Another successful badminton camp for girls aged U17 took place in the middle of August, 10th until the 15th, in Kragujevac, Serbia. Conceived as a Regional Camp, part of Badminton Europe's Development programme, with BEC's financial support, this year's camp united girls and their coaches representing seven European countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Macedonia.

The Organisers from the Serbian Badminton Association Maria and Andreja said: "We're so proud to see that more and more countries are interested to be part of this project. We've had a really enjoyable week with top motivated players and coaches from seven European countries, and we would like to say thanks to all participants for the great work during the Girls project 2014. And also to all institutions that supported the Girls project."

Debbie Lynch spoke about her experience with girls: "I myself do very few training camps but I personally feel that with this camp I really can make a difference. It was also interesting for me to see the player improvement levels from last year and to compare the girls to the others girls that I work with in other parts of Europe. This ability to push, to be faster, quicker and to have an understanding on what it takes to be a top or better player. I am 100% sure nearly all the girls have ideas to be better, using their abilty to try new things. Girls love challenges from an early age. Important for the coaches to take an interest in them as people and to encourage and support no matter how it goes on the court, focusing on long term development and learning skills."

About the camp in Serbia she added: "Again it was a pleasure to be asked to come one more time as the chief coach on the girls project. It was once more the top motivation of Andreja and Marija which makes this camp so successful, 100% professional and with great attention to detail. The week just flies past. The countries involved this time where Austria, Serbia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia for the first time. We had a  good group of coaches with a selection of the older, more experienced and younger coaches who are learning how to work and have patience with the kids: Corina (Romania), Lukas and Martina (Czech), Tina (Austria), Marija / Ema (Serbia), Victoria (Hungary) and Kristin (Bulgaria)."

"The focus - Debbie said - was on learning to work hard, to not be afraid to push bounderies. To move fast and with good movement away from the back court fast to the net, from mid-court to the back with economical footwork instead of just running, working down in the legs. We used the coaches to implement their styles of warming up and using the new implemented strength exercises (core strength) and working on the main technical areas."

We build up an information network which was constantly refreshed (facebook, TV coverage) Our specific facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/badmintoneurope.girls - was actively updated with photos from trainings sessions, social activities, mentoring activities with Women in Sport from Serbian Olympic Committee, meeting at the city hall, news from webpages.

If you want to get a feeling on how things went; take a look at our facebook page  - like the 'Girls Project' page and enjoy the smiling faces.

Viktoria Ferencz - Coach Hungary

IT WAS GREAT!!! High standard of training sessions with participation of international players. Excellent organization with interesting social programme. Lovely company. I learnt a lot during the week just like my girls. Thank you all!!

Kristin Stoykova - Coach Bulgaria

Girls camp was great. Interesting trainings and so many new thinks for me and my girls. It was pleasant for me to join this camp agein. Thanks for possibility for us to be part of this.

Martina Fartagova - Coach Czech Republic

Thank you very much for invitation to this camp. I would like to congratulation to Marija to create project Girls camp. Girls camp is very positive idea. All Czech girls enjoyed this camp. Camp was very good organised. Good trainings and  many social activites. We hope You find good support from BEC and Badminton Serbia to organise same project next year. Good luck and thank you.

Tina Riedl - Coach Austria

It was great being part of the Girls Camp for the three years. Marija and Andreja did a great job, so that the girls need not only high quality and hard training sessions. They also enjoyed the social programme to get to know the other girls from six countries. For me as a coach it was a good chance to exchange knowledge concerning working with badminton girls on and off the court. Thanks to Debbie, she did a great job. I was able to get my experience as a coach improved this week. I hope that we will see each other in 2015 again.

Corina Dan - Romania (Member of BEC's Women in Badminton working group)

Being here for the 4th year in a row makes me happy to see more countries are being interested in this project. But the most important thing I would like to point out is the continuation of the project. Sometimes it’s easy to start something new, but only perseveration drives you to achieve a long-lasting project that is, capable to survive thanks to a good organisation and staff coaches’ passionate implication. These “forces” keep the motivation on court for players as well as for their coaches. Thank you Serbian Federation for the initiative, thank you Badminton Europe for your support. Thank you PINK TEAM!