General

Two-week visits at the “Centre of Excellence”
Date: 10/24/2019 1:48 PM
Published by : Lilit Poghosyan
Yonathan Levit (ISR) joined the training sessions at the Centre of Excellence at the end of September. With the start of the new season Levit had been looking for a place to improve as a player.

-The idea of visiting the centre was clear to us, tells Levit, whose coach Aviv Sade has visited the CoE on a the coach scholarship. 

Besides having to face some challenges while being in a new environment and a new culture, Levit sees the bigger picture and believes that as a badminton player it’s important to enjoy the process. The biggest difference between training back home in Israel and training at the centre, according to Levit, is that:

-At the centre you can actually live, breathe and eat badminton. That is your focus all day. I think the organization and the professionalism were absolutely amazing and on a very high level. Those kind of things you don’t see so often in our sport. 

Second visit for Mikhalkova
Anna Mikhalkova (UKR) had already practiced at the centre once for three weeks in April. She says she felt an improvement in her game when she performed at the Denmark Challenge right after her visit to the centre. 

-I felt so much more confident on court – my footwork was better, my shot quality was better. 

To her, this was an opportunity to see how things have changed as the centre has moved to the new facilities. In addition, she could see how the trainings are organized depending on different periods of the season. 

-I noticed that they had a different focus this time compared to last time that I was here. On the whole the program of trainings is very interesting. There are sessions with only technical focus, or only physical, or full court exercises.

-Most of all I like the atmosphere at the centre. Everyone’s goal is badminton and everyone is working on themselves. It’s very nice to work with the coaches. And of course they have all the conditions to focus on getting better and developing your game.
 
Ilyinskaya “Very good conditions”
Maryina Ilyinskaya (UKR) visited the centre for two weeks. The 2017 European Junior silver medalist told Badminton Europe how she first got to know about the CoE:

-I read lots of news about the Centre of Excellence on Badminton Europe's website. We were in contact with Kestutis Navickas and then the Ukrainian Badminton Federation suggested us to go practice there. I wanted to try it out. 

-They have very good conditions and everything you need to work on yourself - a big hall and a gym, work with a coach and very motivated players.

Talking about the challenges she had to overcome while staying in Denmark, Ilyinskaya remembered:

-Me and Anna went to the swimming pool and we were so ready to swim and relax after a tough week. And then they told us that it was too late and it was closed already. 
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