News

Club Competition
The inter-club singles competition will be starting in a few weeks!
In order to avoid un-played fixtures, we need to know the preferred playing days (Tuesday/Thursday) of
interested players. To this effect, the undersigned will be taking feedback at the end of each session for
the coming two weeks, following which the fixtures will be published.
The matches will be played on a best of two games basis, making drawn results possible. The competition
will take the form of a round-robin league, so that everyone will play against each other. There will be
two points awarded for a win and one point for a draw. Players may be grouped into different categories
if there is an adequate number of entrants.
One or two courts will be reserved for these matches.
Participants will be notified of the dates of their fixtures, which dates cannot be changed.
s/George Camilleri
Secretary

I am writing with reference to the visit by the British veteran players during the Shuttles BC club-night last Thursday.

On the way back, the players told me that they enjoyed their session very much, even if they lost some of the matches. They had many words of praise for the Shuttles BC players as well as for the club itself.

On behalf of the Association, may I therefore thank you for your cooperation in organising this session. Please pass on the Association's thanks also to the Shuttles BC Committee.

Regards.

John.

Treasurer of Badminton Malta

One of our committee members, Ms.Elizabeth Camilleri, has been elected as Treasurer of Badminton Malta during the last AGM. We would like to congratulate her and wish her success in her new position.

My Coaching experience at the Summer School
in Karlskrona 2009
(Held between 12th and 17th July)

This year the summer school was held in Karlskrona, Sweden. The place has good facilities for badminton having 2 halls specially designed for badminton. The main hall has 12 courts and a smaller hall with 6 courts. A tennis hall was also fixed up temporarily with 4 courts. On the first day the coaches and players were divided into small groups of 8 players, 2 or 3 coaches and a staff coach. Norman worked with Ms. An Soenens from Belgium as staff coach, Kenneth with Mr. Peter Mouritsen from Denmark and Mr. Alan Mcillvain from Scotland and Edmond with Mr. Fran Dacal from Spain.
The first day started with a team tournament where we had to observe and analyse each player in our group. We had to watch for weaknesses of each player so that we could work on them in the following training sessions.
After the tournament we had to discuss with our staff coach what we had analysed.
It was not an easy job to do because most players were of quite high level.
After we discussed with our head coach, we had to start planning our first training session for the next day. The head coach explained to us that we had to make a plan for each individual player and in this plan we had to have the following points:
Exercises to improve the technical side of each player.
How to organise it on court.
How much time we are going to spend on each exercise.
How we are going to progress the exercise
We had to plan these exercises either for singles or for doubles depending on the player’s preference.
Explain to the players what the exercise is for and its use in the game.
In the mornings we had a coach education course with the head coaches in a lecture room and then in the hall for practice sessions about several topics:

· Planning training sessions.

· How to progress the exercises to make them as realistic and game-like as possible.

· How to play spin-shots on the net.

· Different deception shots.

· Sliced and reverse drop

.· Pressure in the back, forehand and backhand.

· Defence in doubles

· Loosen/tighten grip and grip changes

· Multishuttle feeding.

· Physical training

After this session we applied what we learned by helping the staff coaches in the main hall by correcting and showing the players. After lunch we had to train the players within our small group for 2 and a half hours. Our staff coach was always on the side watching our training session and correcting us if necessary.

Exactly after the training session we have a meeting with our staff coach where he/she gives us his/her opinion and advice.

The main points stressed to us were:

· progression of exercises.

· every exercise must have a goal.

· different exercises for each player according to the individual needs.

· motivation of players and correcting on the spot.

In the evening we had to plan for the next training session and discuss it with our staff coach.

On Wednesday afternoon we were taken to the city centre where we visited a naval museum and did some shopping.

On Thursday we had to make a written evaluation for each individual player in our group. We discussed this evaluation privately with each player the next day. The staff coaches also did a written evaluation for the coaches in their group which was also discussed privately the next day. Each coach was given a certificate of participation and another one for successfully passing Level 1 coaching.

In the evening the coaches played a football match against the players.

On Friday afternoon the coaches played a fun doubles tournament between themselves while the players played a singles tournament.

In the evening we had a farewell dinner and party.

Saturday morning: departure of all players and coaches.

Overall I think that this was a positive experience for me as I learned how a training session should be properly planned out. I also learned about different techniques of certain strokes and the importance and different styles of multishuttle feeding.

Norman Spiteri

Sportsmanship 2009

Shuttles Fort Blocks Badminton Club would like to commend Kenneth Vella, Stefan Salomone and Robert Salomone for their acts of sportsmanship they made during the Malta National Championships held recently.
We suggest that these three athletes be nominated for the Sportsmanship Act of the Year 2009, and hope that this gesture serves as an example to all local sportsmen and women.
Well done Kenneth, Stefan and Robert!
On behalf of the committee, we wish a quick and complete recovery to David Cole.
G Camilleri, club secretary on behalf of the Club committee.