Let the badminton court be your gym for health and fitness
BADMINTON England has today launched a new campaign to highlight the health and fitness benefits of playing regular badminton. The ‘Ways To Play’ campaign aims to encourage players to increase the number of times a month they play the game.
The campaign is endorsed by current GB world number 16 mixed doubles pair Chris Langridge and Heather Olver, who this week will be taking part in the European Badminton Championships in Russia.
Commonwealth Games medal winner Heather, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, said:
“Badminton is a fantastic sport if you are looking to tone up and get fit. It doesn’t really matter what level you play at you can always get a good workout. It works everything as well not just one area. It’s a great legs, bums and tums workout! And no matter where you live it’s so easy to find a local court and get playing.”
Chris, from Epsom, Surrey, added:
“Badminton is a sport that uses almost every muscle of the body which results in a great whole body workout. Playing on a regular basis when I was younger and growing up certainly helped me to keep in good shape, meet lots of new people and improve at something I really enjoy.”
With around 24,000 badminton courts in England it’s easy to book a game, but BADMINTON England also offers a number of different ways to play more often throughout the country. The ‘Ways To Play’ portal enables people to easily choose how they would prefer to play and points them towards a nearby leisure centre or club.
George Wood, Director of Development at BADMINTON England, said:
“Badminton is already the most played racket sport in the country with over 500,000 people playing at least once a week. This campaign is all about promoting opportunities for people to play badminton regularly and we want to encourage people to use our Ways to Play portal to find out how they can play more often and achieve an active and healthy lifestyle.”
Badminton is a sport for all. BADMINTON England is committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and enabling disabled people to participate and compete in and enjoy badminton. They have set out our vision for developing badminton for disabled people in their Disability Strategy.
“At my first session with Phoenix Badminton Club, I was really excited to be playing, especially amongst non-disabled players. Badminton keeps me fit and active, and most of all I love to play and socialise with both disabled and non-disabled players.”
Denny Vettom, wheelchair badminton player for Phoenix BC (Herts)
