Reflecting on my Journey to Spain, Women's Badminton and Advances To The Game
- Jan 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 22
Those on Linkedin that have followed me over the years, will know I've got a strong connection with Badminton in the UK and around the world. At age 14 I was selected to play and represent Bradford (city in the UK) at Junior level in various inter-county tournaments. After showing some real potential in training I was given the opportunity to attend the Yorkshire Badminton Trials. Unfortunately I never managed to find my way through to Yorkshire for one reason or another. However, disappointment from this pushed me onto greater heights in terms of my playing, coaching and my academic career. Such is the way in sport you have to sometimes reflect, develop and learn to be able to improve and achieve your goals.
A few years later after completing my Sport Science MSc at Sheffield Hallam University and continuing my playing and coaching under the mentorship of the SHU Badminton Head Coach, I went on to be offered a 4 month paid internship by CTD Performance Director working as a sports scientist and coach at one of the national badminton centres in Spain (CTD Asturias). It was a pivotal moment for me, as it opened my eyes to what more I could achieve as a player/coach but also what I could do to improve my applied sports science practice from a injury rehabilitation and strength and conditioning perspective.
One of the big standout's though of a fantastic journey and learning experience in Spain was the legacy left by Olympic and three time World Champion Carolina Marin! The first ever non-Asian female player to win an Olympic Gold Medal, the enormity of this achievement since the inauguration of the Olympics (Barcelona 1992) as you can imagine is massive! And maybe goes some way to explaining why Women's Singles in the UK is so underrepresented.
Whilst in the training centre in Spain the whole ethos around training, S&C and coaching had been transformed, due to the success of Marin but also very much the head coach Fernando Rivas. Things like psychological interventions/support, working on decision making, introduction of new tactics were all being filtered through from the lead performance centre in Madrid.
Well here we are some 7 years later and Carolina Marin is in another Badminton World Federation (BWF) Championship Semi-Final..... I won't spoil the result for those wanting to watch the video but the advances in tactics (short serve rather then long serve), use of the jump smash, speed around the court and amount of attacking play, clearly demonstrates to me how women's singles has developed into an exciting, high octane sport.
Those sceptics questioning where the scientific research is, don't worry I'll have more to share over the coming months. Hopefully though this summary of my journey in Spain is useful for those avid sports scientists!
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