Recently with the help of Toni Rossiter and Ken Lynch of the Irish Institute of Sport, BI conducted fitness assessments and physiological tests in Baldoyle with Scott Evans, Chloe Magee, Sam Magee, Tony Stephenson and 6 of our top under age players.  It is great to be able to bring some of our younger players into the mix.

As we aim for a more professional and scientific approach, it is important to monitor and record levels of fitness of our top players.  This provides players and coaches with regular feedback to show how training has been progressing and alterations that need to be made.

A number of physiological tests measured the percentage fat in their bodies while other tests measured leg power, agility, endurance and speed.  Many of these tests have been developed specially for badminton with unique movements that replicate the way badminton players move.

These tests have been designed to be specific to badminton, and will prove to be most valuable when the same players are tested again later in the year. This will be a good indicator of their progress.

Our aim for the immediate future is to pull together a description of the physical tests used, together with a short video so that the information is accessible to other Irish players and coaches.  It is important that everyone interested in improving badminton performance has access to the same information.    In the longer term we can routinely incorporate testing on a smaller scale into Provincial and Irish squad sessions.