Madrid gave a very warm welcome to another edition of the Badminton Europe Summer School.
But this couldn’t stop any of the 50 players, 25 coaches and 9 staff coaches to find their way to join in. With 26 nations the participants are coming from not only all over Europe but also Malaysia and Mexico!
Where almost of the coaches and players had an easy day travelling to Madrid the staff coaches had their first day of intensive work. Traditionally the Saturday is the start of their successful teamwork with preparing and planning the week’s sessions for players and coaches. And once more it feels very promising!
In the late afternoon the camp officially started with the opening ceremony. This was the first introduction of and for all participants.
While the players got the chance to get to know the accommodation, the halls and the whole area as well as they got to know each other with a lot of fun – the reality got the coaches: the theoretical introduction into the coach education. With getting the program and task of the week they quickly realized this would not be a week of relaxing at the pool but working hard and late on their coaching abilities.
As in the last 30 years the Summer School will once again be a week with a lot of badminton but also with a lot of fun, new friendships and enjoying the great hospitality of the Spanish summer.
Just follow and enjoy the first written impressions!
Hola!
it was hot and we met new people and new words, for example: hoerezoon. Good luck!
by Elena Olmos (Spain), player
Hola, the Summer School started with an opening ceremony in the auditorium. After a short presentation of all the participants we got two t-shirts. Then the ‘orientation’ started. The goal of this session was to get to know the other players. We had a lot of fun together and I’m looking forward to the week.
by Mike Vallenthini (Luxembourg), player
Ola! Welcome to the 30th Badminton Europe Summer School. This year, it is held in the city of Madrid! This brilliant city greeted us with its warm weather; it was up to 36 degree Celsius!
The first day was typical; we had our opening ceremony, where all the staff coaches are introduced to the coaches and players and vice versa. All of them also received two Summer School t-shirts each too.
However, there were more highlights in the first day, the first one as of course the orientation for the players. It was done in two main parts.
The players were given a short guide tour to all the facilities in the campus. Then they started the first part of the orientation in Hall 1. There were a few activities and they all went smoothly, Thanks to the creative thinking of the staff in charge: Fran and Kenn. However, the excellence of creativity was brought a little bit down by the effectiveness because the players had too much fun and forgot all the names!
The second part was genius. Players were allocated into groups of 5 and they had to take a picture at 15 different places in our accommodation area, such as swimming pool, social room, laundry etc. They had to also do funny poses in the picture and some of the pictures were really brilliant. To top it off, they had to go from checkpoint to checkpoint holding hands together! It was quite funny to see a group of players running up and down the building with laughter.
You can check our website for some of the most creative pictures!
To sum up, the first days was fun and relaxed for the players but I do feel sorry for them because they still didn't know what is going to happen to them in the next few days. A few crying faces and sore bodies are greatly expected.
Vamos!
by Kenn Lim (Malaysia), staff-coach