BADMINTON

SPORT I N F OCUS

Focus

Badminton England is on a mission to make badminton the most inclusive and accessible sport in England. We spoke to the national governing body to find out how its new strategy, launched in 2023, will look to achieve that

Badminton England launched its new strategy in September 2023. Called Badminton – A Sport for Everyone, the strategy sets out an ambitious plan to secure “the best possible future” for the sport in England. At the heart of the 10-year plan are two strategic priorities: the needs of young people and a drive to make the sport more open, accessible and inclusive.

“The new strategy is unashamedly focused on young people and inclusivity,” says Sue Storey, Badminton England’s CEO. “We want everyone to pick up a racket and hit a shuttle, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, background, or circumstances, proud to be part of a thriving community and develop a lifelong passion for our sport.”

Engaging players

Badminton England estimates that at least one million people in the UK play badminton each year. However, the national governing body (NGB) currently has around 150,000 active participants on its database. The challenge it faces, therefore, is being able to engage with the players who play regularly but do not currently communicate with the NGB. Successfully doing so will be paramount, if it wishes to hit its own target of having 250,000 active and registered participants by 2026.

Badminton England’s vision, as outlined in the new strategy, is to make Badminton the most inclusive and accessible sport in England. When asked how the body plans to do that, Badminton England says: “In every way – in how we communicate, in how we cater for participants at sessions within our programmes and how we market the sport.

We want everyone to pick up a racket and hit a shuttle, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, background or circumstances

We’re lucky that the sport itself caters for all disabilities, genders and ages

“That starts with making inclusion part of everything we do. We’re lucky that the sport itself caters for all disabilities, genders and ages. The inspiring, passionate and endlessly enthusiastic members who sit on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee represent the voice of the entire badminton community, shaping Badminton England’s development within EDI by sharing their lived experiences and expertise to inform our decision-making.”

Facility strategy

The 10-year plan rests on five strategic pillars – places, perform, develop, thrive and inspire.

The “places” pillar is all about ensuring the sport has the facilities it needs. The strategy outlines a mission to protect and open places to play the sport. According to Badminton England, this will be achieved through a combination of creating more courts and redeveloping ageing/underused ones.

The main goal is to ensure that there are more courts available in areas where they are needed through high demand, to ensure that the growing badminton community is catered for. “In most areas of the country there is a supply/ demand issue with more courts being repurposed or no longer safe for use,” Badminton England says. “This is resulting in our community finding it harder to locate affordable, good quality courts.

“At the last count there were 23,848 courts in operation across the country in 7,555 facilities, not all of which are open or bookable for badminton. This figure is just the number of courts marked in the country in a variety of schools, leisure, public and community buildings.”

When it comes to investing in new facilities, however, Badminton England is looking for help. “We do not currently have any funding available and this is something that we would like to work with external funders to change,” the NGB says.

“Due to the change in funding at Sport England, we have not invested in facilities in the last 10 years.

“Prior to this in 2008-2012 we funded around £6m worth of renovations, upgrades and rebuilds in dedicated centres. We are still harvesting the benefits of that investment now, with the centres across the country being our main dedicated facilities and hubs for clubs, coaches and the community.”

Separately, there is a project underway to make existing facilities more accessible and easier to book.

“An implementation plan is in place to analyse the data we have on facilities with the view of providing the badminton community with a national database of facilities - making all courts accessible and easy to book,” Badminton England says. “We have started work with our data partners to access live court data and display this on our court finder. This will mean that booking a court will be easier as we continue to remove barriers for people to play our sport.”

Healthy grassroots, elite performers

Two of the strategy’s five “pillars” – thrive and inspire – are specifically focused on increasing participation. The aim is to build a thriving badminton community that optimises local delivery and supports player development, while increasing the number of people engaged in badminton and inspiring the next generation of players.

The two others – develop and perform – are focused on developing an improved performance pathway and to ensure that those on it perform in a way which maximises their potential at the highest level. As well as developing talent, the elite sport plan includes the hosting of regional, national and international competitions. The ultimate aim of the performance side of things is to become one of the leading countries in the sport.

“We aim to deliver inspirational moments as we strive to become a top badminton nation in the world, by supporting our players and coaches to be successful at World, Olympic and Paralympic level,” Storey says.

“We will continue to deliver the most prestigious badminton event in the world, the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships (held in March 2024) - a truly exhilarating and memorable festival of badminton that showcases the best in the world, bringing together the global badminton community and inspiring the next generation.”

A guide for success

The aims identified in the strategy will be delivered using six guiding principles, grouped under the theme of “be”: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Be leaders Be strategic Be collaborative Be insight-led Be innovative Be a safe sport for all

The six principles will guide how Badminton England will operate over the next decade

The six principles will guide how Badminton England will operate over the next decade. An example of the practical implications they will have is the way being insight-led will – and already is – guiding decision making across a wide range of topics.

“We now routinely survey and garner qualitative and quantitative research at all levels of the game – coaches, volunteers, adult and junior participants, ticket-purchasing fans, social media followers,” the NGB says.

“An example of a group we have set up to give us those insights is the National Youth Voice Forum, which consists of young people who applied to be the voice of young people in badminton. It brings together young people aged 13-21 to share their thoughts and ideas. The Forum guides the work we do, ensuring our sport is an inclusive and welcoming place for all young people.

“The group spans all over the country, which is important to us because it allows us to get perspectives from lots of different people who have had varying badminton journeys.”

The strategy’s other principles will be followed in a similar vein. When it comes to being collaborative, for example, Badminton England has already mapped out how it will work with all of the sport’s stakeholders to ensure it can create a thriving and sustainable sport for the future.

“We will listen and learn from each other, not being afraid to adapt and change where required,” it says.

“Strong stakeholder engagement and partnerships will support delivery of the strategy. Our priority will be to collaborate, listen and learn from the whole badminton network and provide support to ensure that the organisations best placed to drive delivery are equipped and facilitated to achieve success.”

The way forward

So, what are the biggest challenges faced by Badminton England, when it comes to increasing participation? Unsurprisingly, they’re familiar to those faced by other NGBs.

“At grassroots level, one of the biggest challenges is competing with all the other sports, which are all aiming to do the same,” Badminton England says. “Achieving a cut through is difficult.

“Having places to play is another challenge, ensuring leisure centres remain open and prioritise badminton (where four people can play), rather than basketball or football where more people can play. We know that where badminton has regular and consistent access to a facility, there are strong levels of activity, offering opportunities across all levels of the sport and often supporting player development.

“That’s why our aim is to place data at the heart of decision making and to consistently lobby to protect and open up facilities.

“We also want to open up more community centres, village halls, faith venues and other non-traditional (but suitable) venues to increase the opportunities to play. With the development of more sophisticated outdoor shuttles, the potential to develop more places to play outdoors, including on beaches, will be explored.”

“Our foundations are strong - there are a million people playing badminton regularly in this country, but to ensure our long term health, we need to develop a sport that engages, energises and connects this community and attracts more young people. Our focus will be to create an enhanced sense of community and belonging, with an emphasis on story-telling, highlighting the value badminton brings to individual lives and communities and celebrating the people that make that possible.”