VIDEO Badminton Warm Up Exercise – Warming Up with Minibands
Warming up in sports has many goals. For example the pulse rate should go up, muscle temperature should go up or synovial fluid should enter the joints to make the bones run smoothly in them – in short terms: the body is getting ready to perform. But why not achieve more at the same time?
Latest comment: I wrote the original article a few years ago - and that week it just touches my heart to see Olympic Champion Zhao Yunlei from China doing Mini Band Rotation and Mini Band Straight Leg Walks for Match Preparation in the German Open 2013. Nice! A lot more Badminton people should do these important exercises!
The mini- or rubber band is a close-circle nearly foot long (if you would cut it) rubber band which could be used in many ways. This article is about using it and its advantages in a warm up program. Besides the many goals of a warm up, a good warm up program is also working on the players weaknesses – very important for injury prevention. The exercises “miniband rotation” and “miniband lateral walk” directly targeting the deep rotators of the hip which play an important role in controlling both external and more important internal rotation of the humerus. Lacking control of humeral internal rotation is one of the main reasons for cruciate ligament rupture especially in females. So – better work on it. By using the two exercises mentioned above on a regular basis in a warm up program an important amount towards injury prevention is delivered. Besides the strength effect to the deep hip rotators, there exercises not only improve athletic position of the body and core strength, but will also improve on-court performance especially in starting from the center of play and returning from court corners (“cutting”).
First the exercise video (look further down for a detailed describtion):
Exercise 1 – Miniband Hip Roation
Start is a slightly forward bent defensive athletic position with the following coaching cues: naturally arched back with “chest up” and eyes straight ahead, feet are pointing straight ahead, knees are over the feet and hips sit back. The miniband is placed round the humerus slightly above the knee joint.
From this position the left humerus rotates inwards while the left big toe stays on the ground to keep the feet flat on the ground, from end position (where the foot cannot be kept on the ground) the humerus in rotates back to starting position. The hip-knee-shin-line has to be kept straight as seen on the pictures or in the video. Do eight repetitions, repeat on the right side for eight repetitions and repeat with both sides at the same time for again eight repetitions.
Exercise 2: Miniband Lateral Walk
Starting position is upright athletic position as seen in the pictures. The miniband is placed round the ankles. For the exercises one executes ten steps from the hips to the right and ten steps back to the left.
One has to keep the following coaching cues in mind:
- core should be stable, no movement in the trunk should be seen
- pushing off the inside leg instead of grapping with the outside leg
- feet stay dorsiflexed and parallel.
After the integration of these two exercises in a warm up program, one has done quite a few important things for injury prevention and performance enhancement – in little time – and the miniband can disappear in the racket bag.
Enjoy,
Diemo Ruhnow
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About the author:
Diemo Ruhnow is currently working as Head National Coach Doubles for the German Badminton Federation. In his free time he writes for his websites http://www.badminton-training.com (English), http://www.badminton-training.de (German) and other Badminton journals.
