Physical fitness profiling of community-level badminton athletes: a cross-sectional assessment of five performance components and implications for talent development

Abstract

Systematic physical-condition profiling underpins evidence-based coaching, yet community-level badminton programmes in Indonesia rarely document the fitness status of their athletes, leaving training prescription to intuition rather than objective baselines. This study aimed to establish the physical fitness profile of registered badminton athletes at the PB Infinity club (Batam, Indonesia) across five performance components and to translate the resulting profile into targeted developmental priorities. A descriptive, cross-sectional design with total sampling was used to assess 14 club athletes. Five field tests were administered: the one-minute push-up test (arm muscular endurance), the 30-m sprint (speed), the sit-and-reach test (flexibility), the vertical jump (leg power), and the 15-minute Balke run (cardiorespiratory endurance). Raw scores were converted to a five-level ordinal scale and expressed as frequencies, percentages, and mean converted scores; a composite fitness index was derived and classified. The composite profile placed the whole cohort (100%) in the poor category (mean index = 4.4). Flexibility was the weakest component, with every athlete rated very poor, followed by arm muscular endurance, leg power, and speed, which were predominantly poor to moderate. Cardiorespiratory endurance was the single strength, with the majority rated good to excellent. The cohort exhibited a markedly uneven profile: a well-developed aerobic base coexisting with deficient flexibility, upper-limb endurance, and lower-limb power, indicating that conditioning has emphasised general endurance at the expense of sport-specific neuromuscular qualities. Coaches should prioritise mobility work, explosive lower-limb training, and upper-limb endurance while maintaining aerobic capacity, and should embed periodic field testing as a monitoring routine.