This edition of the Summer School brought together the U15 training camp, alongside the BWF/BEC Coach Education level 2 course, in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal.  

On the event 54 U15 players, 23 level 2 coaches, 3 experts and 8 staff coaches, participated and contributed for the success of the Summer School, representing an impressive total of 29 countries.    

Huaiwen Xu, who was leading the U15 training camp together with Alan McIlvain, and with the support of other six staff coaches, shared: “If you want to improve your skills, be open to the feedback from the coaches, and write down the notes/key points of each session and the feedback that the coaches give to you.” Xu and Mcllvain also wished to the players to have fun and make connections during the eventful week.  

One of the three experts of the Coach Education course, Robert Wetherell, stated that the coaches’ group was cooperating and helping each other sincerely. A lot of fruitful conversations between the participants and experts took place during the event.  

Victoria Korobova, from Estonia, and level 2 course participant, said: “The course is really intense, we are getting a lot of information. We start from 9 am, and we are finishing around 9 pm as well, and in the evenings, we have to do some homework. I’ve gained a lot of information so far.” 

Players Mafalda Avelino, from Portugal, and Eira Petersen from the Faroe Islands, shared their favourite activities of the Summer School: the football match and the surfing. In turn, Rania Vindis, from Croatia, and Martina Clark from Malta, enjoyed spending the day at the beach, the trainings, and 3 vs 3 games. “I like the 3 vs 3 games, because you learn from others”, shared Martina. 

BEC Development and High Performance Officer, Tommi Saksa, is pleased with the outcome of the event: “Everything went smoothly, and we did not face any major issues. Unlike the previous years, we decided to use the Sportity app, to ease the communication, and to be able to send collective messages and documents to all the participants at the same time. This was an excellent improvement compared to last year”, said Saksa, “Once again, I would like to say a warm thank you to the host, RSL, all the staff, players and the level 2 coach education participants. It was an awesome week with a lot of different activities and time flew so fast.”