The Women and Non-Binary Development Sessions are run by Academy Badminton Club, although we welcome anyone from other clubs or the local community to get in touch if they’d like to be involved. We know it can be intimidating to come to a new session and not know who to expect, so here’s an introduction to the people you’ll meet at the sessions.
Hannah McQueen – Project Lead, Coordinator and Social Media
Hannah is the Women’s Captain at Academy Badminton Club and leads this development project. A life-long tennis player, she picked up badminton at university to win a bet and has since fallen in love with the sport (mainly as she never has to play in the rain).
Hannah is passionate about bringing more women and non-binary people into badminton, and equipping them with the tools to thrive and play competitively. She runs the overall programme and leads the coordinators, works with local clubs, and looks after the social media (check out our Instagram @academy_badminton_bristol!).
Jakob op den Brouw – Web Designer and Coordinator
Jake is Chair of Academy Badminton Club. He’s been playing badminton for years and is a total badminton nerd. He once met Greg and Jenny Mairs of Badminton Insight fame and got 7 points against them and he’s very proud of that fact. Small caveat that it was at the Badminton Insight training weekend and they may not have been giving it their all. Also his partner was pretty good.
Jake loves to share his fanatical passion for badminton with everyone and just wants everyone to have a great time on court.
P.S. He insisted this be added in: Did you know badminton is the fastest racket sport in the world? Pretty cool right?
Charlie Durigan – Inclusion and Welfare Lead and Coordinator
Charlie is the Mixed Captain at Academy Badminton Club. As part the Inclusion and Welfare team, she’s here to answer questions or concerns, big or small and to act as first port of call for any worries.
Mike Paton – Venue Liason and Coordinator
Mike is the Open 2 Captain at Academy Badminton Club.
Charles Tippett – Head Coach
Charles, who is the Chairman of Broadlands Badminton Club, is in charge of all things coaching. A Level 2 qualified coach with Badminton England, he’ll run the one hour of coaching at the start of every session. He’ll start with the very basics of holding the racket properly, before moving on to more advanced shots and tactics.