体坛英语新闻：Kenya selected by world badminton body to host pilot program

NAIROBI, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has been selected among four other countries by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to host a pilot program dubbed "Shuttle Time".

The program aims to help teachers and coaches develop skills for the game, knowledge and confidence to plan and deliver safe and fun badminton lessons to children and the youth.

Shuttle Time is an innovative self-study training program that helps teachers and coaches learn how to teach badminton to children and youth through the usage of teachers' manuals, lesson plans and instructional video clips.

Speaking in Nairobi on Monday during the launch BWF Development Manager, Ian Wright said the idea is about training teachers about being able to deliver on some courses and not to make them full time coaches.

"The program is about training trainers who will in turn train teachers to give enough information to deliver the experience to school going children and the youth so as to broaden the scope of the game globally."

Describing badminton as a low impact sport for school children, Wright said the sport is a global game that is acceptable to all and which can be performed right through the ages for a healthy lifestyle.

"Kenya has been chosen because of its long standing membership in the BWF and due to its existing facilities and its potential to become the regional project for East Africa."

He said badminton is represented in Africa and local federations do not have the resources to deliver the program on their own hence the world body's intervention to se to its spread.

Kenya's Minister for Sports Paul Otuoma said badminton has not undergone much progress locally and welcomed BWF's intervention which he termed as timely.

"That the program will instinctively reach out to the public is in line with Kenya's policy of emphasizing on sports development as opposed to performance," Otuoma said.

"Many non-sports people are only interested in performance of athletes without knowing how they get there and with this program, those queries will be addressed."

He said Shuttle Time is bound to be a great success because one of the resources needed to see to its triumph, the youth, is already in great abundance.

In June 2011, Kenya hosted the International Badminton Championships in Nairobi in which over 20 countries participated.

Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles) who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net.

Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that is passes over the net and lands in their opponents' half of the court. A rally ends once the shuttlecock has struck the floor.