We hold Club Trials several times a year when spaces become available, giving your child a chance to join one of our training sessions and get a feel for the club before deciding whether the way we train is what they are looking for. It also gives us a chance to see how comfortable they are within the session. Different badminton clubs can work in very different ways, with some putting more emphasis on social games and others spending more time on coached training. At Albury, most of the session is training-based, with a strong physical element and a pathway into competition for players who want to progress that way, which will suit some children better than others.

Your child doesn’t need to have trained at a badminton club before, and beginners aren’t expected to arrive knowing all the techniques, but they do need a few basics before joining our group session. They need to be able to follow coaching within a larger group and have enough control of the racket and shuttle to take part in the drills, simply because most of the session is coached as a group rather than one-to-one. This means each player needs to be able to work with another child with some independence, allowing the coaches to support the whole group and keep the session moving at a pace that works for everyone.

If you would prefer to see how a session works before booking a Club Trial, we would be more than happy to arrange an observation first, which can often be helpful because you and your child can see how the session runs and decide whether it feels right before going ahead.

Please wear suitable sports clothing and indoor sports shoes, and bring a badminton racket and enough water for the session. Jeans, muddy footwear or other clothing that restricts movement are not permitted, and under the school venue rules, food is not allowed inside the sports hall.

Please read our Club Rules before attending.

Please arrive a few minutes before the session starts, as we will be expecting you and will look out for you when you arrive. We ask all players to begin with three or four gentle laps of the sports hall to warm up, so this is normally the first thing we will ask your child to do. Once they have finished, please come back to the coach and we will arrange for another player to have a warm-up hit with them before they join the session.

At the end of the Club Trial, the coach assessing your child will come over and talk through how they got on and what we recommend as the next step. If we feel your child is ready to join the group, the next step is for you and your child to decide whether they would like to join us. If your child would like to join us, please email us before attending the next session so we can complete their club and Badminton England registration and make sure the appropriate insurance is in place.

Sometimes we may feel they would benefit from a little more practice first, in which case we will explain what to work on and they are very welcome to come back for another Club Trial later.

If you have any questions before the Club Trial, please get in touch.