As another busy badminton season has drawn to a close, it is an appropriate time to provide an update on the developments around the Performance Centre programme along with future plans.

In the first instance however, I would like to publicly thank all of the PC coaches and their teams for their contribution, time and support given to badminton over the last year.

We now have 29 PCs based around the country, with more than 1,300 participants (688 raw, 464 developing and 210 emerging) on the performance pathway. This would not have been possible without the clubs and volunteers that underpin this fantastic work, as well as the 370+ coaches of which nearly 200 are working directly with the performance pathways. This programme has enabled us to provide quality environments with performance coaches operating at a community level.

The introduction of our team of PC Advisors has also made a significant and very positive contribution to the PC network. They have worked with the Regional Managers to support the Performance Centre Head Coaches, conducting coach reviews with all of them. They have also supported coaches through the Player Review process; for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Performance Centre support tools, each of the centres uses the same player review tool, which is contained in the Performance Centre Coaching and Mentoring Handbook. The information gathered from the player reviews enables the coaches to plan their programmes as well as providing BADMINTON England with vital information to help us to support the coaches better in the future.

The Performance Centre Coaching and Mentoring Handbook was developed to support this tier of the player pathway, however there are bits of it that could be useful to coaches working in all environments. Why not take a look by clicking on the link below.

Another very significant impact for PCs has been the capital funding investment BADMINTON England received and which is being directed through the PC platform. This funding is being used to partially support facility projects for Performance Centres, ranging from refurbishment to complete new builds, therefore creating more and better quality badminton courts.

We recognise that the parents of performance players play a significant part in the success and experience of their child; therefore we have developed a resource to support parents of performance players. ParentZone will be available on the website from the start of the new season and may be another useful tool for all parents…and it’s worth coaches taking a look too!!

If you have players who you feel would benefit from training with the performance centre, or maybe you want to explore coaching opportunities in that environment, then please don’t hesitate to contact your local performance centre directly or get in touch with your BADMINTON England Regional Manager for more information

The following link will take you to the Performance Centre section of the website

www.badmintonengland.co.uk/performancecentres