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Youth Program Update

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The Youth Program at the Woodstock Badminton Club is thriving!

It is two months into the season and the athletes are showing some wonderful signs of progress. To date we have had two in-house tournaments and athletes that have competed at the Stratford Junior A and the North Bay Junior B tournaments – a great start to the season! Early team uniforms have arrived for those currently competing, with the rest slated to be ready in the next couple of weeks. Picture day (actually two days) was a huge success. A special thanks for Dan Peer for making this happen!

The coaches and I are extremely proud of how well the athletes are progressing. Badminton is a very competitive sport and, unlike some sports, the competition is fierce because any tournament you play is a provincial level tournament, not just a local tournament. The tournament schedule is now set with lots of opportunities for competition taking place from January to April at the Junior B and Junior C level. Congratulations to Matt Wilker who made it to the semi finals in the consolations in North Bay this past weekend. Way to go Matt!

Registration for the Skills Development Program and the High Performance Program open this Friday, December 7 and spots are limited so be sure to book as soon as registration opens before the spots fill up.

Great Start to Youth Season

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The Youth Program at the Woodstock Badminton Club is off to a fantastic start. We are pleased to announce the program has sold out which has caused coaches to consider expanding the program at the next lesson block in January. The coaching staff would also like to extend a warm welcome to all the new athletes and their families.

The new Knight Trainer Pro (KTP) has been a big success. While coaches are getting acclimated to its operation the athletes have shown excellent capabilities to adapt to this new learning tool. The KTP can be programmed to ‘fire’ shuttles at various speeds, in various directions and at various angles – making it adaptable to any athletes abilities. once in a while a coach even gets to try it out (with varying degrees of success!).

We are also pleased to announce two new coaches have been accepted into the Youth Program: Nancy Alway and Gord Brewster and are NCCP (National Coaching Certification Program) certified at various levels. Both Nancy and Gord have an abundance of energy and enthusiasm for coaching our athletes and we are very pleased to have this extra level of assistance. Thank you Gord and Nancy – we look forward to seeing you on court!

As we move toward the end of October with the program in full swing, the coaches are concentrating now on player development, finding suitable competitive opportunities for athletes and continually finding new and fun ways for athletes to learn the sport of badminton.

Thank you, as always, to all my coaches who have been a pleasure to work with. Your volunteering at the club makes a difference in the lives of many young athletes. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season!

Kevin Cougler, Youth Director
Woodstock Badminton Club