In just a couple of days, Podčetrtek will be receiving the participants for the 6th time in a row. Players and national coaches are in for a great experience.
There are just two days to go until the RSL BEC Summer School takes place. After its cancelation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, BEC and the Slovenian Badminton Federation are proud to present the 39th edition of this important event.
We have talked to Development & High Performance Senior Manager at Badminton Europe, Jacob Oehlenschlaeger to see what can the participants — the U15 European national players in the summer school and those taking part in the BWF Coach Education Level 2 course — expect from Badminton Europe’s oldest and successful event.
Development and enjoyment
The players will be spending a lot of time in the Sports Hall Multipurpose in Podčetrtek, Slovenia. Together with a great team of professionals, they will benefit from an enriching programme. Oehlenschlaeger highlights how players will benefit in terms of developing their badminton skills by using a wide range of resources.
-It’s going to be an exciting week for the players. It will be a training camp which will focus a lot on developing skills, so there will be a lot of on court sessions with a very good team of coaches. There will also be some off court sessions where they will have some video analysis as well as some mental training, and an examination of this kind of errors that we don’t approach that often in normal training. We have more time to work with the players, to develop and educate them.
But it will not all be about training hard. Players need a rest, and socialising will be a big part of the RSL BEC Summer School as it always is. Such activities will contribute to their wellbeing while having a good time but also still improving their skills through interacting with players from all over Europe.
-There will be a lot of fun activities with a social aspect, such as a football tournament and many other activities off the court. It will be a nice mix of different kind of things, always with the purpose of creating a good atmosphere that will help them become better players, Oehlenschlaeger explained.
Players can rest assured it will be a once in a lifetime experience and a valuable one for their future. Networking is an important part of the sport, and what better place to do so than in an event where they will meet players of their similar age and level.
-If I were one of the participant players, I would really be looking forward to this event because I would be meeting a lot of people from different countries, so I would be getting a lot of new social connections.
Hands-on experience, a major asset
The participants of the BWF Coach Education Level 2 course will be getting more than technical skills. Thanks to it taking place at the same place as the RSL BEC Summer School, they will benefit from hands-on training experience with the young players onsite.
-This is a more traditional type of course. What makes it a little bit different is that it is taking place together with the summer camp, which means that the coaches will also be having practical sessions in which they need to work with all the players. It is not that often that you do such a thing in a coaching course.
-This is one of the benefits of having a coaching course and the summer camp taking place in the same location. The coaches will be getting the opportunity to do some real badminton coaching, and not just pretending. This is one of the main assets of the summer school.