New Staffordshire Badminton Development Officer

International badminton player joins Sport Across Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent and the Black Country Sports Partnership as the new Badminton Development Officer.


Matt Hanson is the new Staffordshire Badminton Development Officer replacing Rachel Bayley who has gone on to become Regional Development Manager for the West Midlands for Badminton England. His background is firmly in badminton as a player and coach, having achieved international representative honours at junior level and most recently represented Great Britain at the World Student Games. 


He studied Coach Education and Sports Development at the University of Bath where he took a keen interest in the development of badminton.


In his new role, his overall aim is to get more people in Staffordshire playing badminton. To achieve this aim he will work with young people and schools, be involved with club development as well as coaching and increasing the profile of the sport.

If you require any information or assistance with regard to badminton in Staffordshire, then please do not hesitate to contact him on:

Tel: 01785 619694
Mob: 07825 981924
Email: matthanson@badmintonengland.co.uk 

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"Not Quite Goodbye”

As some of you may or may not be aware, during the past three months, Rachel Bayley has been carrying out the role of Regional Development Manager for the West Midlands for Badminton England. Rachel was appointed on 3^rd September 2007. During the last few months Rachel has been continuing to support key partners and projects in Staffordshire until her replacement was appointed, namely Matt Hanson.
 

As a short outgoing update on Badminton development within Staffordshire and the West Midlands, Rachel has provided a brief outline below of what investment Badminton England has recently received within the region and county. 
 

"Badminton England was successful in receiving £300,000 from Sport England Club & Coach Fund for the whole of the West Midlands. We feel that the most appropriate way of delivering this programme and utilising this funding is by taking a staggered approach. In doing so, we have introduced phased counties, based on our workforce, within each county and the strength of clubs. Staffordshire were lucky enough to be appointed as a Phase 1 county. This means that Staffordshire Badminton will see £90,000 per year for three years to implement a sound performance infrastructure and development programme for coaches.

 

This project will see three performance centres set up across Staffordshire based within our accredited clubs. They will target what we consider the three most critical parts of player and club development in-line with LTAD. This is raw talent, competitive club opportunities and elite performance training. Clubs will be given this funding on the basis that there is a continual increase in participation, at a grass roots level, and appoint a Level 3 coach who will operate out of the performance centre for 12 hours per week.
 

Watch this space and get ready for Staffordshire to produce some top quality athletes worthy of places on our World Futures Programme."

For further information regarding performance centres please contact:  

Rachel Bayley
Regional Development Manager, West Midlands
Tel:07825 094722
Email: rachelbayley@badmintonengland.co.uk
Website: www.badmintonengland.co.uk