So I play abt 3-4 times a week (Mon-Wed, and Friday) usually for abt 3-4 hrs (9-21sets per session) at night. Due to this heavy playing schedule, I do not know where to fit in training sessions while still maintaining recovery. What would be the best way to include training in this situation? (Assuming you can tinker with the schedule for both play and training) To clarify, training here mostly relates to badminton training like footwork, drills but mostly multi shuttle feeding.
Intersted in peoples views on this as i have a similar problem in that its difficult to fit in fitness training without feeling fatigued when playing due to little recovery time..
The only way to to be able to play that much at full capacity and not be too tired to play well next time, is if playing is extremely easy compared to the training you do e.g. your "training" is actually heavy weight training and extreme plyometric endurance training, such that a bit of badminton is a piece of cake. But if thats the case, it will also mean you must sacrifice the performance of at least one of your badminton sessions per week such that you are playing whilst you are not recovered because you have had a difficult workout/training session that day. So thats your challenge: how to become so strong that badminton becomes easy? Well you need to do things harder than badminton, but by definition you will probably be sore for a few weeks (at least) whilst you do that training. So there is no answer whereby you can do all that badminton and be fully fresh in the short term, but it is something where you could make that achievable in the long term by prioritising intense physical conditioning in the short term. I can't give much advice to you beyond making sure you stretch properly, eat plenty, have a good injury prevention training regime for your whole body. The more mobile and stronger and more flexible you are, and the better your athletic endurance, the easier it will be to recover from badminton. Good luck
In my case.. My playing session are with players of very similar level . So there is lots of intense / close games (the kind that makes you really tired even after 6 sets). Also, to clarify, what I meant by training mostly relates to badmintontraining like footwork and multi shuttle feeding drills etc (updated my first post for clarity). Although your point would still apply.. How would you or fellow BCers schedule and balance it? Less play time?? Fit in training during non playing days?? Any real week schedule example??
It's called readjusting your time schedule. You also have to accept probably losing some games first to improve in the long term because your games is changing. What is your aim? Quality over quantity or quantity over quality. I would advise reducing one of the sessions and getting a trainer/coach to help you with multifeeds and footwork drills twice a week. If one hour of training one-to-one is not tiring, then increase to one and a half hours. I agree with @MSeeley that strength and conditioning training helps tremendously. I tried it last year and many people were saying that my body movement on court looked very stable. For your information, I play in competitions so a pretty competitive level. I (and some opponents ) was quite surprised at how much it helped. Well worth reducing some badminton time to do some work with weights, gym, plyometric exercises.
Yeah, so to clarify my point is: In the short term, it is not possible to schedule in training such that it won't impact your badminton playing. What i hope you can understand is that if you are physically strong enough, is that even though you had very close games that were very tiring after 6 sets, you may be completely recovered by tomorrow morning because you are strong enough. Thus, you could fit in ANY amount of training and playing in whatever schedule, because your high rate of physical conditioning means that your recovery is exceptionally quick. So I believe there is no way to maintain 4 days a week of playing AND adding in training, AND being able to recover sufficiently that you can play each session at full capacity... unless your recovery from badminton is almost instant (i.e. over night). In any other activity: recovery requires 1 day off from your sport. Therefore, you could not train once a week and play 4 times a week and have one day off in between each session: there are not enough days. The most you could do is 3 or 4 sessions a week, which includes your training i.e. reduce playing by 1 and add 1 training, or reduce playing by 2 and add 2 training. The exception to this is if you are willing to have both playing and training on the same day. This means if you train and play on the same day, then you would have tomorrow to recover (and be ready for the next session 2 days later). This would obviously mean however, that either the training or the playing on that day would suffer significantly, depending on which you did first. This is fine if you prioritise training (i.e. do training first), and just accept that you will be really tired when you play, and will probably lose a lot of games in the short term. OR you can get rid of a recovery day, so that you are not fresh between days, then you must make sure you take a 2 day break at the end of the week to recover fully... but your badminton was probably getting worse all week. So lets summarise the options: To be fully fresh all the time: Train or play 3 or 4 times a week, following each day with a day where you don't play at all. This means you have to reduce your playing volume. To be fully fresh most of the time: Train or play 3 or 4 days a week, but fit 2 sessions onto some of the days (so you actually play or train 5 or 6 sessions a week). This means you increase playing volume, will recover because you have days off, but the days on which you play twice, the second session will be rubbish cos you're tired. To only rest once properly at the start of the week: Train or play on 5 consecutive days, then have 2 days off. You will be worse as the week goes on. My preference: Train or play 3 or 4 times a week, and fit in 2 strength and conditioning workouts onto some of the days. I personally would do them just before you play as a warm up, or in the morning assuming you play in the evening. After 6 months of training, this schedule would make you strong enough that you could easily play 6 times a week with no need to recover because recovery is so quick. But you will be sore a lot for the next 6 months, and faster and stronger as a result once its over. Simple. This option helps you play the long term improvement game combining physical training, skills training, and game training. All the other options forget the physical training... which was the most important.
For anyone familiar with my other post . Unfortunately there is just no coach in my area and I have been continually searching... To make up for this.. I'm going to do drills that I can find online..record videos of it and review for correction (thinking of posting them here as well for the same reason). As for gym/weight training, I am actually doing that on Saturday. Used to do it 3-4 times a week before I restart playing badminton a year ago and found that 1 session a week provide a balance which allows me to be fully fresh when playing badminton and maintain Strength (but unfortunately not increasing them as well). Not the best of solution and to be honest..and I wish i could incorporate 2 sessions without affecting badminton . So I definately agree to the benefits of weight training.. And if you can tell from my response above .. The focus is definately on quality over quantity for both training and play. Note for clarity.. My gym sessions in the past and now focus on strength development. They are barbell workouts like squats, bench press, Deadlift and also pull up and dips. Focus was always 85-90% RM (1 rep max) 5 reps for 3 sets. You can see how that can affect badminton even the day after..
Definately leaning towards your recommendation . The only thing missing in my week is badminton training this why it's my focus on this post as I was trying to find balance to play, gym and also work on improving badminton skills like footwork, stroke, technique etc.. Although I do agree that one gym session on Saturday is actually not enough either
You're doing the right thing trying to find a balance. The problem is you have 3 potential goals: 1. Get strong for badminton 2. Mindful practice to get better at badminton 3. Social play to get better at badminton You must prioritise one of them i.e. it must be more important than the others, and you must be willing to sacrifice the others a little bit to achieve the first. I think the starting point for you would be to prioritise strength, then training sessions, at the loss of 1 or 2 game sessions. Here's an option: Swap 1 playing session for one training session e.g. Change monday from playing to training. Add 1 gym session e.g. Also train in the gym on a wednesday. This means your wednesday badminton will be worse, but thats ok because you are progressing your strength in the long run. So this means you do the following: Monday - Training (fresh) Tuesday - games (pretty fresh) Wednesday - gym in the morning, badminton in the evening (tough day) Thursday - rest + stretch Friday - games (fresh) Saturday - gym Sunday - rest + stretch Now you can speed up the whole process by adding in a low intensity bodyweight circuit on tuesday and friday (e.g. some bodyweight squats, some bodyweight lunges, some static lunge holds, some core exercises like hollow body hold), which is just 10 - 20 minutes of really gentle exercise that allows you to move and stretch in some important ways, whilst increasing core strength. Good luck!
Thank you for your input.. I find it invaluable and will give this schedule a go after my mini tournament.
To play 3/4 times a week badminton matches + fit in some badminton training seems like a lot. Like it has been mentioned above (and you already commented you will give it a go) swapping one or even two matchs sessions for some training sessions would work just fine. Personally I do more drills than I do matches as I don’t progress playing matches and my technique still need a lot of work. With 3 sessions per week, I spend 70% of this time doing drills or working on a specific stroke, the other 30% for practice matches.
