The Olympic fever has reached Slovenia

Third day of the Summer School in Slovenia (July 11) marked that there is one month till the Olympic badminton tournament commends. An Olympic year is always exciting for badminton lovers all over the world, and this year in particular for Europe as well. Great players from Europe have qualified and are, these last weeks before the tournament, preparing to compete against players from the great badminton nations of Asia. 

Projects and Summer Schools like this one, is a great way for European players to improve together. And when we asked around on and off-court it was clear that the players are reaching for the stars. 

“I hope one day I can play in the Olympic Games, because who does not want to play in the Games!” Player Jose Molares (ESP) explains.

As a Confederation we need projects like the BEC Summer School to share experiences and educate coaches, so that our proud badminton heritage remains and evolves into the future generations. 

Coaches were introduced to the BWF Level 1 course the previous evening, and were now ready to dive in to the coaching principles of the course directed by Jeroen van Dijk and Huaiwen Xu. Afterwards it was time for them to shadow the other staff coaches on court, as they coached the players. In this way, they are able to take notes and learn from the staff coaches in practice. 

All of this in preparation for their own first delivery session in the afternoon. Now it was their time to show what they have learned, and deliver it to the players – doing actual coaching. Staff coaches would observe them and give them feedback later on, when the session where through. The feedback of the staff coaches has to be ‘fresh’ and right after the delivery, in order for it to make sense for the learning coaches. In the evening, the coaches were to be found back in the class room going through more theory. 

The first training session for the players was led by the staff coaches, where they focused on singles defense, while the second session was the lead by the coaches as a part of their education, covering material of the Level 1 Coach Education. But while the coaches where studying, the players had time off to go to the pool and relax. But not for long; training sessions begin the next day at 8:30, and if they dream about Olympic medals, they must be ready for practice all week. 

The rest of the pictures can be found on our FB page. 
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In the official video below, players, coaches and staff coaches share views, predictions and experiences from the Olympics.