The number of people playing the sport is
constantly increasing and there are now 3.5 million occasional players
than 2,300 schools. The aim is to impact on more formal play, integrating badminton into the curriculum and GCSE requirements, as well as to develop a new national junior league. Badminton England is also redesigning its primary school offering and investing in further education. Currently offered at 56 universities, the NGB is looking to expand to 70 by March 2017, adapting its programmes to suit the college market. One of the key challenges for NGBs is to fund and maintain a sufficient workforce to grow the sport. Badminton England’s community-based approach is helping to circumvent this. The introduction of Community Badminton Networks (CBN) – where a group of key local partners comes together to build a development plan for badminton in their area – means there's an organic focus designed to increase participation and enable anyone who wants to play badminton to find activity appropriate to their ability and desire. The people are effectively championing the sport on Badminton England's behalf. Under the modern PLAY Badminton initiative, Badminton England has a flexible approach to listening and responding to the needs of its providers, such as the leisure centre market. Rejecting the one
Dedicated badminton centres are proven to be the best way to develop the sport at all levels – but there are very few centres in England where badminton is the priority sport
size fits all approach, badminton now comes in all shapes and sizes, from No Strings pay and play options, to Battle Badminton singles leagues and coached sessions, the NGB is making it as easy as possible to encourage playing. The programme that is possibly the boldest move for badminton, however, is the Smash up! campaign. Designed for 13- to 16-year-olds, the innovative product is currently in 1,000 schools, plus 500 community and leisure sites. Delivered by trained ‘activators’ the sessions involve music and casual play and focus more on allowing teenagers to try the sport and experiment with the speed and skills involved. Badminton England
sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 4 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
is also supporting it socially, creating a ‘racquetheads’ Twitter channel It to make young people more familiar with the sport.
COURTSIDE Badminton is an indoor sport and, therefore, somewhat restricted by the availability of court space and time. Badminton England has established a strong relationship with a number of national operators. As part of the PLAY Badminton programme they invest in partnerships with operators to upgrade and increase the use of sports halls under their management in identified priority areas. In return for this investment they seek to secure increased court access. The aforementioned CBNs also play
a role in galvanising the support of local partners to refurbish courts or even to access untapped community resources such as schools and churches. However, it's the dedicated badminton
centres that have proven to be the best way to develop the sport at participation and performance level. Unfortunately, England still has very few centres where badminton is the priority sport. Currently, in Denmark – one of the major European competitor nations – almost every town has a hall designed for badminton as
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