US Junior Badminton

back

K. I. S.  Fitness For Badminton Juniors
By Russ Bowles  St. Louis, MO
Email: Russellbowles@gmail.com

The USAB Junior Committee requested that I address the topic of fitness for our junior badminton players. There is some apprehension that juniors from other countries may have a higher level of fitness than U.S. juniors. I agree there is needed improvement in the fitness level of many junior athletes.

What can coaches, motivated juniors and parents do to uplift the level of junior fitness?  Here are my suggestions to advance your strength, power and even endurance. Caution, there is really no quick fix, (it is year long journey to just begin) so please read only if you have an open mind and are serious about your personal fitness.  My purpose is to lay out a functional course of action for “the coach” and the “high energy junior” to boost the level of junior fitness.  

My discussion presents a “K. I. S. Plan,” a Keep It Simple Plan to encourage fitness for badminton juniors. The information is functional, but suggests an academic work-out applicable to advanced level juniors, their faithful coaches and trusting parents. If we plan ahead, fine-tune our nutrition, and cyclically integrate certain fitness strategies with on-court activities, then we can peak our performance at pre-determined times and achieve our goals.

Each junior is to purchase a notebook for the purpose of a training log. To begin, record comprehensive information about your daily meals. The amount and type of food fuel ingested into our bodies not only relates to our current level of fitness, but to our long-term health.

Has everyone read “Fast Food Nation” or “Chew On This” by Schlosser and Wilson?”  Could there really be animal poop in that hamburger? Meals from “deep fried” fast food merchants can only add to our consumption of trans fats, add to our body fat stats and surely clog the arteries. Read the food package labels and determine if they meet your standards. During our junior years we set the stage for our adult health and well-being.

Would you purchase a fine sports car and replenish its tank with contaminated fuels? Meticulously record in your logbook all the food you consume over a typical week---what you eat, how much you eat, and the method of preparation for the food: example, deep fried in fat, grilled, etc.

•  What is in those fries and burgers?
•  How much saturated fat and sugar do you consume?
•  What about the dynamics of hydration, carbohydrates and proteins?

Through a balance of carbohydrates, proteins and healthy fats the motivated junior athlete can boost the energy level.  Beware of those energy drinks without first identifying the ingredients. Guarana or even large amounts of caffeine may bring sensations of energy, but also unwelcome results if you are selected for a drug test. Once you have completed a one-week diary of day by day nutrition, please go online to the U.S. Department of Agriculture website http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov/ ------

The “MyPyramid Tracker” (that is the correct spelling) is a nutritional and physical activity assessment tool. The function is to evaluate information on the quality of your diet and physical activity. After inputting a typical day's worth of dietary information, you will receive an evaluation by comparing the food you consume to the most current nutritional guidance. This process may require about one hour of data input time. 

The results depend on your preparation and the input of precise data into the Pyramid Tracker. Enter age, gender, weight, and height into the website. To give you an even better grasp of your diet and energy balance over time, you can register with the website and track what you eat up to a year. This information is used to give accurate results about the food used to fuel your body and your physical activity status.

The physical activity assessment tool evaluates your activity status and provides the energy expenditure for several levels of activity including badminton. The Food Calories/Energy Balance feature will automatically calculate your personal energy balance by subtracting the energy you expended from activities (badminton) from your food calories/energy intake.

Let’s go beyond the worn out philosophy of “no pain, no gain” training for athletes. A proven strategy to enhance fitness and on-court performance is to integrate performance goals with the concept of detailing the oncoming year, and then dividing it into training phases.

The concept of cyclically sequencing training phases and activities is based on the best thinking in sports science. One of the wiser junior badminton coaches I have encountered was Ram Nayyar in Vancouver. He employed a Canadian based strength and conditioning professional to design a junior fitness program. The focus was core strength and joint stability of the junior athlete. In addition, he utilized the concept of an Annual Training Plan for certain junior athletes. Your job as a highly motivated junior is to meet with your own coach and write out an annual training plan.

The plan will include penciled-in competition dates and even social activities over the next fifty-two weeks. The well tuned plan allows for the manipulation of training phases along with change-ups in intensity and volume of activities (intensity and volume have inverse relationships), targeted towards your performance goals during select times of the year. The end result is to peak out your performance at the most important tournaments.

Achieving measurable performance goals is not determined by how much a junior may sweat in the weeks just prior to a big tournament, or how hard a junior may work or how much time he/she devotes to hitting birds, but rather “when and what” activities are done and “how they are manipulated” that determine outcomes on court. 

The outcome-based training plan is a cyclical integration of activities to include the inverted relation of intensity and volume of activities throughout the year. The plan is a calendar-like flow chart that includes tournaments, training schedules, holidays, exam times, birthdays and especially the family holidays. 

To set up the process, get ready to spend some dollars and invest in a gift for your coach! Visit a local Borders Book Store and seek out the General Fitness shelf. Then look for the author Tudor Bompa.  His latest book is titled “Periodization Training For Sports.” Dr. Bompa explains how to use sequenced workouts in order to peak by manipulating different training phases and energy systems. He is considered one of the world’s leading specialists on techniques of peaking athlete performance. He is a member of the Canadian Olympic Assoc. and a professor emeritus at York University in Toronto. I once had the experience of listening to Dr. Bompa lecture on the technical concept of Periodization.

Dr. Bompa provides a training model that includes badminton! There is no guesswork about what to do or how to regulate the workloads along with rest and recovery periods. Yes, it is somewhat tech, but it provides a scientific basis to max out your performance goals. The bottom line is --- the ability of the coach to empower the junior athlete.

Three to four times per week do modest, multi directional running on a treadmill for thirty minutes.  After about one month, advance the intensity of your effort for a better training effect. Blend in quicker forward running and then include lateral and reverse running/stepping on the treadmill.

To fine tune the work out, perform at 60% plus heart rate with short interval sprints up to 90% MHR. The training formula is 220 less age X 60/90%. Better yet, purchase an advanced model Polar Heart Rate device and program in the data. It monitors the pulse rate and sequences the intervals with audio tones for optimum results.

Two times per week do continuous rope skipping routines. Intermix random sequences of moderate speed skips with slow skipping or intervals of quick and slow; incorporate single leg skipping, two-leg jump skips, and lateral jumps. Build to thirty minutes of continuous, non-stop skipping.  

Go to a high school or university track with those steep stadium stairs. Develop the capacity to run for about thirty minutes. “Easy run” the 440-yard track and then immediately sprint the stadium stairs both up and down. My local stadium has twenty-one levels of seats so that is up and down stair sprints four times each round. Then repeat the 440-yard jog. Continue to repeat the non-stop routine while employing the continuous jog-run and stair sprint routines for the duration of the training time.

Join a modern work out gym and learn resistance training to develop core strength and joint stability. When you have accomplished basic core strength and joint stability, begin the sweet science of the very explosive Olympic Style weight lifting routines. That is with initial resistance at no more than about 20% of total body weight. The on-court competitors will only wonder how you keep going and going!

 K. I. S. Routines:

• 3-4 X week – treadmill routines for 30 minutes
• 2 X week – rope-skipping routines for 30 minutes
• 1 X week – track work with 440-yard jog and stair sprints
• 3 X week – core strength in gym  (Find a fitness professional to learn techniques)

Advanced Level Athlete: 
Mid season training session taken from the logbook of a twenty-year-old female athlete.  Fitness training frequency; two or three times per week with modified routines per session. Resistance is proportional to 125 lbs. of body weight and athlete power. Total session duration; about 90 minutes

1. Warm up on cycle for ten minutes
2. Plyo Skipping: Alternating sets (Coach times with a stop watch)
   a. 8 x 30 seconds random skips followed by 30 seconds recovery
   b. 8 x 30 seconds quick 4 corner running (area the size of a court)
3. Plyo Ball Tosses with 8 lb ball
   a.  10 x Seated Diagonal Left/Right, floor to shoulder tosses
    b. 10 x Seated Over head pullover toss
    c. 10 x Tennis ball catch before second bounce, multi directional drops
4. Bent Leg Dead lifts                                                           2 sets x 8 reps x 65 lb
5. Total Body Lifts
    a. Front Squats    (45 lb Olympic bar with two 10 lb plates)                                    2 sets x 8 reps x 65 lb
    b. Dumbbell Clean Jerk (Alt foot-alt arm)                     2 sets x 8 reps x 10 lb DB
    c. Dumbbell Snatch (Alt foot-alt arm)                             2 sets x 8 reps x 10 lb DB
6. Back and Transverse abs
    a. Alternating Incline oblique set ups                             2 sets x 32 reps
    b. Back hyper extensions                                                 2 sets x 16 reps
    c. Side obliques                                                                  2 sets x 8 reps
7. Triceps Dumbbell Pullovers (Assisted for safety)        2 sets x 8 reps x 25 lb
8. Treadmill running         30 min / 80-85% MHR
9. Alternate tread mill running with hill running
                  

Fitness is more than badminton and is a chosen lifestyle. Just as in badminton we must make decisions, and so we make a decision to develop the level of fitness required for success in athletic competition. I cannot prescribe precise training prescriptions without knowing the individual junior; gender, his or her age and state of health, emotions, and a measure of the family support for athlete fitness. 

Please do not expect your badminton coach to become your strength and conditioning coach, too. I suggest you employ a fitness professional with expertise in nutrition, program design, and in teaching the mechanics of Olympic Style lifting routines.

Good Luck!