Medway Badminton Association Limited - Development Officer – Hilary Athawes
You may ask:
Why does Medway Badminton have a development officer?
The answer:
It was a requirement of the funding Medway Badminton received from Sport England, to update the facilities of the club, that development of badminton would take place both to occupy more court hours and to develop badminton into the community. Development plans were initially written by Kent Badminton and are now reviewed by Medway Badminton Association's Committee.
In 2005 Medway Junior Badminton achieved Silver Club status, now 'Premier Club status.'
On the 3rd October 2006 Medway Badminton achieved their status 'Performance and Development Centre.'
- Today I can be seen attending meetings with:
- Medway Community Sports Network.
- Medway Sports Development Team forums and working parties.
- Medway Exercise Referral Service.
- Kent Sports Development Officer.
- Medway 2012 working party.
- The MEND Scheme.
- Medway Sporting Academy.
- Medway Council schools PE meetings.
- Any other organisations as and when necessary.
I regularly attend events and promotions where possible to highlight badminton. Advertising leaflets and flyers have now been produced for the ladies badminton sessions, Medway Badminton and Medway Junior Badminton. Medway Badminton also now has its own banner stand for use in exhibitions and at events. The photography was produced by Michael Wynne and the banner stand was designed by Denise Barnes-Rolf.
Working with Medway Sports Development Unit, Medway Junior Badminton is now involved in an annual 'Rackets Festival'. This festival is for children in school years 3 and 4. Last year several schools took part, encouraging all the young players to play four racket sports (i.e. badminton, table tennis, tennis and squash).
Medway Badminton also run an annual event with our local Vineries community. Last year a badminton morning of 2 hours was thoroughly enjoyed by the youngsters, helpers and us.
The ladies sessions on Wednesday mornings is slowly growing now with enough ladies to fill all 4 courts.
Coaching is being delivered both in school curriculum time and after school clubs in primary and secondary schools, see the Junior section of this website for more information.
The Centre Parcs/ Badminton England Schools Games are continuing to attract more schools each year.
New to Medway Badminton in September 2010 is a 'parent and child' after school club. Mums and dads have joined in. Schools are rotated every 6 weeks by Marge Millar and John Sage. Any school interested in taking part please telephone me.
New to Medway Badminton this year is the hiring of the meeting room by the NHS to run a 'Tipping the Balance' clinic. This was development by a link I have with the NHS Exercise Referral Service.
A badminton hub has been set up at Thomas Aveling School, which should attract young players from primary schools in the area.
Teacher's courses and Young Officials courses have been held each year.
Medway Junior Badminton now run 4 coaching sessions on Saturdays. All coaching sessions are structured to ensure progression is achieved by each junior. Home and away matches are played regularly against other clubs. As juniors progress they are encouraged to take the Young Officials award, and Young Umpires award. Some juniors have taken their UKCC Level 1 Coaching Certificate and are helping in the beginner's sessions. Some have entered Kent Junior squads and progressed to the senior teams, while other juniors have now joined senior clubs. It is important that juniors from these coaching sessions feed into adult clubs. Juniors are the future of Medway Badminton.
If you have any information on groups, schools or clubs who are interested in playing badminton or any information on any events or promotions that I may be interested in attending please email me at hilaryathawes1@aol.com