The Centre of Excellence (CoE) is an on-going development which aims to further improve the High Performance level in Europe. The vision is to provide a high quality and aspirational training base for talented and deserving players from all over Europe.
A perfect example of this in action is the women’s singles camp currently running at the CoE. Training is taking place in the newly built Holbæk Sportsby. The players invited for the camp have good training possibilities at home but are lacking other women singles players for top-level sparring.
One such player attending the camp is world number 53, Ksenia Polikarpova. The Israeli has collected six singles titles throughout her career and looks set to represent Israel at a number of major events in 2020. Commenting on how the camp is going, Polikarpova says.
- Training is going well and has good intensity. Coach Judith Meulendijks has significant experience which is a good opportunity for us to collect some new views on how we can create training at home.
- My next tournament will be the European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships. I have a real focus to prepare for this because you are representing not just you, but also Israel.
Judith Meulendijks sees different things in my game
Estonian Kristin Kuuba in 2018 really kickstarted her singles career with two Baltic title wins in Latvia and Lithuania. Now coming off the back of a quarterfinal result at her home Estonian International this year, Kuuba hopes to improve her game further at the CoE camp and says.
- The training is going really well, and it is great to have some good sparring. I chose the CoE because I also took part in the last CoE women’s camp and I really liked it. I think Judith Meulendijks sees different things in my game than my coaches at home do, so I get some good advice and learn new things to focus on. I am working to use my height to be a more attacking player on the court.
The players seem to be thriving in these environments, with the top coaching staff on hand and well-matched sparring partners, you can take a lot from all the people around you. Slovakian Martina Repiska, the 2017 Morocco International champion, sees this as a great benefit of this camp when she states.
- I find it a great opportunity to learn and get inspired by each other. Being coached by Judith Meulendijks and other high-level coaches is a big positive experience for me, I feel that I have gained a lot of new knowledge and received useful feedback for the future.
- Both the atmosphere and the set up here is professional and I would like to say thank you to Badminton Europe for organising the camp.