Two of the local Badminton Association’s coaches are currently in Saarbrücken (Germany) to take part in this year’s edition of the EBU Summer School.
This is an annual event, which the European Badminton Union – recently renamed as “Badminton Europe” – has regularly organised for the past twenty-five years. It consists of a week-long intensive training course designed specifically for coaches.
This year’s edition is being attended by 40 coaches from 26 different countries, spanning from Iceland to Turkey. The participants will be using the state-of-the-art facilities at the Olympic Training Centre, where they will reside and train for the duration of the course.
They will be looked after by nine of the EBU’s top high-performance coaches, who will provide them with valuable insights on the latest coaching techniques, applicable to children and youths, during a number of theoretical and practical sessions.
The new EBU Coach Education Syllabus will be introduced to the coaches at the EBU Summer School. Coaches will have attained Level One of this Syllabus by the end of their training course.
The Maltese representatives at this year’s EBU Summer School are Norman Spiteri and Patrick Cassar.
This is Spiteri’s second participation in this event, having already taken part in the 2003 edition held in Denmark. He had also attended an advanced coaching course organised at the French National Sports Institute (INSEP) in Paris.
Spiteri has been actively involved in local badminton for the last twenty-eight years, both as a player and as a coach. He is the holder of a Malta Olympic Committee diploma in Sports Leadership. He was also awarded a Certificate by the University of Malta in Sports Management and Sports Medicine.
Cassar has been on the local badminton scene for these last 31 years, winning several team titles with various local clubs. He is a former junior and senior national team player.
This is Cassar’s first international coaching experience after his successful participation in several local coaching courses conducted by foreign coaches. He is presently involved in coaching juniors aged between ten and sixteen years.
A spokesman for the local Badminton Association expressed its gratitude to Badminton Europe for the valuable opportunity provided to the two local coaches.
He stressed the association’s continued commitment to give international exposure to its better coaches, as this would facilitate the further improvement of local coaching and playing standards.