Please, Readme First!
Please feel free to use the material contained in this coaching system. It is a first attempt by our club to address an outage in badminton, for juniors playing at club level. It is by no means perfect and is really a starting point to develop a much more robust system. From the short time that it has been implemented at our club, we have seen a big improvement in the engagement of the children, where they are already thinking and talking about how they can improve and move through the levels.
If you use the content or have any feedback or improvements we would be very keen to hear from you. Email us here.
All of the material for the development system is available here. In addition there are also session plans available for Level 1 via the link on the right.
Overview?
Excluding “Racket pack” (Ks1&2 only) badminton clubs throughout England have no development systems available to them that will help encourage junior progression through their entire time at a club and in fact, Badminton England has nothing in place to address this.
With this in mind, the club has set up its own. The new initiative will work alongside “Racket Pack” and will offer a logical entry point for “Racket Pack” students, building on what they have been learning. It will also still be basic enough to allow Ks1&2 children that have not entered through the “Racket pack” route to quickly catch up.
This initiative will then give the added benefit of allowing children to progress their badminton up to Ks4 with ample development and competitive opportunities. This initiative although not dependent on a local performance cell would greatly benefit from the presence of one in the Mid Wilts area. This is also the first attempt at a development system, so we expect many changes and adaptions through the course of the season.
The details
Similar to Racket Pack this new initiative will be split into three levels, Bronze, Silver & Gold, plus an entry level grading. A star will be given when moving between each level. Bronze star, silver star, etc...
"Racket Pack" is Badminton England’s primary age (5 – 11 years) focused initiative. It’s been designed to deliver fun and engaging skill-based sessions, ensuring a positive first experience of badminton. The aim of The Racket Pack is to increase the number of young people taking part in badminton from an earlier age. By providing a positive first experience the hope is to increase the number of junior players developing into lifelong players by providing the right opportunities for them to learn. Racket pack consists of four levels named after characters. The last of these Characters is "Flo" which can only be achieved by attending an affiliated club.