think I should be behind them a lot but on court, it’s been really difficult keeping up. My body just isn’t reacting and moving after playing a shot and no rhythm. My feet are stuck to the ground despite doing some agility exercises and kicking exercises. Here’s where it gets very interesting. I found my old Personal Trainer and have had only two sessions. It’s only been basic stuff with some squats, deadlifts and cleans - however the trainer has been looking closely at asymmetry in my lifts. The left non- dominant side was very imbalanced so I had to make a conscious effort to activate the left leg to make a balanced lift. I am only playing badminton once a week but my game these two weeks has significantly improved with respect to movement. I can really feel my left leg helping me drive my movement from the ground to reach the shuttle making me much more confident. I feel am able to use my agility better. Of course, there’s a lot of areas to work on but I am really surprised at such a difference- it can’t just be a coincidence with going back into the gym. Before two weeks back before starting gym, I was doing body weight squats - was not specifically thinking of my left side. I don’t think these were helping me that much. The weight that I have started off with squatting is a very modest 40kg. Cleans are only 30kg - nothing macho but enough to show the imbalances. I don’t know if this is related but these two weeks I also felt able to to do double sessions in Muay Thai. My duration of maximum intensity is definitely down (can’t beat the effects of age) but I can go on for longer. Hopefully, my knees will be able to tolerate the exercise. I’m carrying nearly ten kilos more compared to precovid. I really want to lose the weight!
Do it slowly over time I'm surprised that you have been doing Muay Thai. Isn't that lots of kicks and tough on shins / knees?
You are wise to be easing into things. It’s a common mistake to see some progress and immediately overdo it. Hope your knee and fitness continue to improve so you can reach your former level, soon.
10 kg?!? Looks like life has been good to you. Going back down to your precovid weight would surely help your knee pain. Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk
All that high calorie Chinese food. Did you know a plate of cha kuay teoh is provides half of your daily calorie intake? Luckily it was only after I finished the plate then I found out. 10kg is a lot though.
I think if people spoke about this more often and the causes of their injuries then it'd happen a lot less. For example, I have rarely heard people talk about overuse injuries and training errors. And how their overuse injuries happened. Sometimes people ask saying they have some soreness and they don't know why. But we rarely hear of people saying they know what they did wrong I have managed to avoid an eye injury thanks to me wearing glasses. And I have managed to avoid one cause of a back injury , thanks to the fact that a coach I saw years ago had a ruined back and would tell everybody that when going back it's a risk to arc your back back. (Also If doing that a lot with volume as badminton can be, then it's a risk). Also training can be a huge risk re volume that just isn't spoken of if eg lunging for an hour and if you have something that evening too that you don't manage to cancel I do think some sports can have far less problems. Tennis I am sure has less problems. Because shoulders back and eye isn't an issue. Slipping and ankle injuries and leg injuries are an issue in tennis. I never had any injuries with tennis it's such natural swings. But it also depends on level. When I did tennis as a child it'd have been very beginner level. At a beginner level , sports are much safer. But at a higher level. With extra training requirements and the dealing with relatively very demanding things from the opponent and pushing things to limits to get it. I do think badminton can be done safely. Both training and matches but I just don't think there is much knowledge on it out there. Coaching manuals don't mention overuse injuries, training errors ,. Overtraining . In weightlifting they worn a lot about overtraining but it's also very rare anybody does overtrain. But in other sports it happens more easily. Especially if training one thing a lot then having a club evening. And a club evening could have been booked weeks in advance. At more beginner level often you can just turn up at a club and PAYG and you go if you want to. Whereas in badminton at a higher level. It has to be weeks in advance and if for whatever reason you haven't cancelled then it's extra risk. Sometimes one might be better off quitting when it's going well and counting yourself lucky if you did And could be worth changing sports before any overuse injury arises. And to help stave off overuse injuries. But it is terrible that badminton coaching manuals don't speak about overuse injuries and training errors. And booking a club session weeks in advance. And maybe not having time or opportunity to cancel when getting too near it. In my case more of a tournament situation in an evening so once there having not cancelled, couldn't really sit out. What you are saying is true and is not spoken about enough at all. So it's never really getting addressed as well as I think it could potentially be. If it were spoken about more then it might be addressed and resolved to a better extent, and then in future people could speak of oh back in that decade a lot of players , particularly ones with a lot of training, were getting injured. But that's not happening unfortunately. And it's not spoken about enough. I also don't hear about research being done into muscular issues that don't show up on MRIs, some of the overtraining issues that athletes get. (some of which show up on MRIs and they get surgery, but some don't show up on MRIs) And what places are investigating that. That kind of research could help all sports at once and outside of sports too.
Now used to it It’s quite a popular fitness activity in Hong Kong amongst all ages. The coaches make you punch and kick bags, lots of body weight exercises and only very short rest periods. They recognise there are a lot of people who just want an activity to keep fit and cater for that. This group will hardly do any sparring and the fine details of technique are not covered. There’s another group of clients who are more serious and will take one to one coaching to learn techniques better. Some of these might practice sparring or seek further challenges. Overall, it’s an efficient method increasing your cardiovascular fitness over a short period of an hour. It’s especially good for Hong Kong where people tend to live busy lives. As a weight loss activity, it didn’t have any effect for the first couple of months. I was doing twice a week sessions and playing once a week badminton. However recently I am starting to see some effect with the following: - Muay Thai sessions have to be two hours long. I suspect the second hour is where you really start to burn calories. I’m considering mixing it up with some group boxing class for the second hour. - better examination of my intake. I’m calculating a rough daily calorie intake with the MyFitnessPal app (can input Chinese characters for food). Aim to be roughly negative in calories by the end of the day. Charting the intake also makes me more aware of how much I can eat and less inclined to snack. - the gym session as described previously - it allows me to perform more with the other fitness sessions.
how's that for your knees? Joe Rogan has had multiple knee surgeries , no doubt from kicking bags. (though he has a record for the power of his kick). Good technique wrecked his knees! It could stress the knee but differently from badminton
Yesterday had a couple of badminton coaching sessions! I have been asked to help some senior (age wise) players to develop their game by entering small tournaments with them as partners for mixed doubles. My legs feel stronger again and confident to jump up. I still am a bit wary on deep lunges. This lesson I did a routine for mixed doubles as the back player. The shuttle is lifted to my forehand rear (right side) side and I use a transition footwork (left foot behind right) to move diagonally but still take the shuttle above tape height. The opponents are side defence with the man on the left and lady on the right. Usually in a defensive formation, the man won’t cover the tramline so much to protect the midline area. Therefore I play a quick half smash to the tramline. The usual return will be a straight push or lift and I need to be ready with my forehand. If lift and 3/4 length, I play a second straight down the tramline shot coming forward with a right leg lunge. After this second shot, I need to immediately anticipate a weaker reply to the forecourt coming forward for a kill. I was having problems with timing the third shot kill sometimes arriving too close and not getting into a comfortable hitting zone. We worked out that after the lunge for the second shot, my feet were in a slight right foot forward left foot back stance. Changing the recovery stance after the lunge to right foot slightly back and left foot forward made a lot of improvement. My right hip and shoulder were not so close to the net and for the third shot at the forecourt, I could make a better timed lunge to the forecourt with a much more comfortable connection to the shuttle. Just a word about the initial diagonal movement using left behind right footwork. This is for when you, as the player, can’t leap up sideways and backwards for whatever reason to take the shuttle earlier. I really enjoyed my session feeling that my movement was getting back to being like a badminton player and also learning a new set play.
Curious to see the limits, I have been loading up more physical activity. Last Wednesday, three days ago, I did a Muay Thai session and boxing session. Then in the evening, played badminton. My legs were too tired to push for shots so I cut short the session. The next day was a mandatory rest day. But I went back into doing a double session of Muay Thai in the gym yesterday plus a fair amount of walking . There’s still a weight loss objective to achieve. Today it’s Muay Thai again plus a friendly badminton match. Sunday is a tournament. Unfortunately, my weight seems to be rather static this week even though I can do more physically. Perhaps some of the fat got lost and muscle added instead? Or I have been underestimating the food intake and not been in negative calorie deficit. At least it’s not going up….
Always difficult with weight lose. I struggle a lot with that. Busy life and lack of consistency is my Achilles hill. At the moment iam just up and down with my weight.
It was under 5000 two days ago! I had quite a good last weekend. I took part in a friendly match with a socially competitive atmosphere. Two teams and lots of doubles and mixed doubles played - winner is the one who wins the most ties. A little bit of competitive pressure was exactly what I needed to give me an incentive boost. The next day I played in another tournament - a parents kids doubles tournament. There are a few of us parents who play competitively and kids play competitively as well which makes for some interesting games. Some of us dads are getting less mobile after the covid years *ahem* It’s always been good matches for myself and daughter against the strongest dad-daughter pair with three setters and tie breaks in past years. Quarter finals and onwards will be played next weekend so I will try to do a bit more training on court to prepare for it. Last week, I switched my Muay Thai to boxing sessions. I was getting a little bored of MT because it’s basically a MT fitness session and not much technical training. It’s served a good purpose getting my cardiovascular fitness up and I thought why not try boxing. It turned out to be really enjoyable and good reaction training needing agile body movements to dodge punches. I don’t know if the boxing had anything to do with it but when I turned up at my regular badminton session I felt a lot of improvement again. This time, it wasn’t on my legs like previous weeks but more speed and control on body movement changes. It’s a big difference to that feeling of moving through treacle that I had six weeks ago. I notice the rallies are a bit longer, I can take the shuttle earlier and thus able to start to control the shuttle better. There’s less feeling of continually being under pressure. Probably the whole improvement is multi factorial - better strength, more agility, more time on court, doing routines on court etc I plan to have a couple of coaching sessions next week for the tournament preparation. Yes, it’s a bit last minute but let’s see what happens. Still have my longer term objective of getting rid of post covid weight gain. Now down approximately 3kg from the end of January (approximately four weeks).
Had one coaching session - we worked on rhythm. I had to time my split step and then reach out left or right to get to the shuttle for shoulder height shots. I am a bit weaker technically on the forehand side and landing my right foot before hitting the shuttle. A legacy of a late learner is when I move my arm to the right, the arm moves into but i hold the handle tightly. Thus, I can’t use my fingers for the stroke, end up using the whole arm and messing up the shot.
That is also me. When approaching a serve return and other situations like yours, I have to tell myself constantly to hold the racquet looser.
Funnily enough it became such a mantra to hold the racket more loosely.. When I was a beginner I was told I'm holding it so tightly they can see I am strangling the racket . I felt like I couldn't be holding it any looser! At one point I said to then point it out to me.. they said look see . (It was whole speaking to them I might have been gripping my racket tight in annoyance!) But that didn't mean I was when I'm playing. When I saw a coach many years ago, when still beginner level, and did some overheads, they (rightly) said I am holding it too loosely and should never hold the racket that loosely! When it comes to drives then, at least now, can't comment on back then, I'd always have it right re looseness/tightness cos the whole technique depends on having it right. I can't imagine doing drives any differently.. Even then maybe it could potentially be(rightly) a bit tight then(rightly)looser for a little bit backswing, then(rightly) tightening. Drives are so easy to practise and get coaching on. In contrast, with overheads the complexity is through the roof. Especially as there can be many slight differences between players With drives I haven't noticed any difference in the way fingers are used. And it's a thing that coaches can demonstrate slowly too. Unlike with overheads where if a coach demonstrates it slowly the demonstration is probably wildly different to what they actually do, as we see from many old YouTube coaching videos!
One of the boxing coaches (Filipino) mentioned that English boxers in general are quite stiff and tries to get me to relax more. I felt that also roughly translates to badminton players as well. England players do pretty well in doubles which is more strength based style. This is not talking about the top international players.
