Serbia hosted the first phase of 2014 Phoenix Project
Badminton Club RAVENS KG with the support of Badminton Europe and Badminton Association of Serbia organized the first phase of the Phoenix Project from 1-5 July in Kragujevac, Serbia. It was the 7th year of this regional badminton training camp, where U17 players from Romania, Hungary and Serbia practice together. The trainings were led by 3 coaches, in the sports hall of Druga Kragujevačka Gimnazija. Participants were practicing twice a day, showing great attitude towards trainings while socializing and making new friendships.
“It was great to see a pleasant and friendly atmosphere on and off the courts. All players showed great commitment on every training. They worked very hard and gave their best. It was a pleasure to work with such a group.” said Nikola Mijačić (Serbia) one of the head coaches of the project.
During the final training session a tournament was organized, which had a number of very interesting matches. Romania dominated by winning both singles titles. In Men’s Single Filimon Colins (ROU) and in Women’s Single Catalina Simionescu (ROU) could stand on the top of the podium.
All the participants are looking forward to 2nd stage of the project, which will take place in Pecs, Hungary from 11-16 August 2014.
The second part of the Phoenix Project in Pécs
The Hungarian Badminton Federation organized the second part of the Badminton Europe financially supported Phoenix Project from 11-16 August 2014. The training camp took place in the new modern Badminton Centre of Pécs. The project included U19 players from 3 different countries: Serbia, Romania and Hungary.
Nine players attended the trainings, where they experienced a lot of different activities and also enjoyed their time together. The training session were led by main coach Gabor Banhegyi, who is a National Coach of the Hungarian Junior Team.
The players trained an average of 5-6 hours per day, where the trainings consisted of various exercises and badminton games. Two times morning running and physical training were on schedule.
“We mainly used multi-feeding and two against one exercises for the development of both attacking and defending. On the trainings the focus was very much on singles technique, and footwork. We checked the player's technique, we corrected the mistakes on the main corners, and after that the training were focusing on using the right technique. Two times we had physical training sessions and the players also had the chance to play matches against each other in team matches.
It was a successful camp, both players and coaches enjoyed their time together. Some players were very sad when they had to say goodbye to each other.” said Gabor Banhegyi, main coach of the project.
Article and photo by Hungarian Badminton Association