A very active morning started on Monday at this year's BEC Summer School in Vejen, Denmark. While half of the players were practicing rear court technique and single defense the other half of the group followed Denmark's Marie Røpke to the gym, where they had an intense 1 hour of physical exercises followed by running session.

“I’ve started the morning in the gym, where Marie was leading our physical training. She made 7 stages for us, and on each one we needed to do different exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, squads etc. for 30 seconds on each stage. We’ve done 3 rounds in total with only 1 minute break in between. After this we have spent 30 minute on the running track, where we ran different intervals. It was a very hard morning session to start with, I was very tired by the time we got back to the sports hall, and the badminton practice was still waiting for us before lunch”, says Ella Peters (NED) – player.

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The afternoon training session was the last session in Vejen for the three former players, who were all very happy to share their experiences with the players and assist the staff coaches. Florentina Petre (ROU) was very satisfied with her stay:

“I am very glad that I could take part on the Women in Badminton Coaching Conference yesterday, where I received a lot of useful advices from the speakers on how to prepare the players for the game, or what are the differences between coaching young girls and boys. It was a great pleasure to work together with the staff coaches for two days. I am planning on starting coaching in the near future, so I am really happy, that I had the opportunity to be here”, says the former player.

The afternoon session was more relaxing for the players as half of the group had the chance to use the swimming pool, while the rest of the players were practicing with the staff coaches.

“Tonight is the first time for the coaches to work with the players. In groups of 3 they will deliver a one hour evaluation lesson to 5-6 players, in order to discover their strength and areas of development. After the lesson they will set goals for the players and plan a set of sessions to deliver during the upcoming days,” explained BWF Coach Education Expert, Joann Hughes.

It was a very active day for both the players and the coaches. They were happy to return to their rooms to relax and to get ready for next day’s training sessions.