In any sport fitness is very important, fitness can be categorised into two subgroups; health related fitness and skill related fitness. Below are the factors affecting fitness:.
Health Related Fitness.
Cardiovascular Fitness .
Body Composition .
Flexibility .
Muscular Strength.
Skill Related Fitness.
Agility .
Balance .
Coordination.
Speed .
Power.
Reaction Time.
Each of these is important during a game of badminton, however some are more important than others, below is a the explanation of the factor and also why I think that it is important for playing badminton:.
1. Cardiovascular Fitness - the ability to take in and use oxygen allowing participation in prolonged periods of sub-maximal activities. This depends on 3 factors; effectiveness of external respiration, effective oxygen transport from the lungs to cells (e.g. muscles) and the use of oxygen within the cell. I feel that this is important for badminton because at the top level the average game lasts for an hour and 16 minutes, with an athlete covering 4.3 miles. They therefore need to work at a high percentage of theirV02 (max) for a long period of time, they could improve their aerobic capacity by doing interval, continuous or fartlek training.
2. Body Composition - this is the percentage of body fat that an individual carries, it can be categorised into 3 groups; Ectomorph (thin, tall, slightly muscled, trouble gaining weight, muscle growth takes longer) Mesomorph (muscular body, mature appearance, upright posture, builds muscle easily) Endomorph (underdeveloped muscles, generally gains muscle easily, trouble losing weight, round shaped). Nobody is only one of these groups however have different characteristics of each. Badminton players are usually mesomorph because they need to have good strength, posture and aerobic/anaerobic capacities. .
3. Flexibility - there are generally 3 types of flexibility; Dynamic, Static-active, Static-passive flexibility (see.