What a year!

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WHAT A YEAR!!

It's true to say the last year's been a exciting one for EBC...From a slow return from 2018 Summer Holidays  the club has massively grown in membership from wider areas and is bringing a greater gender balance across our players, which is fantastic! Our Beginner section is thriving with enthusiastic young players keen to participate in Junior League, whilst our Advanced section is growing into a structured group of around 16 developing players. We have now established a core of 4 volunteer coaches, whose roles will develop in the future with David Forbes and have all been supported by the club to gain Badminton Basic courses as an introduction to coaching. Going forward you'll see a new structured approach to our advanced section with closer monitoring of individual development, so watch this space because it's all in the planning.

It's no surprise that the last year has seen growing and consistent Junior League successes and introductions to Scottish School tournaments for many with so many exciting developments in our coaching team. With Jack Stevenson leaving to pursue his career (see gallery), we made some exciting additions to the team (Sarah, Stewart & Davie) with Rebekka Findlay and Adam Hall, (and a brief time with Kaity Hall) which has had an amazing impact on the club overall. Sarah Findlay was appointed Head Coach and continues to inspire the kids to become great players creating sessions within a friendly, welcoming environment. It's fair to say we're incredibly lucky to have all of them as coaches/mentors and no doubt the team will continue to develop and evolve. It's great that everyone gets into the spirit of our fun events too like Halloween and the Shuttle Stars Awards at Christmas (see gallery), with fantastic support from sponsors like Morrisons Erskine, Decathlon & Gannon Sports.

Last year we were selected to become part of Badminton Scotland's Pathway Programme to establish player pathways through coach mentoring alongside clubs like City of Glasgow & Glasgow Chinese Badminton Club. We are extremely fortunate to have incredible former players and tutors as coach mentors in Robert Blair and Lena Robertson from Glasgow School of Sport. Robert's visit is highlighted in the gallery below where he kindly presented some winners with trophies for our monthly Skills Master Challenge, which continues to be a success with the players.

The presence of Erskine Badminton Club members at external events continues to grow with the last year seeing massive increases in Junior League participation, the beginnings of friendly match schedules with other clubs and involvement in regional and national schools events which is a major step forward in increasing the visibility of the club outside of Renfrewshire.

Looking at the gallery its been a busy one, but it's been fun with some new challenges along the way.

​So, there you have it...whether you're a player, parent, coach or committee member, you've all done well this year. Let's make the next one even better.....once the Easter eggs are finished!

Look out for our next guest blog feature from Grant, our newest recruit to the volunteer coaching team, as he completes his Badminton Basics Course.

Well done!
Natasha