Badminton is back and booming in the West

Badminton is firmly back on the cards in the West region and there has been an abundance of activity since the start of the season. We caught up with Euan Murray, Regional Development Officer for the West region on the state of play in his corner of the country.

Following a couple of years without much in the way of tournaments due to the pandemic, competition is high on the agenda across the West region. The Lanarkshire Group’s Social Doubles competition returned to Wishaw at the beginning of March and the West of Scotland Group saw a strong entry and some fantastic results at their U15/19 Championships which took place on the same weekend. The Glasgow and North Strathclyde Group run a junior league every month and recently held the Glasgow Championships at the Sir Craig Reedie Centre.

At the start of January, our CEO Keith Russell presented Scotstoun Badminton Club with their Silver Shuttlemark Award. Since achieving their Bronze last year, Scotstoun have expanded their club considerably and introduced an initiative to get more girls involved in badminton.

Club Chair Gordon McCrae commented “it was great to have Keith visit the club and even better that he made time to sit down with me and a group of our parents and volunteers to hear about our badminton experiences”.

There are a number of other clubs in the West currently working towards their Shuttlemark and Euan hopes to be presenting them with their awards in the coming months!

Being able to get back out and about to deliver courses and workshops and visit clubs in person has been a real highlight for Euan this season and demand for courses is sky high.

“It’s been really positive to get back delivering in person and reconnecting with people. Over the pandemic we managed to deliver a few courses online but it’s never the same as being in a room with people who are enthusiastic to get involved!”

“I’ve been out to a few clubs since the start of the season, this has given me the opportunity to speak to clubs in person to find out about any challenges clubs are facing as well as identify any areas of support the clubs require going forward.’’

The Badminton Basics course is one of the most popular courses and focuses on providing people who have little to no experience with fun games and basic guidance on leading sessions in schools and clubs. Since the start of the 2021/22 season, over 120 people have completed their Badminton Basics coaching award in the West region. Further to this, 15 coaches have completed Level 1, Level 1+ and Level 2 Coaching Awards.

At the beginning of March, 44 pupils at Holyrood Secondary School completed their Young Sports Leader Award. The Award is broken down into five components delivered over three weeks and gives pupils an understanding of the fundamentals of our sport, the confidence to coach and lead sessions, an introduction to officiating and the opportunity to plan and deliver an event. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed taking part in their award and put their newly learned skills to good use leading a lesson for S1 pupils!