Mitja Semrov and Kaja Stankovic, both of them top 15 European Junior Ranking players from Slovenia, have been training at the Badminton Europe Certificated Training Centre (CTC) in Odense, Denmark for more than a week now.

For Mitja, this is his second time in Odense: “I already had three weeks of training at the Academy last year. At that time I got to know some players and it was really nice to meet them again this year. I am as well satisfied with the training here – there are always some new exercises coming in. I can feel that I already technically improved my back court strokes and I have better control over the shuttle.”

Kaja says that their everyday is mostly about “hard training and getting to know cook really well”, as they have been staying in the apartment and have been making their own food every day. This is her first training experience of this kind: “The trainings are quite different from the ones at home. I really love the music during the practice. It gives you so much positive energy when it gets hard and I also like the “warm-up small games” on the half of the court. I believe my badminton has improved. I feel my shuttles fly faster and I learned some new shots and improved the old ones.”

Mitja and Kaja train two times a day. In the morning the training starts around 9.00hr, while in the evenings mostly at 18.00hr. “The hardest training of the week was the “multi-shuttle” on Wednesday. It was very hard, but luckily I did it well and survived,” says Kaja.

The two young Slovenes seem to be very satisfied with coaches Lennart Engler and Jakob Toft. “Both of them are very professional in what they are doing. Staying here in Odense is generally speaking great experience for me. I enjoy the trainings and people here are very kind to me. I am glad I got a chance to stay here for two weeks,” says Mitja.

For more information on the Badminton Europe Certificated Training Centres and BE Scholarships please click here.