RA HIGH PERFORMANCE TRAINING CENTRE

 

In 1990 the RA Badminton Club hired Mike Bitten to be their first official badminton professional.During this first year a high performance program was started for elite badminton athletes.This program consisted of six days a week of on-court training. Each athlete was also given an off-court fitness program. Athletes learned about proper nutrition and insight into the world of sports psychology. At this time, only the Glencoe Club in Calgary, Alberta was designated as a National Training Centre. Within a few short years the Ottawa RA Training Centre started to compete with Calgary for results. With top players Doris Piche and Bryan Blanshard leaving Calgary to train in Ottawa, the reputation of the RA Badminton Club was started.

 

Over the next ten years the RA Centre produced National champions in the junior and senior categories at an extremely high rate. The RA Badminton Club applied to Badminton Canada to also be designated National Training Centre status.  Not only was it a great honour and accomplishment when we were awarded this status in 2001, it also meant better financial support for our athletes. They were given better access to international coaching, top class sparring partners, fitness programs, sports therapy, nutritional experts and sports psychologists.  All of this combined with the hard work of players and coaches at the RA helped propel the high performance players to great national and international results. 

 

From 1990 to 2008 the club produced thirteen national champions.  They are: Bryan Blanshard, Doris Piche, Mike Beres, Kyle Hunter, Kara Solmundson, Valerie St.Jacques, Andrew Dabeka, Jean-Francois Mercier, Stepan Wojcikiewicz, Sophie Jutras, Carl Baxter, Joseph Rogers, and Qufei Chen. Please click on Hall of Fame link for more on our national champions Hall of Fame.

 

As of today, the RA Badminton Club still retains the title of National Training Centre, along with Calgary and Montreal.  However, during the last five years, financial support from Badminton Canada has dwindled down to nothing. This is largely due to the lack of federal government funding for Badminton Canada, something which, unfortunately, also applies to other national organizations representing “minority” sports in Canada.  Generally, funds are channelled to sports which have already achieved world-level results, while sports not yet at or close to that level are left to fend for themselves.

 

It is therefore amazing that athletes at the Ottawa Training Centre are still maintaining great results at the national and international levels.  They are doing so with the support of family and friends, fund raising initiatives, Provincial and District associations, and part-time work.  The RA Centre has also been fantastic over the years in helping our players in many ways. 

 

Our current crop of youngsters are training very hard and are truly dedicated.  During the next few years they will carry on the winning tradition of the RA Badminton Club in Canada.  Look out for these athletes:  Sergiy Shatenko, Andrew D'Souza, Qufei Chen, Emilie Fleury-larocque, Corey Hum, Thomas McKee, and Joseph Rogers.