For many, badminton is a seasonal sport. As soon as the leagues and tournaments are over, the rackets are put away and “summer” begins. This may mean dusting off your old tennis or cricket rackets, or simply taking a break for a few weeks.

Some are “forced” to take a break because all the local clubs close. Whatever the reason, there are plenty of players who need help staying fit and training for the new season. This article has been written specifically for players like you who are looking for ideas to get ready for the upcoming season and don’t know where to start.

A word of warning

If you really want to improve your badminton in the 2011/12 season, then you should already be doing some physical training.

Ideally, joining a gym and having a session or two with a personal trainer who will design a training program for you is recommended. By following this, you are taking the advice of an expert. You may also need to follow your doctor’s advice when beginning any exercise program.

While I have taken many courses on strength, flexibility, and conditioning, I do not claim to be as up-to-date as the experts and would prefer that you seek their advice first. For this reason, this article is just a guide on the type of training you can do to prepare for the new season. The article also assumes that you are aware of the importance of warming up before exercise and cooling down when you have completed the exercise.

However, if you can’t access a personal trainer or gym, this article will help you improve your fitness levels and be better equipped to enter the court with some degree of confidence. You can also go to my useful links page on my badminton blog and do yourself a huge favor by watching The Ultimate Badminton Athlete DVD.

So how serious are you?

I ask this question because if you really want to improve during the summer break, then you have to put in some effort. Watching badminton videos on YouTube will help to some extent because you are seeing good form and technique. However, badminton is a physical sport, so you should cover at least the basic fitness exercises to help you improve.

Before I cover the what, let me ask you why you want to do this. You see, your answer will dictate how hard you are prepared to work. Without specific reasons why you want to be fitter and better next season, you will not achieve your goals. Without specific goals, you will not reach anywhere near your potential, and this can be said for everything in life, not just badminton.

So before you do anything else write down, yes write down your badminton goals for the upcoming season. These can be goals like being able to play on a certain team, winning multiple tournaments, mastering specific shots, knowing that you don’t lose a match because you’re out of shape. Write down your badminton goals and email them to me. The key here is to be specific.

Let’s start with the basics

Badminton requires a combination of physical attributes that can be trained. These are strength, speed, flexibility and endurance. These can be trained in the gym, but you have to drop some of your assumptions about training to achieve this combination. You’ll see that it’s important to recognize that most of the gym workouts you’ve seen will be aimed at looking good and building strength and volume. This is not a good combination for badminton as it leaves out vital stamina.

The other important consideration here is that badminton is a full body sport. By this I mean that you need to train muscle groups in your arms, legs, shoulders, chest, and most importantly, your core. A strong core or abdominal area is the key. It is the area that connects all the other parts of your body. There’s no point in having strong legs if you can’t twist and bend quickly and efficiently. This requires the kernel. The energy also starts at the core and is then distributed to the required areas.

What first?

Well, you have the message about the areas you need to train. So what do you train first? We are all different and therefore have our own likes and dislikes. So let me tell you what I would do if it was me training…

Initially, I would plan my week to develop a routine that allows enough time to train different areas on different days.

For endurance I prefer running to rowing or cycling. In the early stages I prefer to build my distance rather than speed. So a 2-3 mile run at a steady pace works for me. Once I can hit 3 miles, I start to change the exercise from a single-pace endurance session to a multi-pace session by adding small sprints of, say, 3 to 10 meters. This is now training my body to generate small bursts of speed.

I would supplement this by finding an area where you can mark a badminton court. I would then create a variety of shadow badminton workouts to train my legs and continue to develop footwork patterns. After all, good movement is vital in badminton, so I need to practice and improve my split step, initial burst, travel pattern, jump, landing and return to base.

For faster footwork, I would introduce a jump rope into my program, alternating single jumps with double jumps, until I got to a 20-minute session. I prefer to do this with music and always jump on a softer surface to negate leg cramps.

On the days that I am not doing the above, I would create a training session at home or at the gym. Getting to a gym isn’t always easy, so 10 minutes a day at home can go a long way.

For my core workout, I would include planks, sit-ups (done correctly and slowly, of course), leg raises, twists/side bends, and back stretches. I would also do breathing exercises to tone my pelvic muscles which are part of my core.

For arm strength and shoulder and chest conditioning, I use the simple pushup. I make sure the exercise is done correctly and start building strength by completing each pushup slowly, counting 3 down and 3 up. This loads the muscles more. Start with 1 set of 5 reps and work up to 3 sets of 7 reps with 30 seconds rest.

Having mastered the simple pushup, I would add variation by changing the angle of my body. All I need is a chair to put my feet up when I’m doing the exercise. To add more variety, I would also remove the meat and switch to one-arm push-ups. This recruits my core muscles as stabilizers.

I have another variation on this great exercise and that is to switch completely from slow to fast reps. I would add a clap between push-ups which then creates a power exercise in addition to building my strength.

The other area I would work on is the forearms. For this I would follow all my armchair exercises. Most of these exercises can be completed sitting in a chair. Over time I would increase the sets, reps and weight.

Resume

With all of these exercises, the average time to complete them is less than 30 minutes. I accept that there are so many other exercises that you can do, however, as I said at the beginning of the article, I would prefer that you go to a gym and pay a personal trainer to design a program for you. I reiterate that you may need to consult your doctor before attempting any exercise program.

What I have given you in this article are the basics based on my preferences and exactly what I would do if I were training to stay fit and improve my fitness levels ahead of the new season. Aside from a jump rope and running shoes, I haven’t spent any money on gear. I have basically used my own body weight to give myself all the weights for strength and conditioning exercises.

Many of the exercises I’ve described can be found on YouTube, so it won’t take you long to find them.

As always, I hope you found this article useful and welcome your feedback.