Laura Vana of Estonia is currently training at the Odense Certificated Training Centre thanks to the scholarship she received from Badminton Europe. After her first week at the centre, she shares her experience.

“The first week has gone by very quickly. I arrived on Sunday [11 March] after a very exhausting trip. The first practise was on Sunday evening where we played some matches and did some rally exercises on speed.

From Monday to Friday the practise started every morning from 8:00. This was the practise of Odense badminton academy and it was for a smaller group; the coach is Lennart Engler.

The practise in the morning is usually 2 hours. First hour is very intensive and in the second hour we usually are focusing individually on the technical aspects.

Every Wednesday and Friday morning we have multi feeding. This is the hardest practise of the week. It is not very long, but very intensive.

Every Monday and Wednesday afternoon we have gym practise and after that badminton practise for 1.5 hour with short interval rally exercises.

On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evening there is Odense badminton club practise where the group is bigger.

In the weekend I was taking it easy, rest on Saturday and half of Sunday. Collected some energy to start the new week fresh.

From the first week I have only good impression. The environment is very professional. Lennart is a very good and experienced coach. I have gotten so many good tips already for my game and footwork, and I feel that I am improving very much during my stay here.”

For more information about the Badminton Europe Certificated Training Centres and the Badminton Europe Scholarships, click here.