YONEX Welsh International Badminton Championships 2014

Today, the juniors went to the YONEX Welsh International Badminton Championships at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff. The day was split up into two sessions of an hour of badminton tuition and an hour watching the badminton competition itself.

Our workshop consisted of warm up games where we had to blow the shuttlecock across the court in a relay and then balancing it on a racquet. Skill sessions were then given before some team games were introduced where we got to apply those skills taught. It was great fun and everyone became enthused with a sport, which was new for most of us. We were all given signed posters of the Welsh players involved in the competition.

We then went off to watch the competition which was set out on four courts with action taking place on each. We all decided to choose players to support and started to make some noise. At one point we were joined by the father of one of the English players, a 15 year old girl called Evie, who asked us to cheer for her and her partner. We agreed and made quite enough noise in the warm up for her to crack a (rather bemused and embarrassed) smile. Unfortunately, her pairs lost their game. We then turned our attention to a Welsh pair, who competed well, led on occasions but ultimately couldn't quite win their match.

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed  our visit and a lot more of us have become interested in badminton.