Interestingly, Tonga performed well with a young team whose members have all come through the Shuttle Time programme. Tahiti, New Caledonia and Fiji claimed the medals.
Badminton Oceania (BOC) looked at the Pacific Games 2019 as an opportunity to promote the BWF Shuttle Time School Programme to Member Associations who had not yet delivered the programme. Utilising multi-sport Games attendance, it provided a face-to-face opportunity to introduce Shuttle Time as a key programme for the development of badminton at the grassroots level.
In a break between sessions, BOC delivered a brief introductory Shuttle Time workshop aiming to encourage new badminton countries such as Northern Mariana Islands and Solomon Islands to implement Shuttle Time as a badminton development tool and to raise awareness of the programme alongside with the free resources available. A practical session with local children was conducted to show how effective the programme is and how easy it is to deliver safe and fun lessons to children.
All seven athletes from Northern Marianas took part in the workshop and have returned to their country enthusiastic about delivering Shuttle Time as they can see the quality of the programme, the fun participants have whilst learning new skills, and the potential it has on the development of badminton for young athletes in their island nation.
Solomon Islands became a BWF member association earlier this year and had three athletes taking part in the workshop. They have begun developing a long-term strategy to implement Shuttle Time activities in school. It is a great start utilising Shuttle Time to introduce people to the sport and developing badminton in the islands!
“Countries playing in regional Games for the first time, such as Northern Mariana Islands and Solomon Islands, are able to see the level of badminton in other countries and see first-hand the impact Shuttle Time has had in developing badminton in some of these countries. This introductory Shuttle Time workshop has provided the stimulus for new countries (Northern Marianas & Solomon Islands) to join the global Shuttle Time family.” – Nadia Bleaken, BOC Development Manager.
“Shuttle Time for me was a great experience. It was definitely enjoyable having to learn how to teach badminton and training the kids while in Apia, Samoa. It was amazing seeing all the kids having a great time and all seemed enthusiastic about learning and being a part of Shuttle Time, which is what I want and expect to happen here in Saipan so we could see the sport grow. My learning from Shuttle Time will allow me to conduct basic drills in footwork as well as other areas, other than having them start off by picking up a racket and hitting a shuttle. I feel this method is a lot more beneficial. A big help is also the Shuttle Time app, which has everything you need for someone who wants to learn to play badminton to someone wanting to teach badminton. I look forward to having the Shuttle Time programme grow our badminton community here in the CNMI and all in all grow the great sport of badminton itself.” – Nate Guerrero, athlete from Northern Marianas.
“My Shuttle Time experience has been exciting. I’ve taught badminton to children over the summer back home, about three years ago, and YouTube was my way of training them. Now having Shuttle Time allows me to have a proper way of training them. Training the children at Samoa was fun. I was able to get a picture of how to train children back home. Surprisingly, they were all able to hit the shuttle, but of course the needed a little help on their form. The Shuttle Time app was very interesting. Each is detailed with an exercise that will help them improve along the way. With this experience I will be able to teach others here in the CNMI, and I hope to enlarge our badminton community.’ – Janelle Pangilinan, athlete from Northern Marianas.
“The experience of teaching kids before and teaching kids with the guide of Shuttle Time was so different. I used to teach kids here just because their parents forced them to play badminton, but when using Shuttle Time, the kids seem to have fun even if it was only balloons that we were hitting. When I was guided with Shuttle Time’s app and Shuttle Time’s resources, it made it simpler and fun for kids to learn the game. Having those beginner exercises and progressing to the advanced ones was helpful as it also helped me go back to the basics of what badminton is all about. it is a great learning experience for kids and for the teacher as well.” – Dan Macario, athlete from Northern Marianas.
