
Effect of Sport-specific Polarised Training on Agility in Elite and Subelite Badminton Players: A Randomised Controlled Study
YC07-YC11
Correspondence
Dr. Manish Nagpal,
B-3/178, First Floor, Janakpuri, New Delhi, India.
E-mail: drmanish_pt@yahoo.in
Introduction: Training Intensity Distribution (TID) is used by elite athletes prior to their competitions to enhance their performance. It has been employed in various endurance sports like running and cycling, but it is underutilised in sports where other components such as agility, strength and coordination are also part of the training. Badminton is one such game that requires aerobic fitness, skill, coordination, along with agility for rapid changes of direction and movements such as jumping, squatting and lunging. Badminton players need to practise these movement patterns to strike the shuttlecock and keep moving back and forth on the court.
Aim: To evaluate the effect of sport-specific polarised training via a badminton field test on agility in badminton players.
Materials and Methods: This double-blinded randomised controlled was conducted in an indoor badminton court at Manav Rachna Sports Academy in Faridabad, Haryana, India. Twenty badminton players aged between 15 to 26 years participated in this study, in which players were randomly assigned to two groups: an Experimental Group (EG) (n=10) and a Control Group (CG) (n=10). Over a 9-week period, the EG engaged in sport-specific polarised training via a badminton field test using BlazePod agility lights and an Edge lactate analyser to differentiate between three zones of training, while the CG followed the traditional training prescribed by their coach. In the badminton field test, the speed of the lights was kept at 16 lights per minute for low intensity (zone 1), 20 lights per minute for threshold intensity (zone 2), and above 22 lights per minute up to exhaustion for high-intensity training (zone 3). A four-corner agility test was used to evaluate the agility of the badminton players before and after the 9-week training protocol. Statistical analysis was conducted using a One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).
Result: The results showed that an 11.8% improvement was observed in the polarised training or EG, compared to a 3.6% improvement in the CG. This indicates that performing repeated sport-specific movements at different intensities, as done in polarised training, increases aerobic capacity and also improves agility in badminton players.
Conclusion: There was an improvement in the agility of badminton players following sport-specific polarised training.