Badminton Europe gives scholarships to players from Member Associations who do not have a High performance training center. These Scholarships can be used in one of the eight Certificated Training centers of Badminton Europe. The goal of these Scholarships is to give players new ideas how to practice, more motivation and the chance to play against different players.

Laura Vana and Raul Must both from Estonia used their Scholarship to train at the Certificated Training center in Odense, Denmark. Both players stayed in Odense from 11 April to 2 May.

For Laura Vana (world number 126), it was the second scholarship that she used in Odense. Here is a part of what she wrote in her final report to Badminton Europe: "Practice in Odense was very well structured and in the beginning of every practice we had a plan what we are going to do and focus on in the practice. We focused very much on technical aspects of the game which I feel was exactly what I needed. Coach Lennart Engler wants you to think very much during the practice at what you are focusing on and that is very important. There were a lot sparring partners like Zuzana Pavelkova from Czech Republic, Camilla Martens from Denmark and other Danish players. I was very happy to practice with the girls for a change, since at home I only practice with the guys and that can be at times mentally very hard."

For Raul Must (world number 115) it has been the first time in Odense: "Every practice session even when I was feeling a bit tired I could push myself 100% to get the most out of every session. I also got a lot of new tips technically and tactically to raise my performance. But most important is that I have something to work with at home. It has always been quite difficult to wake up early morning and start practice session 8 am. In Odense I didn’t have so big difficulties with that because everybody were warming up together. I think I learned how to get ready mentally and also physically for trainings. When practising with good players I had more pressure to be a good sparring also for them - so overall I improved a lot as a sportsman."

For more information about the Certificated Training centers and scholarships look at our Development website.