Lethbridge Badminton Club building through grassroots

By Lethbridge Herald on May 29, 2025.

submitted photo Lethbridge Badminton Club players are pictured competing .

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Badminton Club was established in 2022 and aims to grow the sport through its grassroots.

“Once more people  are playing then we can work on improving the overall standard ,which is improving steadily over the last three years, ” said  Martin Lawrence, LBC head coach.

“More people were doing well at the school provincial tournaments and the overall aim of the club will be one day to have a provincial champion but we have to build from the bottom up.”

LBC is growing the game through its Monday night drop-in pay and play sessions for adults, coaching availability four nights a week  in Lethbridge and one night in Coaldale, which also hosts the club’s summer program.

“When we first started we had four hours a week of court time which (has) gradually grown” said Lawrence.

“We’ve now got a waiting list for beginners, which is encouraging that  more people want to start playing and learning how to play the game properly.”

The Monday drop-in have seen consistently upwards of 20 people attending and around 70  players in the junior program that play in LBC’s programs during the week.

What is hindering the development of players through the club has been the lack of coaches that are getting on board and Lawrence believes it is  because of COVID that people are not out volunteering.

“People found lives outside of volunteering and being involved,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence says with growing young people,  people are not back into spending the time to do so.

Interested coaches do not have to have previous badminton experience and LBC will train them.

Programs are split into level one, which is for beginners, and goes all the way up to level four advanced players and technique is a key component.

“ So from grips through to movements (and) through to the right structure of the game,” said Lawrence.

A work in progress for LBC  over the next couple of years is to implement beginner one star, two star and three star  grass root development tournaments across the Sunny South  jurisdiction for Badminton Alberta.

“ so that players that are not yet ready for the YONEX Alberta Junior silver and gold tournaments (have) the opportunity to play competitively outside of the school tournaments,” said Lawrence, in a later email.

More information on the club can be found at http://www.lethbridgebadmintonclub.ca.