Badminton News up to 2004 |
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Badminton trials for 2004, 2 September 2004
The Gippsland Sports Academy will be conducting Badminton trials on the 12th September 2004 at the Traralgon Sports Stadium. The day will commence at 10.00 and run through until 4:00
The Academy is excited with the outlook of the program. Murray Hocking has been appointed as the Head Coach and brings a wealth of playing experience and success to the program to supplement his theoretical teaching of the game.
The Academy has invited last year’s athletes to the trials and athletes that performed well at the Gippsland Junior Championships, which were held in mid July. The trial day is also open to other interested Gippsland Badminton athletes.
The trial day will include an overview of the Academy and what the athletes can expect to gain from being involved in the Badminton program. Athletes will then be put through some fitness testing by strength and conditioning consultant Les Ponton.
The afternoon session will include some technical coaching under the guidance Hocking and the local coaches the Academy has been able to assemble. The benefit of this approach is having the local input in conjunction with the unbiased view from Hocking. The remainder of the day will be match play and simulation amongst the athletes.
Academy Executive Officer Mr. Robbie Coyle said "selection for the athletes include attitude, results, enthusiasm, training performance and physical conditioning. The athletes will receive monthly training for a year as well as attendance at three competitions." The program will commence with the induction day in early October.
For athletes that are interested in attending please contact the Gippsland Sports Academy on 5127 0223.
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Success for State badminton star, 21 July 2004
Gippsland Sports Academy athlete, Jessica Lyons has just returned from the Elphin Sports Centre in Launceston where she competed in both the Individual and Team categories of the CP Madden Trophy Australian Championships from the 4th July to 10th July.
Jessica, 17 a member of the Academy for the past 3 years, was a part of a very successful Victorian number 1 team finishing 2nd out of 8 teams from Australia and New Zealand in the u/19 competition.
Jessica also achieved some promising individual results in both the doubles and singles. Jessica and her partner Erin Carroll from Ballarat made it through to the Semi Finals of the doubles competition. Jessica capped off a fantastic week with a Quarter Finals finish in the singles earning her an Australian Ranking of 10.
Also a year 12 student at Traralgon Secondary College, Jessica’s role in the Badminton program extends beyond being an athlete. Jessica is seen by many as a mentor and is looked up to as a role model by the programs younger athletes. Jessica will more than likely be attending University next year, with the Academy intending to keep Jessica in the Badminton program in a mentoring capacity.
Jessica’s progress over the last two years has been very impressive. Her success is a credit to the dedication she has shown in her training and towards the Academy’s badminton program.
The Gippsland Sports Academy wishes to further congratulate Jessica on being selected as a member of the No 2 Victorian Senior team to compete in Noosa in August.
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Badminton Star appointed Academy Coach, 10 July 2004
The Gippsland Sports Academy is thrilled to announce Mr. Murray Hocking as their 2004 Badminton Head Coach. Mr. Hocking’s appointment is a significant coup for the Academy and the Badminton program in particular due to his outstanding playing career.
Mr. Hocking was ranked in the top echelon of Australian Badminton players for over ten years and has only recently retired from International Badminton. His achievements include an Australian number one ranking from 1996 to 1998, doubles number one ranking five times as well as being fortunate enough to represent Australia at both the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
More recently Mr. Hocking has turned his attention to being a selector for both State and National sides. Although he hasn’t had a long coaching career his expertise and the panel of coaches that he has played under will be a definite advantage and hold him in good stead.
The Academy was fortunate that at our second last 2003 session Murray was able to attend as a guest coach. All of the athletes were in awe of his skills and ability to communicate effectively with them. Given this brief introduction to the athletes Murray has all ready established good rapport with the athletes and as such the Badminton program should continue to flourish with the net result to improve Gippsland’s young badminton elite.
Academy Executive Officer Mr. Robbie Coyle stated "the Academy is delighted to have appointed Mr. Hocking as the Head Coach and the revival of the Badminton program should continue. Murray’s appointment is not dissimilar, relative to the sport, as appointing Michael Voss as Head Coach."
Over the coming weeks the Academy will be announcing trial dates for the 2004 program and athletes will be heavily assessed. The intention is to further provide the expert coaching, sports science and support services whilst again competing in tournaments to improve the State and National ranking of the athletes. Satellite squads will be operating in all of the shires that the athletes are from.
In other local Badminton news, last weekend the Gippsland Junior Championships took place at the Traralgon Basketball Centre. There were 53 athletes competing over 5 age groups (U/11, 13, 15, 17 and 19).
For each of the age groups there were five different competitions, those being boys’ singles, girls’ singles, boys’ doubles, girls’ doubles and mixed doubles. The following are the results for the respective age groups: (see attached spreadsheet).
The Player of the Day award went to Steven Fox from Morwell. Jessica Lyons, from Cowwarr, terrific form continued on the day and Jess was the winner of the Player of the Year award.
This event also in conjunction with the Association games, which will be contested doubles as the selection day for the Gippsland Junior Representative teams that will compete at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on the 29th August.
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Melanie Smith competes in New Zealand tournament, 29 April 2004
Morwell teenager, Melanie Smith travelled to North Harbour, Auckland to compete in the prestigious June Beavan tournament during her school holidays. The Gippsland Sport Academy Badminton star lined up for the Victorian team to contest the tournament, which matches the States of Australia and New Zealand representative, sides against one another. Melanie has only just turned 15 and was bottom aged for the tournament, going up against some of the finest 16 year old badminton players from Australia and New Zealand.
Melanie competed in teams and individual events for the Victorian team, with some excellent performances. In the singles competition, Melanie finished with a final plate after making the consolation final. In the Girls Doubles, her team made the fourth round and in the mixed doubles were able to make the 3rd Round. Victoria as a team finished in second place overall.
These results were terrific for Melanie given she has another year in the age group and an opportunity to further hone her developing Badminton skills. Melanie will continue training for the Chris Humphrey Office National Badminton program back at her hometown with the next major competition still several months away.
In other Academy Badminton news Murray Hocking spent the weekend training and educating the squad members. Murray has recently retired from competitive international badminton after being half of Australia’s best doubles team for numerous years. Murray’s role with the Academy is expected to increase in a mentoring type role.
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Badminton State selection for Melanie Smith, 5 February 2004
Morwell youngster Melanie Smith has recently been selected to represent Victoria in the June Bevan teams tournament in the Under 17 age group. This tournament is conducted annually throughout Australia and New Zealand and this year will be held at North Harbour in New Zealand. It is a ten - day tournament with the last two days focusing on individual competition. It is an Australian tournament with State Representative teams from Australia competing as well as two south, two central and two north New Zealand teams competing.
Melanie, 14 years old, has been a part of the Gippsland Sports Academy Chris Humphrey Office National program since 2000. She began her Badminton pursuits in 1997 and began competing in tournaments in the Under 13 section in 1999. Melanie has displayed a natural tendency for the sport and has quickly progressed through the ranks.
She has numerous representative honours including Gippsland singles titles in Under 13’s and Under 15’s and Victorian singles titles in Under 13’s and twice in doubles events in Under 13’s and 15’s. These outstanding performances are complimented by a number of other mixed double achievements.
Academy Head Coach Alan Hall believes this is another opportunity for Melanie in her quest to improve her Badminton and reach her full potential. Mr. Hall said, "Melanie has been progressing extremely well this year and her selection in the State Team is testament to her performances and dedication and willingness at training. This is a goal Melanie set herself at the start of the year and to have achieved it is terrific as she was unfortunate to miss out last year.
The Chris Humphrey Office National Badminton Program has been running for six months now with three more training sessions to come, which will be based in Bairnsdale, Sale and Morwell. The Academy would like to invite people with a interest in Badminton and aspiring Academy athletes or coaches to come along to one of the sessions in order to see what is involved. For further details on the Academy or the aforementioned training sessions please contact Robbie Coyle on 5127 0223.
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Badminton athletes excel in State Junior Championships, 14 October 2003
The Victorian Badminton State Championships were conducted in Traralgon over the weekend at the Traralgon Basketball Stadium. The Gippsland Sports Academy had twelve athletes from the Chris Humphrey Office National Badminton program compete in the event.
The day’s proceedings began at 9.00 with approximately 60 Badminton players from all over Victoria competing in the U13, U15, U17 and U19 competitions. The Victorian State Junior Championships is the best level of local competition for Australian Badminton players barring the Australian Junior Championships. Badminton Victoria conducted the event with assistance from the hosting association, the Gippsland Junior Badminton Association, who held the event for the second year in a row.
The Academy athletes looked splendid in their new playing uniforms with the coaching staff including Head Coach Alan Hall in attendance to offer encouragement and tactical expertise. The standout performers for the Academy were Jessica Lyons (Cowwarr), Melanie Smith (Morwell), Jack Burgess (Labertouche), Mitchell McKenzie (Bairnsdale) and Murray Purvis (Darnum).
Jessica followed up from the previous weekends terrific performances, with a first place in the U 19 Girls Singles competition. Jessica also teamed with Clinton Broomhall for a Runners Up in the U 19 Mixed Doubles. Jessica has taken all before her this year and her commitment and results thus far are second to none in the program.
Melanie Smith teamed with Bethany Crane, an Academy athlete from last year to win the U 15 Girls Doubles event. Manu Poulose (Bairnsdale) and Mitchell McKenzie teamed to win an exciting U 15 Boys Doubles event. Jack Burgess and Murray Purvis combined to come second in the U 13 Boys Doubles event, with Jack also coming Runners Up in both the Mixed Doubles and Singles for his age group. The results of the weekend a clearly an illustration of how the Badminton program is catering for athletes throughout the entire Gippsland region.
This weekend the Badminton Program will have a two - day camp down in Bairnsdale. Some of the athletes will be billeted out with this being an opportune time to further develop with one another. Justin Singleton (Bairnsdale) will provide nutritional advice whilst Les Ponton will be in attendance to further implement strength and conditioning training to assist the athletes with their performance.
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Gippsland Academy athletes in State Junior Championships, 6 October 2003
This weekend at the Traralgon Basketball Centre the Gippsland Junior Badminton Association will conduct the Victorian State Badminton Championships. The Gippsland Sports Academy will have eleven athletes from the Chris Humphrey Office National program compete in the competition in the Under 13, 15, 17 and 19 Championships.
The athletes have shown tremendous progress since the beginning of the program, which began approximately three months ago under the guidance of Level 3 accredited coach Alan Hall. The squad has trained together three times incorporating strength and conditioning coaching on top of their local coaching and competition. The athletes have so far competed in three tournaments in Kilsyth, Bendigo and last weekend in Springvale. The standout performers have been Henry He (Warragul), Murray Purvis (Drouin) and Jessica Lyons (Cowwarr).
Jessica competed exceptionally well last weekend in the Teams event in Springvale beating the Australian ranked number 2 and 5 players in her age group in the modified competition (best of one set and not the normal three sets). "Jessica performed at a terrific level to beat two of Australia’s best badminton players in her age group and puts her in good stead for a successful weekend in Traralgon for the State Titles. The girls she defeated will be out to atone for their showing last weekend and Jessica has to rise to the challenge to prove it wasn’t luck. We believe she has the right tools and has hit her peak at the right time in order to put in a good showing over the weekend in the Under 19’s event" said Head Coach Alan Hall.
The athletes have recently attended an Academy Athletes’ Conference, which incorporated ‘Live Clean Play Clean’, Media Relations, Nutrition and Psychology sessions, and all have directly benefited from it. "It was fantastic for the athletes to come together and feel part of a bigger organisation rather than just their sport and also to receive first hand education from a respected elite athlete such as Damian Brown a three time Olympic weightlifter," said Academy Executive Officer Mr. Robbie Coyle.
We encourage all local people interested in Badminton to attend the Championships in order to see high quality competition and future stars of the growing sport. The organisers are hoping to have the competition competed on the Saturday, however, due to exceptional circumstances the competition may continue onto Sunday.
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Appointment of highly credentialed Badminton Head Coach, 19 September 2003
The Gippsland Sports Academy is thrilled to announce Chris Humphrey Office National as the Program Sponsor for the Badminton squad for a fifth year. Chris Humphrey Office National has been one of the Academy’s longest sponsors and obviously the intention is for the relationship to continue in the future.
The Academies 2003 / 2004 Badminton program has been running for approximately two months with the structure and make up of the program quite different from previous programs. Alan Hall has been appointed the Head Coach of the program and he comes to the Academy with a highly distinguished and credentialed coaching career.
Alan is a Level 3 Accredited Badminton Coach and has been a Victorian State Junior (U 17 & U 19) for the last fifteen years. Alan has also previously worked as the Badminton Victoria Development Officer and is currently the Badminton Development Officer and Regional Sport Development Officer for the Geelong region. Alan has also been involved with the Bendigo Bank Sports Academy having been the inaugural coach of their Badminton squad for three years, prior to the program discontinuing.
Alan is thrilled with the kids in this years program "We have decided to go with quite a small number of kids and have divided them into a two tier system — one being an elite and older group and the second being a development and younger group. This year we have twelve young athletes in the squad who are all already improving and definitely enjoying themselves."
The majority of the athletes recently attended a Badminton tournament in Kilsyth and did so again in Bendigo this weekend. The results were positive at both tournaments with Henry He, from Warragul, coming second in his age group competition and then teaming with Jessica Lyons, from Cowwarr, to come runners up in the mixed double competition at Kilsyth. Jessica also came runners up in the Girls Doubles. The remainder of the Academy athletes, not many of whom who had competed outside Gippsland, got great experience and insight into competing at such tournaments and having to deal and compete against a variety of opponents.
The Victoria Championships were conducted at Bendigo last weekend with all athletes again achieving good results. Murray Purvis a twelve year old from Darnum achieved the best result coming runners up in the boy’s doubles.
The Chris Humphrey Office National Badminton Squad will be training at various Gippsland venues throughout the year and will even have a training camp in Bairnsdale on the 18th and 19th of October. This is viewed as being an important component of the program as it allows the young athletes to befriend one another on a personal level, which should then flow over to supporting one another during competition.
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