Health Benefits of Playing Badminton

Playing Badminton. It is a well-known fact that indulging in aerobic sports activity like badminton gives multiple health benefits and promotes longevity.

In fact it has been found that playing badminton till you get an increase in heart rate or mild breathlessness regularly in middle age lowers the risk of death by about 23% in the subsequent 20 years and improves longevity by at least 2 years. The optimal health benefits are achieved by playing badminton for at least 30 minutes a day after adequate warm up.

The main health benefit is reduction of bad cholesterol and increase in good cholesterol with regular badminton play. In our body, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) are bad cholesterols and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is the only good cholesterol.

Playing badminton regularly increases the levels of HDL good cholesterol while decreasing the levels of bad cholesterols. As bad cholesterols decrease the size of blood vessels promoting heart attacks and strokes, reduction in their levels translates into multiple health benefits for the individual.

Playing regular badminton conditions the body so that the basal heart rate drops a few beats per minute and blood pressure is reduced. Both these effects are helpful in hypertensive individuals. It may help them to ward off their hypertension without medicines and even if they are needed, only fewer amounts are required.

Another particular health benefit of playing regular badminton is protection from heart disease, especially heart attacks. Playing badminton conditions and strengthens the heart muscle besides reducing hypertension and keeping blood vessels from clogging as we have seen earlier. Even people with pre-existing heart disease can benefit by playing badminton within their endurance levels under medical supervision and advise.

Regular indulgence in badminton helps overweight people to reduce their weight and attain optimal weight for their height and age. This effect is due to the excess calories burnt during playing badminton which prevents them from accumulating as fat and increasing the individual's weight.

Moreover, the existing fat deposits are also mobilized to produce energy while playing badminton. But for achieving optimal weight loss, it has to be combined with diet modification as well.

Osteoporosis is a troublesome problem especially in the elderly and women after menopause. It occurs because the bones loose their density due to complex interactions between the body hormones, bone forming and bone dissolving cells. Individuals with osteoporosis can easily sustain fractures because of reduced bone strength to withstand stress and injury.

Osteoporosis can be prevented or delayed by regularly playing badminton, as physical activity is one major factor that prevents osteoporosis, irrespective of the age and sex of the individual. Playing badminton promotes the activity of the bone forming cells and help in the assimilation of calcium in the bone matrix, thereby strengthening it.

Additional health benefit of playing regular badminton is reduced incidence of cancers like cancer of the large bowel and cancer of breast.

Finally, playing badminton keeps you feeling well, strong, motivated, enthusiastic and young. It helps to ward off depression, anxiety, stress and increase self-esteem. It also helps in enjoying a better sleep in the night, thereby minimizing the incidence of pre-existing illnesses getting aggravated due to lack of sleep.

Badminton Teaching Tips

Badminton teaching tips are very essential irrespective of whether the player is a beginner or expert, professional or amateur.

It is because badminton teaching tips help not only in correcting the player's mistakes but to make him a better player also.

Badminton teaching tips should ideally be given to children in their starting years of playing as it will guide and correct them in their budding years, making them overall better players later.

The badminton teaching tips for children should concentrate on:

1. Basic skills like how to hold the racket.
2. Skills in shot making.
3. Covering the court.
4. Safety precautions.
5. Recreational value, that is, learning by fun.
6. Development of social interactive skills.
7. Dietary advise.

Badminton teaching tips can be given in the course of games also to children. You can make them play and give teaching tips after the game is over. Concentrate on the following:

1. Start them with few basic rules.
2. Once they become proficient with them, keep on adding the other rules.
3. Encourage them during their play.
4. Once the play is over, demonstrate the correct stance and shots instead of concentrating on the mistakes they made.
5. Teach about the practice modalities to improve their performance in the subsequent days.
6. Teach them the skills they need to master for the following games.
7. Emphasize on first aid requirement and basic first aid measures.

The following badminton teaching tips are to be concentrated on when coaching a beginner or an intermediate level player:

1. How to appropriately serve without missing.
2. The biomechanics of the execution of various shots.
3. The art of covering the court to reach the shuttle better.
4. The choice of shot to win over an opponent.
5. The mistakes to be avoided, for example, the shuttle should always be directed to land on vacant areas in the opponent's court to always keep him on the move. It must be kept in mind that any opponent can execute deadly accurate shots when he is not on the move and the shuttle is hit for his easy reach.

In addition, badminton teaching tips should focus on the following regarding doubles and mixed doubles players:

1. How to cover the court without clashing.
2. How to make appropriate service returns.
3. To what extent, each have to stretch and take the shot without getting confused.
4. How to assess the opponent's weakness and be able to exploit it to the maximum. It is especially important to assess the opponent girl's weakness in mixed doubles and use it to advantage.
5. How to channelise your attack.
6. How to indulge in cross court defense and attack.

Badminton Coaching Tips

Badminton coaching tips is something which helps beginners and experts in badminton to successfully master various aspects of badminton with little difficulty, aided by their coaches or trainers, who themselves might have been excellent players in their days and who have sufficient knowledge and insight regarding badminton.

Coaching tips from your coach or trainer in badminton are invaluable because they are the ones who stand near you, watching your game day after day on court and during practice sessions. They are in a unique position to analyze your weaknesses and drawbacks. They also have enough stakes in your success, which enable them to correct them promptly then and there. For when the ward succeeds, it is their success.

For a beginner, serving is the first problem. Often, they try to serve and miss. It happens because they drop the shuttle and swing the racket at the same time. When in fact they should swing the racket AFTER they release the shuttle. Without understanding, they keep on swinging the racket a little before they release the shuttle, missing again and again. A coach can correct this by arranging the serving sequence in order, numbering them and make the ward obey the order.

Similarly some players have difficulty in avoiding the backhand stroke. Incidentally, the backhand strokes are significantly weaker than the forehand strokes and must be avoided to the maximum. When playing across the head forehand stroke may offset inevitable, playing backhand. Good coaching tips can help overcome this problem for the player.

One more advantage in getting coaching tips is that different types of weaknesses are there for different age group players. For example, under 12 players usually have trouble in playing rearcourt shots. Similarly, under 14 commonly have a weak backhand shot, under 16 have weak around the head forehand shot and under 18 suffer from inadequate court coverage. The technical deficiencies involving all the above can only be rectified by coaching tips.

Similarly, court-covering skills is woefully lacking in beginners and intermediate level players. They look at the professionals and wonder at their court covering skills. They think they can never imagine attaining their speeds necessary for covering the court.

But in reality, the coaching tips from the trainer or coach will make them understand that it is the MOMENTUM, not the speed that separates them from the professionals. Coaching tips to cover all portions of the court from a central position will help them cover all the areas of the court better.

Also, flick serves are always a problem in beginners. They do not anticipate them and consequently miss them most of the time. Coaching tips to correct it involve asking them to stand at the place from where they can lunge forward and reach a drop serve or take a couple of steps back easily to meet a high or flick serve.