High Performance Badminton E-Book

Mark Golds

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 197

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Aimed at all aspiring badminton players, High Performance Badminton is packed with advice on how to improve your game, including an extensive section of tips from star players. Covering both the physical and mental approach, and nutrition, and with comprehensive sections on skill development, training, and tactics, this will be invaluable reading for players and coaches.

Leseprobe

High Performance

BADMINTON

Mark Golds

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2016 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Mark Golds 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 930 8

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Martin Andrew, without whose help this book would never have been completed. He has made a great impact on my life as a friend and has made a great input into this book. My thanks go to the following people for many reasons – from support over the years to putting up with me on court: Rachel Marsh, coach; Nick Golds, brother and coach; Paul Golds, brother and TrionZ; Liz Austin; Andy Griffiths, fitness consultant; James Paybody, photography; Debbie Rowarth, physiotherapist; the English National U17 Squad, 2014; and Ann Golds, who introduced me to the wonderful world of badminton. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge an English National Coach, who was my inspiration to become a coach myself; he had the ability to inspire players and a knack of making things easy to learn as a coach and as a player – thank you, Mr Les Wright.

CONTENTS

About the author

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Physical Approach to Training for Elite Badminton

Chapter 2 Mental Approach, Preparing the Mind

Chapter 3 Lifestyle Approach (Scheduling and Nutrition)

Chapter 4 Shot and Movement Skill Development

Chapter 5 Training for Performance and What It Takes

Chapter 6 Tactical Play

Chapter 7 Performance Routines on Court

Chapter 8 The Coach’s Role

Chapter 9 Developments in the Modern Game

Chapter 10 Tips from the Stars

Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Golds

Mark’s second book (his first was published in 2002), focuses on performance badminton and is suitable for players of all ages who are interested in developing their skills and winning more matches.

Mark was born in 1965 and grew up in a sporting family who were heavily involved in badminton in Cheshire. He has an older and younger brother, who both played for the county. Mark represented England as an U18 and accumulated almost 200 caps for Cheshire at senior level, winning numerous county restricted titles in all three disciplines.

Over the past thirty years, Mark has gained extensive coaching experience and is currently a full-time coach working with players of all levels from beginners through to international-level juniors who have gained medal success in Europe. He is highly enthusiastic, with an energy that motivates and inspires the players he coaches.

Mark has continued to develop as a player and has started recently to compete with considerable success on the International Masters Circuit, winning national, European and world titles in both doubles and mixed. In 2013, he became the world champion in over-45 mixed doubles.

INTRODUCTION

Badminton is a sport like no other and it is one of the most popular in the world. In some Asian countries, it is in the top ten sports, while in Europe it is well-established and played in schools and at sports clubs. Badminton challenges sports such as golf, cycling and basketball in participation figures. Historically, the top performers had come from Europe, especially Denmark, England and Sweden, but in more recent times – since the mid 1980s – the Asian nations have closed the gap and overtaken the European players. The leading nations currently include China, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan and Denmark.

At the highest level, badminton is a fusion of power, speed, strength, agility, precision, athleticism, mentality and many more superlatives than we would care to mention in a short introduction about the fastest racket sport in the world.

When played at other performance levels, the nature of the sport is no less challenging and delivers competitive environments for all ages, from young juniors to senior masters.

While all sports at the top level require high levels of personal endeavour, the world’s top badminton players are without doubt among the fastest athletes in the world. They have the ability to cover short distances, from the middle of the court to intercept a shuttle, at incredible speeds for the duration of a match, which can often last for more than an hour.

The movements involved in badminton are so dynamic that it requires very organized footwork forwards, backwards, sideways and diagonally with control and speed, linking it to a high level of agility. Players need to jump multi-directionally and recover, as well as reaching low to retrieve shuttles hit downwards rapidly by opponents. Players need to be very powerful while maintaining a light body weight to make fast, explosive agile movements, stopping and changing direction for each shot played, and then recovering to be ready for the next shot.

As previously mentioned, badminton is a global sport. In many Asian countries, it is their number one sport with top players being well known and recognized when they walk down the street.

Sport Governance

The sport is governed internationally by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), an organization based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

‘The BWF is empowered by the International Olympic Committee and the BWF’s 180 members to govern the sport of badminton worldwide.’

www.bwfbadminton.org

The BWF has five continental bodies, each of which is the governing body for the sport in that continent.

The Badminton Europe Confederation is based in Denmark. Its role is to lead on the regulation, promotion, management and development of badminton on the Continent. It was founded in 1967 and now has fifty-two member associations.

The Sport

Badminton is an Olympic sport, making its competitive debut in 1992. In many respects this involvement alone altered the structure of the sport and raised the standard of so many countries. At a development level, many countries are starting to play the game and increase its popularity and awareness. The BWF membership has risen noticably since badminton entered the Olympic arena, up to the 180 member associations we see today. At the performance end of the spectrum there are far more countries competing in the top level tournaments and successful players are now coming from many more nations. For example, when Carolina Marin from Spain won the women’s singles in the World Championships in 2014, this title had only been won by a European woman once since 1978 (Camilla Martin of Denmark in 1999). Prior to this win by Marin, Spain had not been considered a country that could produce players to challenge at the top of the sport.

Badminton has become a highly popular spectator sport and catches people’s imagination whenever they watch it for the first time. On more than one occasion since it first appeared in the 1992 Olympics, badminton has seen viewing figures rival the blue ribbon event in athletics, the men’s 100 metres final. This is mainly down to the popularity of the sport in Asia, but also pays tribute to the advancements the sport has seen in other parts of the world.

The Fastest Racket Sport

Badminton is the fastest racket sport. Advancements in television broadcasting and technology now bring us some amazing facts and statistics about sports. The speed at which a shuttle can travel off a player’s racket head is far higher than that seen in the other racket sports, although many non-badminton people struggle to believe this fact.

The high level of physicality of players has enabled scientists to increase their knowledge about the biomechanical functioning of the body and link this to the advancements in technology in rackets and strings. It is a combination of all the factors above that has made badminton such a high-octane sport compared with others.

Tennis and squash are probably the sports closest in similarity to badminton, but a difference is noticable in the speed at which a shuttle can be hit compared with a tennis ball or squash ball.

Tennis shows top recorded speeds of 263.4kmh/163.7mph for a serve (Samuel Groth (Australia) at an ATP event in Busan, South Korea, in May 2012). (

www.wikipedia.com

)

Cricket has recorded the fastest bowl of 161.3kmh/100.23mph by Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan), during the cricket World Cup in February 2003. (

www.wikipedia.com

)

Squash recorded the fastest shot at a speed of 284.8kmh/177mph by Cameron Pilley (Australia), set in Amsterdam in April 2015. (

www.squashinfo.com

)

Badminton’s fastest smash during gameplay has been recorded at 332kmh/206mph by Fu Haifeng (China). However, in experimental testing conditions, Tan Boon Heong (Malaysia) has recorded a smash of 493kmh/306.4mph. (

www.guinessworldrecords.com

)

Badminton singles or doubles at the top level could be considered and viewed as a highspeed, ferocious, gladiatorial battle combined with the finesse, control and touch of an artist at work, and linked to the strategy of two chess grand masters in a world final. Tournaments throughout the world see matches lasting from a minimum of around 11 minutes, if the two players are noticably different in standard, to some that may reach around two hours, if players are close in ability and physicality.

In this book, we delve into what is required of your body and mind to become a higher level performance player, regardless of your current standard. The book provides a broad-based view of technical and tactical perspectives and a chapter covering the considerations for players who are training for performance levels. Additionally, we have gained insights from some of England’s top players over the last two decades on what they did to get the best out of themselves.

For the Player

Training methods and programmes will be covered to highlight what players must undertake if they are to achieve elite performance levels. The mental approach to the sport is also known to be a vital part of any player’s make-up. Hence, a chapter will look at how players must be single-minded, committed and motivated to achieve success by taking the responsibility for their training and performances while working hard and learning with and from their coaches and teams. Players must be inquisitive about new methods and also be able to stand back and see what works well for them.

For the Coach

The coach’s role is to assist a player by nurturing their developmental needs. They must have a vision of what the player needs to work on to get to the next level and then to their optimum level. A good coach will have a strong drive for their player to achieve their full potential. A coach will need to understand their player’s individual requirements and deliver them in a way that is personal to a player’s needs at that time, remembering that every player is different. Successful coaches have programmes that are player-centred. They have a passion to be consumed by the sport and are as inquisitive as the players with whom they work. They are cool headed and thoughtful, so can provide their players with the correct coaching in the heat of battle and when preparing for it!

All these skills a coach has to acquire to maximize a player’s potential will be outlined in the book.

Are You up to the Challenge?

The authors of this book have been involved in the performance side of playing and coaching badminton for a combined total of more than seventy years. Therefore, they have a clear understanding that every player is an individual and that every coach or person involved could have a different perspective and viewpoint. This is, after all, an individual performance sport!

The exciting challenge ahead of the reader, whether they be a player, coach, parent or part of a support team, is to take the framework of ideas and knowledge in this book and adapt it to themselves and their players to make it work for them as they move upwards in performance levels.

It must be remembered that in performance sport every player is different, with varying requirements and abilities; the intention of this book is for it to be used as a guideline and give thought-provoking ideas to enhance a badminton player’s performance.

The world’s top players are all trying to be the best in their disciplines (singles, doubles or mixed). They all have varying styles and hitting techniques, they have different training programmes that are tailored for their individual requirements, and their mental and tactical approaches will not be the same. However, they follow similar guidelines in their approach to high level performance badminton.

Enjoy the read!

CHAPTER ONE

THE PHYSICAL APPROACH TO TRAINING FOR ELITE BADMINTON

Badminton involves a lot of lungeing movements, which engage the quadriceps and hamstring muscles of the thigh as well as the gluteus maximus, the muscle located around your hips, and calf muscles. The adductors and abductors, located on the inside and outside of a person’s thighs respectively, are also involved heavily, especially when lungeing in multiple directions.

Badminton also involves lots of twisting and reaching movements, which place a significant demand on a player’s core muscles – upper and lower abs, waist and lower back. Hitting the shuttlecock uses the muscles of the chest, back and shoulder, and the degree of involvement depends on the shot being played.

It is important for the badminton player to look at the nature of the sport and what is demanded from them at the highest level with regard to their fitness and training. A player’s fitness is made up of numerous different components and is incredibly complex. All players and coaches should take a balanced approach to training and remember that every player has a different body composition and should have their own programme to work with and different targets.

Training can be broken down into the following sections:

Off-season: June to August

Pre-season: August to September

During season: October to May

These periods may vary depending on major events such as the Olympics or world championships and where a player is living, specifically Northern or Southern Hemisphere.

Listed below are all the aspects of physical training that a player will work on in off-season and pre-season, and continue to develop and maintain during a season:

Endurance and speed endurance

Speed and agility

Power and strength

Flexibility

Balance

All these areas can be worked on within the gym or on court and all these training practices need to be monitored and recorded with a player’s coach.

The structure of a training programme for a player will vary depending on age, sex and discipline within the sport. Each player will adapt a regime to best suit his or her needs and address strong and weak areas. All programmes should be able to evolve around a player as he or she grows and develops.

Endurance and Speed Endurance

During a badminton match, which may last for more than an hour, a player will be required to run, lunge, jump and sprint for the duration of the game. Muscular endurance, especially in the legs, is a huge part of performance badminton. To develop muscular endurance, players must perform high-rep sets of exercises such as lunges, squats and push-ups, with short rests between sets. If a player’s legs begin to tire at the end of a match, they need more muscular endurance training. The ability to cope with the demands of badminton requires the top level players to have muscular endurance throughout a whole week of events.

Speed Endurance

Speed endurance is a vital part of playing at the top level as opponents will try to wear you down. Such endurance can be achieved by the repetition of movements required during a match that are explosive and dynamic, with short rests between each exercise. These routines must be performed for movement all around the court and be multi-directional.

High intensity shuttle runs.

Examples of speed endurance training:

High Intensity Shuttle Runs

Place eight cones or shuttles 5m apart in a square shape and sprint forwards to them, changing direction each time

Stop after 20sec of work, rest 15sec, repeat ten times

Pyramid Sprints

5m sprint, walk back

10m sprint, walk back

15m sprint, walk back

10m sprint, walk back

5m sprint, walk back

Sprints can be adjusted in distance or with rests best suited to player’s requirements.

Fartlek Sprints

This is a combination of jogging and sprinting, or aerobic training combined with interval training.

While out running, introduce a burst of speed, either over a distance of 30m or for a 10 or 20sec period. Then return to the original jogging pace

Once your breathing has returned to normal, repeat the process

The sprint does not have to be flat out all the time and can be of varying pace or distance

Fartlek training puts a little extra stress on your system, eventually leading to faster speeds and improving a player’s anaerobic threshold. A player’s anaerobic threshold is defined as the level of exercise intensity that lactic acid builds up in the body faster than it can be cleared away. This is considered to be somewhere between 85 and 90 per cent of your maximum heart rate.

Speed and Agility

Speed, acceleration and agility are sport-specific forms of power that allow badminton players to change direction and accelerate to the shuttlecock as quickly as possible.

Fitness test for agility on court.

Badminton is a fast-paced game and a player’s ability to react quickly to the actions of his or her opponent is vital. The nature of badminton is such that all performance players require the ability to change direction, twist, jump and use explosive movements. This requires agility and control.

For speed around the court, it is essential that specific body position and movement patterns are followed as these are paramount for a quick response to shots. Body position will vary depending on the situation on court but essentially it should be of one of knees bent, with weight distributed over both feet and well balanced.

In a rally, a player will need to be fully alert to make small and appropriate movements to allow weight distribution to change and allow explosive changes of direction.

Speed and agility training is made up of a number of different types of exercise:

Fast feet

Multi-directional shuttle runs

Plyometric box jumping

Speed ladder agility drills

Plyometric agility hurdles

Forward and backwards sprinting drills

Multi-directional shuttle feeds on court at high speed to improve reaction time to the shuttle

Agility exercises are usually best performed in late pre-season training and during the in-season. They shouldn’t leave a player feeling tired, so you can perform a short, sharp agility session the day before a match or competition. This will also help to improve your mental and physical alertness as the match or tournament draws closer.

Fitness test horizontal jump (sideview).

Fitness test horizontal jump (front view).

Power and Strength

Although both the racket and shuttlecock are very light, the player needs muscle power to produce powerful shots. This is especially true when hitting the shuttlecock the length of the court or when going for a point-winning smash.

If the shuttle is hit high above the player’s head, he or she may elect to jump for it instead of running backwards to intercept it. For this reason, badminton players must be able to jump as high as possible in a number a different directions and this requires very powerful jumping skills. This skill requires power in the lower body. Jumping power can be achieved through plyometrics. Plyometric exercises take advantage of the muscles’ stretch-shortening cycle, allowing for quick, high-velocity muscle contractions.

For all athletes, it is important to decide exactly what they are training for and this will depend on the sport being played and what it requires from the body.

Strength and explosive power are an essential part of the badminton training programme. General power is developed through resistance training in the gym. Badminton players can develop power by selecting multi-joint, free weight lifts and performing them quickly and explosively.

Developing a Power/Strength Training Programme

Strength training is one of a variety of fitness components that need to be addressed in a player’s programme, so he or she can make the most of their training time by performing compound exercises that exercise multiple muscle groups.

This approach means you can train all the major muscles using a minimal number of exercises in a single exercise session performed once or twice a week.

Build each workout around lower body and core exercises as these are the dominant muscle groups used in badminton, and also include exercises for the upper body. It is a good idea to combine upper and lower body work into the same exercise, so perform complex exercises such as front squats combined with shoulder presses, or lunges with biceps curls and triceps work. This will further reduce the player’s strength training time and allow him or her to focus on other elements of badminton training.

Multi-directional lunges with trunk rotation

This movement pattern closely resembles that of a player’s lunge for the return of three typical shots in a match: drops, smashes and drives. The benefits of this exercise:

It improves a player’s trunk stability through engagement of major core muscle groups, including internal and external obliques, erector spinae and multi-fidus.

Through improvement of the above muscle groups, strength and stability, shot power and accuracy may improve.

It improves a player’s ability to recover from an extended lunge position and return to base.

Multi-directional lunge – 1.

Multi-directional lunge – 2.

Multi-directional lunge – 3.

Multi-directional lunge – 4.

Multi-directional lunge – 5.

Multi-directional lunge – 6.

Alternating lunge

This movement closely resembles the lower body movement of a player’s lunge for the return of various shots. The benefits of this exercise:

It improves the strength of major lower body muscles, including the gluteus, quadriceps and hamstrings, which are all responsible for returning from a lunge position.

It will not only improve a player’s ability to recover, but also improve the speed of recovery from a lunge.

Alternating lunge – 1.

Alternating lunge – 2.

Alternating lunge freeweights – 1.

Alternating lunge freeweights – 2.

Squats

This movement builds muscles in the legs, including quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. Squats can help improve a player’s core stabilizing muscles, which will improve balance. Squats also improve a player’s range of motion in the ankles and hips, and also improve jumping ability.

Squat position.

Staggered squat.

Various grips pull-ups

The benefits of these exercises:

Improved strength and stability of shoulder joints.

They may improve a player’s shot power and accuracy through improved strength of posterior deltoid and latissimus dorsi.

Pull up start position.

Pull up.

To improve upper body strength, a player should perform shoulder presses, lat pull downs, chest presses and rows. As with most racket sports, badminton players are prone to developing rotation cuff problems. To minimize your risk of this, the player should perform medial and lateral shoulder rotation exercises using dumb-bells, cables or resistance bands. Samples of training methods could be:

Free weights

Machine weights

Plyometrics

Body resistance

Circuits incorporating a mixture of exercises

Kettlebell

There are a number of exercises a player can perform to increase his or her strength for badminton. Forward, sideways and backward lunges with or without weights will help develop lower body strength, as will squats, leg extensions, leg curls and leg presses. Develop power to increase your court speed and vertical jumping ability by performing split squat jumps and squat jumps.

Plyometric jumps are a way to develop leg strength. Plyometrics is hugely important for badminton players as the nature of the sports requires jumping movements and power to create explosive reactions in the direction of the shuttle.

Plyometric training is created when a player’s leg muscles are stretched quickly into a position, which lengthens the muscle and then contracts it immediately.

Star jumps.

All plyometric exercises are to be undertaken with maximum effort. Examples of plyometric exercises are:

Star jumps

Bounding jumping

Vertical jumps