Badminton England have announced exciting new plans to expand the role of a current strength and conditioning (S&C) coach for the benefit of those engaging with the England Junior Performance Programme (EJPP).
As of the beginning of April, Kathryn Canham, the England Junior Performance S&C coach, began working with the governing body three days a week in a consultancy role for the next year. The role was previously based purely at Training Camps and one day a month on administration of remote programmes.
The increased scope of Kathryn’s position will see her offer additional support within the National Badminton Centre (NBC) to junior players, as well as writing and developing a new S&C strategy for the EJPP.
The aim of the new strategy is to be not only effective but sustainable too, meaning it can support access to badminton specific physical training across the country.
Kathryn, who has worked alongside Badminton England for the past two years, will also continue with her current role with both the S&C junior programme and the remote S&C programme, and attend all junior camps from U13 to U19.
“It is really exciting,” said Kathryn. “I see my role as trying to produce not just really good badminton players, but really good athletes, who are then going to be prepared to go into full-time training and become elite badminton players.
“Our focus is to make the transition from juniors to seniors as easy and as smooth as possible and the feedback we have got from the past couple of years is that is where the struggle has been.
“So, I see my role as trying to bridge that gap and to keep players vying for those top spots in the sport because that is the way we are going to produce the best badminton players.”
Another part of Kathryn’s work will see her reflecting on and utilising existing research on the effects of maturation – which involves looking at methods employed by other top badminton nations and sports – in a bid to ensure England remain competitive at the top of the sport.
“I am most excited about being able to have an impact,” Kathryn continued.
“I have got to know most of the children currently engaging with the England Junior Programme and I can see some of that impact already in some of the testing data I have collected.
“It is exciting to see where that impact could go now that I have increased my hours.
“There has already been a lot of research in football, basketball and rugby on this topic, so by being able to apply certain parts of that to our sport, it means we can keep on top of things without waiting for badminton-specific research to come out, which can take longer to produce.”
As part of developing the strategy over the next few months, questionnaires will be sent out to coaches and players on the Membership database to see what their views on physical training and S&C development look like, while Kathryn and the team will also be talking to a number of badminton training academies and coaches in order to extrapolate on their work too.
The aim is to be able to provide practical help for those using or wishing to utilise S&C programmes and physical training.
This could range from input into coach education, resources, assistance with delivery, upskilling of coaches, training guides and S&C coach masterclasses.
Nikki Tarrant, Badminton England’s EJP Programme Manager, said: “It is great to have Kathryn with us in an increased capacity and we are looking forward to her getting started.
“Physicality is one of our main areas of focus throughout our Performance Programmes and one we want to try and further enhance throughout the Badminton England Network.”
Image credit: Yves Lacroix/BadmintonPhoto
