By Sarah Tone, Communications Coordinator
More than fifty students and coaches from northern Manitoba had the opportunity to learn badminton from two of Manitoba’s top badminton players as part of the Calm Air Sport Series, hosted the weekend of January 13-15 in Thompson.
The students learned badminton fundamentals from Kevin Tsang and Kyi Nichols, nationally-ranked badminton players and qualified coaches with the Manitoba Badminton Association.
The Calm Air Sports Series brings sports camps to young athletes in northern Manitoba three times a year, giving students an opportunity to try new sports with the help of elite coaches, and for community organizers to develop their own coaching and program development skills.
The program is made possible through the generous support of Calm Air, who provide the leaders with air travel to the host community, and coordination between Sport Manitoba and provincial sport organizations.
Grand Rapids coach Kate Beardy used to play a wide variety of sports growing up in the north as a way to stay busy through the winter, and believes its essential to keeping young athletes busy through the school year.
“There’s not a lot else to do to keep you out of trouble,” she recalled. “There’s volleyball season, there’s basketball season. If I only focused on one, I wouldn’t be doing anything else the other times during the year.”
Beardy also says sports and travel help keep students focused on their studies through the season. “You have to come to school to be part of sports, and you have to get good grades to come on these trips. It keeps them focused and on track.”
Coach Carlos Martin, also traveling from Grand Rapids, finds that trying different sports is great for his students’ confidence as they find their strengths and weaknesses. “Sometimes, the kids only know what they’re already doing. Then, they try a new thing and find out they have more talents than they realized themselves.”
Nichols knows the difference that quality support and opportunities make. While many of his competitors could afford to play badminton at dedicated clubs year-round, he struggled to secure enough court time in small gyms to practice. “A few coaches really helped me out to get court time and made it really worthwhile to play. So this is a way to give back, and to be that coach for other players.”
For those athletes invested in competitive sports, strong competition is important to reach their full potential. Developing players and coaches across northern Manitoba gives athletes better access to more competition within their region: in years when clinics and skills development were more available to students across northern Manitoba, Harwood saw a marked increase in the quality of his own athletes.
“We saw over and over that when you developed kids from the outlying communities, our kids got better too. We saw immense growth, and we were one of the dominant regions in high school badminton. It made us more self-sustaining: when you develop sports in the north, it helps everyone.”
Ken Fitz, fifteen, from Gillam, strives to compete at a high level, but his mother, Ayano Fitz, mentions he can’t always find peers to compete against. “He used to have more athletes at his level, but there aren’t a lot of students to play against anymore, so I’m glad he has this opportunity.”
Still, he was excited to learn from exceptional Manitoba coaches, and picked up a lot of small changes that he thinks will compound into big improvements. “It’s different perspectives from nationally-ranked players,” said Ken. “Most coaches aren’t nationally-ranked.”
Fifteen-year-old Grand Rapids student Mackenzie Turner has already been playing badminton for six years, alongside hockey and volleyball. She wants to take her sports career as far as she can go with her skills, and by the end of her first day, she had already learned a lot from the clinic.
“My serves used to be so high, they would smash on me really easily. Now they’re more level,” she said.
Turner was excited to bring the skills she learned back home. “When you go out of town, you learn a lot of skills and get a lot of improvement. That improvement you learned, you can bring it back to your hometown and play with your friends.”
Her friend, Karizma Walker, 15, has only been playing Badminton for a few months, but the clinic already taught her a lot about her footwork on the court. Still, she was mostly excited for the opportunity to go somewhere new. “I want to show my mom how brave I am, and how I can do things on my own.”
Since 2014, the series has made 18 stops in nine different northern communities across Manitoba, hosting 10 different sports. Watch this video to learn more.
