Today, the 31st Edition of the BEC Summer School found its end - both players, coaches and staff coaches had a great week here in Otočec, Slovenia. Staff Coaches and Coaches agreed that both the players but also the coaches, who gained a mentorship-like education from the staff coaches, made huge improvements and developments throughout the week.

I personally like to encourage coaches to come to the next edition of the BEC Summer School - for staff coaches, it is a very good opportunity to exchange with other top professionals on different topics, for coaches it is a high level individual education - mainly working like having education in the morning and then working with the staff coaches on the topic with the players just covered before in the education session and planning together with the staff coaches individual training for the players in the afternoon and afterwards discussion and valuable feedback about their training session.

Today’s program was slightly different than from the other days - individual training in the morning, individual feedback session for both players and coaches afterwards all building up to the players and a little separated coaches double tournament - everybody was having fun and with almost every coach, staff and player competing at the same time - that is about 70 people on court - great vibe in the hall - again.

After dinner, prizes were given out by BEC Vice-President João Matos to the winner of the tournaments but also to the Badminton Slovenian Federation who did a great job together with BEC Development Manger Marie-Anne Midy in organising this year’s edition. After the closing ceremony players enjoyed the goodbye-party with limbo dancing and music - staff and coaches continued in having great talks and discussions - this just showed how everybody enjoyed being here.

Article by Diemo Ruhnow, Staff Coach of the current edition.

In addition, here are some flash quotes from the coaches and players, member of this group:

“I have enjoyed the week learning developing my badminton knowledge, meeting new coaches and players from all Europe. I will take a lot away from this week to help with my coaching back in Ireland”, Naomi Darragh, coach (Ireland).

“I enjoyed the BEC Summer School and I learnt a lot”, Daniel Johannesson, player (Iceland).

“I am happy because I am here. This is a very good experience; I have learnt so many new things about badminton. I will never forget this Summer School”, Slobodan Stijaković, player (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

“I really enjoy this BEC Summer School because I had a lot of fun here with new friends from different countries. Coaches were very good and they taught me some new shots and other things. I want to go back to Summer School next year is possible”, Michal Hubacek, player (Czech Republic).

“I liked the camp. First in the beginning it was hard, but later I made some new friends and I really enjoyed training. The coaches were nice, but they would also change exercises during the training. But I learned a lot and I think now I’m a little better in badminton”, Ben Rausch, player (Luxembourg).

“The atmosphere between the players in Summer Schools is great. During the practise we are focus but otherwise everything is relaxed and everyone is friendly – we’re having a great time”, Katarina Beton, player (Slovenia).

“ like being here in Summer School because I have learnt so much about footwork and trick shots, and I habe found a lot of new friends”, Kristin Kuuba, player (Estonia).

“this week was really good and funny. I learnt a lot of few things. The coach was really good and I enjoyed this week. The only thing I would like to tell to the coaches is that we have to do more matches to try all the thing that we have learnt", Bruno Stegani, player (Italy).

For pictures of the sixth day, click here.