Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport EditorTHE JAMAICA Badminton Association (JBA) will shuttle its efforts to develop the sport across the island with three coaching clinics.
"We're having a series of
coaching clinics across the island," JBA honorary secretary Fleur Gooden told The Gleaner yesterday.
"We're putting on the coaches' development clinics starting Monday in Montego Bay, then Mandeville and Kingston," she said.
Both development exercises for MoBay and Mandeville are slated for three days, while the other will run a day longer.
Montego Bay Community College is the venue for the first course, that runs from August 9 to 11; followed by the second at Mandeville's DeCarteret College from August 12 to 14.
A one-day break precedes the final clinic that is set to run from Monday, August 16 to Thursday, August 19 at the Chinese Benevolent Association on Old Hope Road in St. Andrew.
The course attracts costs of $1,500 for coaches and $1,000 for players.
CONTACTS
Contacts for the respective clinics at MoBay, Mandeville and Kingston are Gooden, 815-5114 (tel.) or fleur@mail.infochan.com. (email); Howard Ranger, 353-0066 or ranger8817@yahoo.com; and Lisco Jackson, 812-8854.
MoHan Subramaniam, an International Badminton Federation (IBF) certified coach and development consultant, will be conducting the seminars.
Subramaniam, who was born in Malaysia, which has produced some of the world's greatest players, also works as a development consultant for the Pan American Badminton Confederation (PABC), the sport's governing body for this area.
"He's the itinerant coach for our continental region... he's responsible for upgrading each of the countries in the region," Gooden pointed out.
It is partly through the PABC's initiative why the experienced Malaysian coach will be coming here to share knowledge.
COSTS
"They are funding his flight here," said Gooden, "but we (JBA) will have to fund the costs while he's here."
The JBA honorary secretary says the course is being conducted for "two primary purposes".
"One is to create more coaches, people who have never coached badminton before and want to start it at their school," she reasoned, adding that "the second is for experienced coaches to upgrade their knowledge."
The course is not only open to new and experienced coaches, but players as well and Gooden says their inclusion will add another dimension.
"The kids will get coaching as well and they can be used as guinea pigs for some of the teaching methods in that the coaches can test some of the coaching methods on them as well," she explained.
Besides that, Subramaniam "...will also be reassessing our training programme and evaluating our national players."
Given its coverage, both in terms of material and area, this coaching series for the sport provides the widest reach for some time.
"The last one was about three years ago but it wasn't as extensive because the Canadian (who conducted the clinics) only worked in Kingston," said Gooden.
