WheelPower Sports Festival
Tuesday 1st November from 9.30am to 3pm
at Brunel University Sports
Play Badminton Club was presented with a rare opportunity to participate in WheelPower’s Sports Festival at Brunel University on Tuesday 1 November 2022. It was a great honour for our club, to be recommended to WheelPower by Badminton England to run the badminton sessions.
Most of us from Play Badminton Club hadn’t stepped foot onto a university’s campus in a while and would never have thought a sport’s festival would be the reason bringing us back. But this event was unlike any we’ve been to.
The sports festival welcomed around 50 disabled participants aged from 5 to over 60 years, to try five different sports, including badminton. It was supported by qualified coaches and local volunteers. These activities were about having fun, trying something different, learning new skills and receiving coaching in a friendly safe environment.
Everyone was welcomed to take part in the sports and activities. Each sport activity lasted about 40 minutes giving everyone time to go at their own pace and take rest when needed.
For the badminton session, we were using the Racquet Pack Kit provided by Badminton England. Each participant was given a racquet appropriate for their age and encouraged to try and few badminton shots – whether it was trying a basic serve, a forehand or even a backhand shot. Using a variety of alternative badminton equipment such as success balls, fluff balls, getnets, etc to encourage everyone to have a go.
Our volunteers from the Play Badminton Club had taken a day off from work to help. They put in a lot of hard work and energy to make each session fun and engaging. The participants loved it! There were some children and adults who didn’t want to leave our sessions and go to the next sport as they really enjoyed playing badminton.
The event was a huge success and brings us a step closer as a club to setting up a regular inclusive badminton session. Watch this space for more details soon.
Overall, a huge thank you to the Badminton England and WheelPower teams for organising a wonderful Sports Festival. And, a special thank you to all our wonderful Play Badminton Club volunteers, Mark, Shagufta, Waseem and Vijay for their commitment and enthusiasm.
Bhavni & Ashish
Play Badminton Club
WheelPower
WheelPower is a national UK charity that provides opportunities for disabled people to get into sport and lead active lives.
Based in Stoke Mandeville, the home of the Paralympic movement, WheelPower is at the heart of wheelchair sport.
Each year, WheelPower supports over 62,099 disabled people to participate in sport and activity across the country.
Hear from our volunteers
Mark
I had a really enjoyable day. It was great to see so many kids of different abilities really enjoy the activities. Seeing the joy on their faces from their achievements made it worthwhile. The day also gave the carers an opportunity to see the various types of equipment that could be used to help with hand-eye coordination and physio.
The adult session was also fun and enjoyable with several of the participants asking about joining our club. It also gave me the chance to see what it’s like trying to play in a sports wheelchair, which I can tell you is really hard.
Vijay
An excellent initiative from WheelPower to introduce differently abled children and adults to sport. I say differently abled as opposed to disabled because all the participants were able which was fantastic to see!
Play Badminton Club is an all inclusive club and has been rightly recognised by Badminton England as such and to be selected to introduce the participants to badminton is testament to the ethos of the club leaders Ashish and Bhavni! It was my honour and privilege to assist in the event on behalf of Play Badminton Club and to hopefully have ignited interest in the all inclusive sport that is badminton!
It was amazing and heart-warming to see the children and adults giving badminton a go with such enthusiasm whilst having fun and to see the happiness it brought to them due to their achievement! I really do hope that they will continue because they have the ability to do so!
