There are various tournaments around the Country, local club tournaments and the ranking Tournaments from Badminton England. The Club Tournaments are run in the School holidays at Junior Badminton Clubs and Performance Centres, these are a good place to start and this will give your child the outline of what is expected of them and how they conduct themselves on court. Many Performance Centres run these and exclude the higher standard players, this gives the new players the opportunity to win some silverware and have a great day of badminton. These are usually played in boxes of four or five players doing a round robin of one game to 21 or three games to 15 both for doubles and singles.
The Badminton England Tournaments are a little more serious, they separate age groups, Under 11,13,15,17 at Bronze, Silver, Gold and Gold star. By the time Children are ready for these they are used to the protocol of competition. The Bronzes are played one game to 21, silver and gold are played three games to 15, again they are usually played in boxes of 4 and they are seeded, one seed in each box depending on entries. The Children earn ranking points for each Tournament they enter and do well in, once they have enough ranking points they go up to the next level ie Bronze to Silver, the diary for these can be found on the Badminton England website.
Playing Tournaments is not for all Children they need to enjoy it, most of them do, playing Tournaments will improve their game, you can have all the coaching in the world but where you learn you craft is playing in tournaments.
If you have any questions please use our Club finder attached to Badmintonalpha this will give you all the Junior Clubs and Performance Centres local to you I am sure they will be only too please to answer any questions you may have.
