Denmark, a small country in southern Scandinavia with only near 5 million inhabitants, is Europe’s strongest badminton nation. Is there a magic recipe to their success? This is a question that runs through the mind of many European coaches and the reason for Badminton Europe’s BASIS Membership Exchange Programme organising an experience for the second year in a row.

The programme was conceived as a means for Members to exchange knowledge about a specific topic. This time, 15 coaches from 11 different European nations spent two days learning all about the Danish badminton culture both on a local level through clubs and regional level, by visiting the Regional Elite Training Centre located in Aarhus.

Badminton Europe’s Development & High Performance Manager Jeroen van Dijk is quite pleased with the activity and the response he’s received from the participants. “It’s been two intense days with a lot of information and great insights into the Danish Badminton Training Culture. I’m really pleased with the event. Many participants could relate to the setups presented and get fruitful insights back to their countries.”

On arrival day, the participant coaches attended a training session at Viby Badmintonklub, where Jesper Faueskov, Head Coach of the Juniors Squad, shared the key elements to keep kids motivated and engaged in the sport, together with the club’s mission and values. “We work on the culture every day. Everybody is helping each other and participating. It’s important to make players love badminton and the fun element is key to make them come again.”

The second day started with an early session at the Regional Elite Training Center, a hub for Denmark’s athletes commonly from Jutland, as a previous step before jumping into the Danish National Elite Training Centre in Brøndby. 

The activities included observing the morning training session of top Danish badminton players followed by a presentation on the Danish Training System delivered by the Head Coach, Sven Åge Sørensen, as well as having the chance to ask all their curiosities. “The main thing is to cooperate with the clubs. We have good communication with the coaches where we discuss everything – strategic things, motivation, player development. We have created an environment where everyone is pushing in the same direction,” Sørensen stated.

As a second course of the day, Kenneth Larsen took the lead and provided the coaches with a glimpse of the different learning styles. Afterward, the floor was given to the second largest club in Denmark, Højberg Badmintonklub, closing the thought-provoking experience by showing its great facilities and establishing a captivating discussion together with the Head of Sport, Michael Kjeldsen, and badminton player Karan Rajarajan who chipped in with his experience as an athlete of the club.

Hopefully, the job doesn’t end here. The participants can now return home and draw inspiration from the key elements of the Danish training culture to implement new ideas into their systems.

Van Dijk expressed his gratitude to all those who made this experience possible. “We would like to give a big thank you to all the guests that have accompanied us during this enriching badminton Danish journey and have opened their doors to our European coach community and given an insight into the Danish club structure.”