Do bigger muscles=better power?

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by RVStrike13, May 13, 2015.

  1. RVStrike13

    RVStrike13 Regular Member

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    Does having bigger and having more muscles on your arms increase your power or shots in general? I think of Fu Hai Feng with his massive left arm and his awesome power but then I think of people like Lee Yong Dae who doesn't have the biggest arms but still produce power.
     
  2. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Up to a point, yes.

    Of course we all go on about technique.

    One thing rarely mentioned is the acceleration. So having more fast twitch fibres theoretically will give better explosive movement and thus more power.

    All those top players do weight training.
     
  3. R20190

    R20190 Regular Member

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    Yep, but aside from having more fast twitch muscles, the extra mass in the arm and shoulder makes it more stable and more efficient at transferring energy to the shuttle.
     
  4. pcll99

    pcll99 Regular Member

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    Taufik and TBH are hard smashers, but they don't have huge muscles.
     
  5. opikbidin

    opikbidin Regular Member

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    first and foremost is hard muscles. not the jelly one like mine. it may be small but when you touch their arms it's very hard
     
  6. visor

    visor Regular Member

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    Some girls on the provincial team hit harder than me... and I have bigger muscles than them... :(
     
  7. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    How can it be more efficient with a larger muscle mass?
     
  8. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    I am going to go ahead and say I do not think muscle mass is important. Plenty of skinny and powerful players out there - they will have very well developed muscles, but not necessarily big muscles.
     
  9. skid101

    skid101 Regular Member

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    I agree with MSeeley. Size of muscle makes no difference. Actually I hit harder since losing size off my arms and changing the way I train them. I have lost around an inch off them.
     
  10. leejunlong999

    leejunlong999 Regular Member

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    muscles actually increases weight. if you smash hard but cant get back to position to retrieve. i see no point in it.
     
  11. |_Footwork_|

    |_Footwork_| Regular Member

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    Big muscles and power are not the same...
     
  12. wangyii

    wangyii Regular Member

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    In general, yes.
    But different muscle training methods will lead to different results.
    1-5 reps high volume explosive training , this improve your explosiveness.(good for jump smash)
    8-12 reps, mainly make your muscle bigger, if you are skinny or you want to bodybuilding, this range is good for you
    20 reps, this improve your muscle endurance(good for long rally)
     
  13. R20190

    R20190 Regular Member

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    This is a good question. As with all things it’s not quite as clear cut as that. I’ll do my best to explain this.

    At the moment of impact with the shuttle, if we can ignore the effects from the racquet/strings and treat it as simply a medium, there will be a transfer of energy from the shuttle via the racquet to the arm and body. The effects of this is that there will be a momentary change in motion (acceleration/deceleration) and possibly direction in your arm/body which is dependent on the inertia your body and arm has.

    It’s a bit like the recoil effect of a rifle. If you gave a child a rifle (god forbid!), the recoil effect on the child would be far greater than if you gave the same rifle to an adult. This is because the adult has more mass and hence resistance to acceleration. However in this scenario the body is not accelerating the projectile as such.

    So although on one hand having more mass in your arm gives greater inertia and so is theoretically better at resisting acceleration and so more efficient at transferring energy for a given racquet head speed, on the other hand the greater bulk may actually slow down the maximum racquet head speed you can generate, so may be a bit of a trade off.

    As to why thinner players like TH can hit hugely powerful smashes, of course there are many factors involved too such as technique, timing, matching racquet/strings etc but that aside, it is probably because he can generate higher racquet head speeds than his peers perhaps exploiting his muscles better or as someone said above might have more of the fast twitch muscles and together with a head heavy racquet which may already have enough inertia in the frame for efficient energy transfer allows. Whereas I suspect players like FHF may have all those ingredients - fast racquet head speed, arm mass, technique etc and coupled with a racquet that matches his physical ability.

    If we had two players with identical attributes, identical equipment and generate the exact same racquet head speed except that one had greater arm mass than the other, the one with greater arm/shoulder mass will be more efficient in transferring energy than the other and can likely hit a slightly harder smash.
     
  14. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    Is this to do with mass? Or stability?

    To take the example of a rifle - if you were to give a heavy adult the rifle, with a large mass but average strength/core strength, would they fare better or worse than someone who weighed considerably less but was an athlete and had excellent core strength and stability. The large fat adult would probably stagger backwards more than the athlete. So, I believe mass is not the issue, but stability. And stability comes from having well developed "stabilising" muscles (which are small and don't weigh much) - this is basically ensuring that all the muscles work well in conjunction with each other and provide a stable anchor on which other muscles can act.

    This is of course just me thinking random thoughts. Interested to hear your views on my ramblings.
     
  15. R20190

    R20190 Regular Member

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    Mass is definitely the main factor (which is a function of inertia) although I accept your point that core strength also plays a part in badminton but there are so many other factors too. Having strength essentially allows you to use your body in unison, so that it becomes one entity rather than behaving like a mechanism – at the point of impact with the shuttle. So even if the lightweight guy had infinite core strength, without enough mass behind the rifel he would still fare badly. Or to put it another way, if both the light and heavy guys had the same core strength which one would you say would fare better?

    But yes, core strength is essential and is one of the reasons why boxers stiffen up their body at the point of impact too – gives a heavier punch. But as with boxing, for a heavy punch you need speed or mass – preferably both but there are weight classes which limit this.
     
  16. pcll99

    pcll99 Regular Member

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    FHF explains how to smash! from 16:00 onwards.

    [video=youtube;kwPTMLIBbTY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwPTMLIBbTY[/video]
     
    #16 pcll99, May 15, 2015
    Last edited: May 15, 2015
  17. Caffrey

    Caffrey Regular Member

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    Ok so first thing to understand is that big muscles dont mean strong muscles. I forget the proper technical terms but in a nutshell you can train your muslces to either grow in size or density - the latter is what athletes go for. There are many videos on youtube of huge body builders trying really hard to push the arm down of arm wrestlers that are half their size but cant.

    So I assume what you are really asking is do stronger muscles mean better power and the answer is no. Strong muscles alone fo mean more power but more power doesn't necessarily mean better power.

    I have trained my swing to the point where it feels like my bones are swinging rather than my muscles. I can clear for 45mins straight with no tire other than my arm getting heavy. This is beause my swing is efficient. Because of this I can clear longer and harder than many people because I use my entire body. On the other hand, there are many people who are very powerful and just use their forearm/whole arm to clear rather than their bodies. Yes their shots have more power, but the power isnt necessarily effective. The shots are usually poor quality and they tire faster because although they are bigger than me, their forearm isnt stronger than my entire body.

    However if you were to have stronger muscles and swing effectively, then you would have "better power"
     

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