Badminton coaches get world level certification

Shayne Fairman, Gleaner Writer

The Jamaica Badminton Association (JBA) has taken steps to bolster the standard of coaching locally by certifying six new coaches to Badminton World Federation (BWF) standard.

The newly certified tacticians are Marcia Remikiee-Williams, Alya Lewis and Karma Taylor among women, along with Neil Lewis, Devon Wisdom and Colin Rose.

They had to meet competence levels in both theoretical and practical assessments of the course, which ended on Sunday. Fifteen coaches participated in the exercise.

Through this programme, the BWF has taken steps to introduce a standard of coaching that is accepted worldwide.

"It was encouraging for the Jamaica Badminton Association that three of the coaches who passed the course were not traditional badminton personnel, but came from Insports (Institute of Sports) and other community colleges," said JBA president Robert Richards.

He added that such developments will make it easier to have badminton spread in as many schools and communities as possible.

During the six-day programme, Howard Ranger and Gregory Wong served as tutors, while the course was monitored by German Valdez of the Pan-American Federation.

The JBA, along with its partners, will roll out an additional leg of Shuttle Time and BWF level one courses in the first quarter of 2015 (January-April) in Mandeville and Montego Bay.

For those courses, the JBA is hoping to have an established facilitator to manage the Shuttle Time programme.