From the 15 – 21 February, the Turkish Badminton Federation successfully held their first Badminton Europe supported Regional Project activity in Istanbul. The aim of the project was the development of U13 and U15 badminton players from 5 different countries from the southeast of Europe. After the training camp, the young players participated in the Turkiye Junior International tournament.
Organised by the Turkish Federation, the training camp included participants from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania. All together, there have been 46 players and 12 coaches. Two instructors have guided them: Tan Phick Eng from Malaysia and the Turkish Hakan Avci. Together they successfully presented different basic techniques and tactics to all participants.
The camp started on Monday with the huge group being split up to guarantee higher quality training for all the players. Every group had two two-hour training sessions per day. The training included all different exercises to improve the basic skill and accuracy of the different levels of players. Additionally some physical training was carried out. Singles and doubles tactics were also important topics for the young players.
All participants took advantage of being in Istanbul. After the training sessions in the hall during the evening they went to do some sightseeing and shopping.
After the intensive days of training all players had the opportunity to prove their new knowledge and abilities at the Turkiye Junior International. So the tournament was quite a successful finish for some of the players after a week of fun and hard practice. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed their time in Istanbul.
The main objective of the Regional Project programme of Badminton Europe is to encourage collaborations between different countries. This can be with different player levels, age groups or through coach education.
