Weekday Junior Coaching Update

Sat 03 Oct 2020 17:45 Chris Travis

Hi Everyone. Unfortunately Pates Grammar School remains shut for external bookings so we've been struggling to get our Wednesday Junior Coaching session back up and running.

We've got some good news though. We've been able to secure access to courts on a Monday evening, at Cheltenham Ladies College (CLC) Sports Centre, until at least Christmas. So we will be setting up a session to run there instead. Although it means we have to switch days, the hall there is larger so it will make it easier for us to run social distanced sessions, as well as allowing us to increase the number of players at the session.

We are excited to be able to get a junior session back up and running on a week day evening and we hope that your child(ren) will be able to join us. You can find details about the session, including the registration form, at https://pittvillebadminton.co.uk/junior-coaching. Please note that sessions start on the 12th, not the 5th!

As usual, if you you have any questions then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Junior Social Distancing Update

Sat 12 Sep 2020 19:18 Chris Travis

Hi Everyone, I wanted to get in touch and let you know what we've made some small changes to our guidelines on how our junior sessions will run.

Firstly, a quick note to let you know that our sessions are unaffected by the recent announcement from the UK Government restricting social gatherings to a maximum of 6 people. This is because we fall under the exemption for organised sport as our sessions are run according to government approved social distancing guidelines.

BADMINTON England have changed their guidelines, increasing the maximum possible coach:player ratio from 1:5 to 1:15. However, players must continue to be split into groups, containing a maximum of 6 players. Our approach will be:

• a maximum of 4 groups [same as before]
• each group containing a maximum of 6 players [previously, 5]
• each group using different courts and shuttles [same as before]
• coaches will be split into 2 teams
• each player group will be assigned to a coaching team
• coaching teams may be assigned multiple player groups, but the total number of players will not exceed 15 [previously, 1 coach per group]

This change will benefit players as they will receive feedback from multiple coaches and it will allow our more experienced coaches to support our less experienced coaches. Coaches will take the necessary precautions when moving between groups.

When one of our coaches welcomes players at the entrance to the sports hall, we will tell the players which group they have been assigned to for that session. Once players have entered the sports hall, we are unable to make any changes to the groups. Therefore we would really appreciate it if you could please let us know if your child(ren) is unable to attend a particular session. This will enable us to rebalance the groups before the session to ensure that we don't have groups with awkward numbers.

Thanks

September Sessions

Sun 30 Aug 2020 16:07 Chris Travis

A quick review on where we are at with getting our sessions back up and running. The following sessions are running. Note that they are all by invite-only and require pre-registration. Please check your email inboxes for details.

Senior Club Night - Tuesdays, Balcarras, 8-10pm
Senior Club Night - Sundays, Balcarras, 8-10pm
Beginner Junior Coaching - Sundays, Balcarras, 5-6:30pm
Intermediate Junior Coaching - Sundays, Balcarras, 6:30pm-8pm

Pates Grammar School are remaining closed to external lettings for the time being. Unfortunately that means we are unable to run the following sessions. We are trying to find alternative court time so that we can get them running again as soon as we can.

Junior Coaching - Wednesdays, Pates, 6:30pm-7:30pm
Senior Club Night - Wednesdays, Pates, 7:30pm-10pm

And we're back :)

Fri 24 Jul 2020 22:55 Chris Travis

More good news - the sports hall at Balcarras will be reopening from Monday, so we will be able to get our indoor sessions going again. Obviously we will have to run sessions a little differently for the time being. You will also find that some sessions will have to change day, time and venue in the short term (Pates won't be reopening until September, at the earliest). Keep an eye on your email inbox for information on when and how sessions will run, and how to sign up for them.

Junior sessions are scheduled to restart on Sunday 2nd August. Details about how these sessions will operate are already available here.

Adult sessions will run according to these guidelines.