The YMCA Badminton Club is one of the oldest badminton clubs in the Norwich and District league, having established around 50 years ago. They have mens, ladies and mixed teams in the Norwich and District league and in the past many senior county players have come from the club. Now with the establishing of a junior club, they are bringing on a new generation of potential county players.

• The challenge

Due to problems at previous venues, the YMCA club worked closely with the Deputy Head at Hellesdon High School, Alastair Ogle, with a CCDP, to enable them to move into their new sports hall at the start of the 2007/8 season. Their plans were to start up a brand new junior club to introduce children to the game and provide quality coaching to progress the club.

• Key actions

Through the Regional Manager, Julia Strong and the Norfolk Development Officer, Norma Bowen, Alastair Ogle applied for the CCDP money through BADMINTON England to update the changing facilities at their new sports hall, to enable community club use. This happened just in time for the club to start the season in their new venue and the club was able to begin promoting their new junior club. The 2 coaches at the YMCA, Bev Sharman and Suzanne Benton have been the main instigators of this project, by working closely with all parties and are now the 2 main coaches for the juniors.

• The solution

The junior club became an overnight success, linking with the high school and other schools; junior and secondary in the East Norfolk School Sports Partnership. The numbers of children have increased so much, that the coaches are now splitting them into 2 groups to accommodate the high numbers and different abilities. Many of the children have now entered county restricted, schools and moderates tournaments with several successes.

But the YMCA club's biggest achievement has been that over the last few months they have been working towards BADMINTON England's club accreditation and became a Clubmark and Premier Club in November 2007. They are the first badminton club in the Norwich league and the first outside the borough of West Norfolk. The club will be gaining publicity for this achievement through the local press and on the sports partnership and county association websites, plus a feature in the Rising Stars in the Eastern Daily Press, including the photograph of the official presentation.

• The future

The YMCA Club will continue to play at Hellesdon High school and through their Premier Club development plan, they intend to get more coaches qualified to assist with the junior club. They are expanding the successful junior club to 2 sections to bring in more children and increase the quality of the coaching, the main aim is to introduce more children to the game and maintain the future of the YMCA BC, by feeding the juniors into the senior club and to get more children into the county squads.

• Contact details

Coaches - Bev Sharman 07894 322 869, Suzanne Benton 01603 754488
Chairman - Suzanne Benton
Treasurer - Eddie Simmons