Anlysis of Variables in a Game of Badminton
Abstract
When studying the temporal structure of a sport, the first factor to analyse is the total volume of workload activity it entails. This information is usually found in sport games by measuring the total time of the activity. This analysis is complete if we relate the activity's total workload volume to the real workload volume by means of real time. That is, the time span during which the player is moving. The relationship between total and real playing time gives rise to a coefficient which relates real and total workload, or work and pause intervals. These elements are temporal parameters which represent the duration of play and the time span existing between two plays. Moreover, they provide us with information about the average effort and recovery from the match. This study is aimed at establishing the differences that exist between male and female badminton players and also teams that play at national or international levels (Spanish and top world players respectively.) After the collection and quantitative analysis of the sample, it was found that values were higher in men's badminton singles. Except for the World Championships, this fact could be explained by the different scoring systems used in men's and women's games. However, in the lower level competitions that were considered in this study, the mean playing time in men's singles was higher than that of the women's singles (the difference being more than one second.) The mean time in men's singles was 7.3 ± 1.3 seconds and in the case of women's singles it was 6± 1.3 seconds. According to data related to the temporal structure of matches, and taking into account the volume and intensity of actions in play, it can be stated that badminton is based on explosive movements and implies an important function of the alactic anaerobic system which surpasses that of lactic anaerobic metabolism. Nevertheless, this predominance depends on the number of plays and their duration. Finally, we can say that the temporal structure of the game is usually higher in men's singles than in women's singles in the case of national competitions while no significant differences are found between the play in the case of the highest level international competitions.
KEY WORDS: Badminton, temporal structure, total time, playing time
