Despite all the new procedures and rules you are about to read, we can still celebrate a return to the sports hall and a chance to enjoy the game of badminton.  Meanwhile, if after reading this, you have any questions, please email or phone 02380 267717.

Badminton is predominately a non-contact sport, however players do share a court, a shuttle, and other touch-contact areas.  To adapt to the current COVID situation, Thornden Badminton (Juniors) is adopting ways of running our sessions to reduce social contact and the risk of contamination, yet still enable coaching and playing.

New session start and end times under COVID restrictions

Usually, Bronze, Silver and Gold sessions are 1.5 hours long, and Primary is 1 hour long. Now we have to allow time for the coaches to do all the setting up, taking down and sanitizing of equipment, so we’ve adjusted the start and end times in some of the sessions.

Session	New Start and End Times
Gold Session	Mondays, 6.40-7.50 pm
Silver Session	Mondays, 5.00-6.20 pm
Bronze Session	Wednesdays, 5.45-6.45 pm
Primary Session	Fridays, 4.30-5.30 pm

How parents and players can help

• Do not send the player to the session if the player, or anyone in his/her family is showing signs of COVID.
• The player should come dressed to play. No need to use change facilities.
• Each player should (ideally) have their own racket (labelled!).
• Each player should bring their own water bottle (labelled!).
• Players should not shake hands or do high fives at the end of a game. A polite bow would be good.
• If the player or someone in the family contacts COVID, please include the club in the ‘Track and Trace’ procedure or contact us so we can let the other players know.
• One parent per child can be a spectator.
• Parents, once a routine is established, please wait outside to pick up your player. But if you would like to talk to the coach, then come in.

Coaching changes – Updated May 17, 2021

Taken from Return-to-Play Coaching Guidelines from Badminton England. For more, see the Badminton England Coaching COVID Guidelines.

• Coaching can take place in groups of people from different households. The group size has increased from no more than 6 players to no more than 16.
• Players can rotate within their group but social distancing must be maintained.
• You can have more than one group (up to 15 players) in a hall. This depends on the space available, your ability to maintain social distancing and maintaining sub-groups of no more than 6.
• Groups should be spread over an appropriate number of courts to allow for social distancing to be maintained within the group.
• Hand sanitizer is available and its use encouraged.
• Players will be reminded not to touch the poles and nets.
• Players should bring their own rackets and water bottles (both labelled). Each player will place their items at the end of their courts (not on the communal bench by the door.)
• Players should not borrow each other’s equipment.

Reducing the risk of spread through equipment hygiene – Updated May 17, 2021

The coaches will need to spend some of the session time disinfecting the equipment, so this lead to shorter coaching/playing time in the session.

• Whereas, normally, everyone pitches in to set up and dismantle the nets and poles, now the coaches (and only the coaches) will set up and dismantle the nets and poles, using single-use gloves.
• The coaches will first spray/wipe the poles and wipe the tops of the nets before and after each session.
• The coaches will wipe/spray all high-contact surfaces (door handles, loo handles) before and after each session.
• Any of our used rackets will be sprayed/wiped with anti-viral spray.
• Whereas, all shuttles were shared by all the groups, now we will have separate shuttles for each group. The shuttles will be used only by the assigned group and will be quarantined for 7 days between uses.

Changes to the First Aid procedure

• Any treatment will be via participate self-management, with the coach maintaining social distancing at all times unless contact is deemed absolutely necessary based on a significant risk to the player of being left to self-manage.
• Patient to be given a face mask to wear during treatment.
• If contact is necessary, the coach will ensure they wear adequate PPE equipment. 
• If a player becomes ill during the session, the player will be asked to sit in a corner, (away from others), given a face mask, and the parents will be called.