Community spotlight: Canute Badminton Club

When Canute Badminton Club realised its junior session was oversubscribed and ran the risk of being cancelled, it knew it couldn’t hold back the tide.

That is why the organization joined forces with Badminton England to not only improve the quality of its coaching but also the number of staff able to deliver sessions for its junior prospects.

Backed by funding from the nation’s governing body, Canute sent current members onto coaching and first aid courses, and the results have already borne fruit, with club member Mie Wal passing the Foundation Award on the David Lloyd Cheshire Oaks course.

“We’ve got an oversubscribed junior session that runs every Monday evening and we’ve only got a limited number of coaches that are able to get involved and so the sessions can be at risk of being cancelled,” the club said.

“We also can’t give as much individual attention to the juniors at each session as we’d like and we also wanted to ensure we had someone that had some knowledge of first aid.

“As part of the funding granted by Badminton England we wanted to put several of our current members on coaching courses to upskill and help future proof the sessions and give more tailored coaching time to the juniors.

“So far it’s proved invaluable. Having an additional coach has meant several sessions have been able to run that we’d otherwise be struggling to get enough coaching cover.

“It’s also meant on several occasions we’ve had two level one coaches along with the level two coach so the juniors have been able to have more targeted sessions where they can work with one of the coaches more than they would have been able to before.

“Thankfully we’ve had little need for a first aider so far however it’s a relief to know one of us has the skills in case anything does happen.”

With the partnership with Badminton England proving an unqualified success, Canute are already reaping the rewards, with players and staff benefitting alike from the increase in coaches.

Reflecting on what the organization has learnt, the club added: “While you may have willing volunteers to go on a coaching course it can be harder to find one that is both a reasonable distance away and also aligns with the volunteers availability.

“Also having a third coach volunteer along at the junior session is not only is a benefit for the juniors involved but also for the coaches themselves as it gives them more time to do actual coaching and so develop their skills as opposed to just trying to keep the wider group engaged and focused on their task.”