Following on from the huge success of last year, the Center Parcs National School Championships 2010/11 is building momentum once again, to give young people the opportunity to reach their potential – and for this season, that ‘momentum’ has seen a host of modern new twists come to life.

The 2010/11 Championships have been revamped with a contemporary make-over and fresh ‘look and feel’ to entice a younger generation of badminton enthusiasts to want to make their mark on court – and with over 23,000+ young people engaged in the Championships, the new eye-catching designs are clearly doing their job!

It’s not just the presentation of the highly acclaimed event that things have changed for the better. This year, the Center Parcs National School Championships will scale new heights with even more matches being played and the introduction of local league formats, rather than the ‘knock-out’ styles of old, in some regions.

These all new Olympic-style league based school sport competitions – a format which is being piloted by the Youth Sport Trust – will present many more opportunities for young people of all abilities and ages to play competitive badminton and strive to be the best.

With badminton being played in well over a third of all school sport halls across England, and with more than 20% of 11-15 year olds picking up a racket each month, badminton continues to be one of the most popular sports amongst children in, and out, of school time.

The Center Parcs National Schools Championships is now the largest schools badminton event in Europe and BADMINTON England is working hard to preserve our shining achievement.

Martin Dalby, CEO at Center Parcs, said:
“The Center Parcs National Schools Championships keeps getting bigger and better so we’re already looking forward to hosting the finals for a third time at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest in April next year. I’d like to wish all the schools who are taking part in this year’s Championships the very best of luck.”

The aim of the Center Parcs National Schools Championships is to create a ‘best in class’ event that provides schools across England with a high-level competitive badminton opportunity to assist with the development of teamwork and social skills. As well as looking to build on the quality of competitive badminton played in and between schools, the Championships will also give badminton’s talent identification process a real boost with the chance to review the true potential of such a large number of children in action.

There are four categories within the 2010/11 competition which is open to both boys and girls between the years 7 and 11: Boys - Years 7/8/9; Boys - Years 10/11; Girls – Years 7/8/9 and Girls – Years 10/11.

The Championships consist of five rounds with the second rounds commencing in January 2010. During the next four months over 1,600 schools will be whittled down to just 36 who will contest the national final, to be held at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest, over the weekend of the 2/3 April 2011.