ADULT BADMINTON
At GLTC Badminton, we strive to maintain a standard of Badminton that compares to the highest levels of play in Ireland.
We have seven Championship Badminton courts in GLTC and currently have players from Grades B to H, with members participating in local, county, provincial and National Competitions from each of these six levels, and both as individuals and as teams wehave won at National level many times.
We also have a thriving social section, with sold-out Club Nights happening every week, a great place for a “newbie” to check out our club, badminton as a sport and meet new people of a similar standard!
All are welcome to join us at GLTC Badminton, you need only get in touch and a member of our team will help you with anything you need!
Coaching
Our resident Coach Declan Bennett will provide both individual and group coaching upon request.
IMPROVERS
Grade F and below
- Some formal coaching or lapsed Badminton play
- Emphasis on reinforcing technique, basic tactics and strong scoring systems
INTERMEDIATE
Grade E and above
- Strong coaching foundation with some competitive play
- Emphasis on personal performance and advanced tactics
Coaching Programme:
Communication
Our section of GLTC has a plethora of online platforms where you can keep up to date with all of our activities, events, teams, competitions, photos, videos and more! You can find us on all the popular social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and likely wherever else you can think of!
We also have a very active and inclusive WhatsApp group for our members, which we will happily add you to once you join us! This allows for more updates, arranging social games, updating us on team progress and plenty more and is a very useful tool for us all to stay involved!
For more info on this, please just ask at Reception and we’d be happy to help!
Grading
In order to be registered and to play in GLTC or other events, every player needs a “Grade”. This is a marker for their level or standard of Badminton ability and is assessed every year by the Clubs, County, Connacht and Badminton Ireland officers.
Grades are based on the Alphabetic (A to H) assignment to each level as it applies to the general playing standard across Ireland. Grades are assigned and reassessed based on competitive performance, player history and experience of Badminton and how players compare with others in similar categories. The grades and their represented levels are outlined in detail on poster on the noticeboards in the Club.
Badminton Events During the Year
Primarily we provide two types of competitions, in-house competitions and those organised at a county, provincial and/or national level by separate organisations. Oftentimes, GLTC will host these events but not be the force behind the organisation.
GLTC run tournaments are open to GLTC members only, unless otherwise indicated by the Badminton Committee. Any other competitions taking place in our Club will have separate entry rules at the discretion of those organisers. All players entering any tournament in GLTC should be affiliated with Badminton Ireland at the time of competing.
GLTC In-House Competitions
These competitions are only available to those who are members of the club.
All grades participate and they are great fun. These competitions are run throughout the year, and are organised by the Badminton Committee. They are for all levels of player (grades) and usually consist of some form of doubles and/or mixed, depending on the entries!
The GLTC Badminton Club Championships will be held annually, starting back again in the 2018/19 season. Stay tuned for more info on this event!
The annual Summer Blitz is a fun and social competition to encourage new players and members to take part in a more competitive side of life at GLTC Badminton. Usually taking place instead of one of our Club Nights over the Summer months, it is geared at those who may not have played a competition before or who would just like to have a chance to play fun games, get to know new people and enjoy some refreshments upstairs while chatting with all the other players.
Our annual Turkey Tournament does exactly what it says on the tin! Players from all grades across GLTC Badminton compete in a friendly doubles/mixed tournament to win their Christmas Turkey! This competition takes place at the beginning of December each year and is a favourite for our players! We are indebted each year to Martin Divilly’s Butchers in Westside who so generously have sponsored this tournament over the past few years!
The Good Friday Tournament is another GLTC Badminton run event, but this one is open to all players in the “County”. This means all the other registered Clubs and players from around Galway County can come along and participate in this wonderful competition.
This event is usually one of the most popular and attended events in the Galway Badminton Calendar so make sure you sign up early! Prizes for this event are a
favourite too, with many generous sportswear apparel sponsored each year by our resident PRO Shop owner, Tommy Hehir.
Our recently added Valentine’s Competition takes place every year on the Monday closest to (you guessed it!) Valentine’s Day! This is a GLTC Badminton members’ only event, where we run a shorter evening competition comprising of doubles and mixed doubles for another chance to taste the competitive but still fun side of our Club!
This event takes place on the Monday of St. Patrick’s Day each year and is usually games of doubles and mixed doubles where people can enjoy some more fun, social games, refreshments and small prizes once again!
Our Hallowe’en Competition is probably the most fun one we have! Taking place on the Monday before Hallowe’en, Club Night is taken over by players dressed as Goblins, Ghouls, Clowns and Cats for an evening of fun doubles competition with prizes for not only the Badminton winners, but also things like “Best Costume”, “Best Cake” and many more! Definietly a favourite among GLTC members, we look forward to the imagination and effort players put in to this one!
External Competitions
There are other competitions run by our affiliate organisations, all of whom are separate and independent entities in themselves and are run by entirely different volunteer committees. Badminton Ireland are the governing body for Badminton across the board in Ireland is run by paid employees, based in the National Sports Campus in Dublin. GLTC may still be lucky to host some of the competitions form these organisations as a premiere sports venue but we are not behind the scheduling, organising or running of these events.
The list of these types of competitions is far too extensive to go into here, but in summary competitions are available for all grades, include singles, mixed doubles,
doubles and team events, all of which you will find on our events Calendar. Some of these events include the following:
“County” Competitions – Galway County Badminton Association (GCBA)
It runs from October to March and is both highly sociably and competitive. Throughout the years. GLTC has consistently fielded teams from H (beginners) to C (very advanced) grades and both this year and last year have gone through the stages and won at National level! The GLTC teams are highly competitive and places are both limited and coveted on all teams.
In 2016, the GLTC Grade D team won the prestigious All-Ireland title and again in 2017 the GLTC Grade E team brought home the All-Ireland Inter-Club League gold medal! The 2018 Grade D team made us proud again this year and finished second in Ireland, not a bad achievement at all!
Each year after Christmas, the GCBA organise training and selections for their “County Teams” across all Grades from C to G, to represent Galway in the Provincial and/or National Inter-County All-Irelands.
This is an extensive and rewarding process and has led to many All-Ireland trophies being brought back to the West. As recently as 2017, the Galway Grade E team were successful in their attempt to be the best County in Ireland and brought home the perpetual trophy and in 2018, in the same Grade, the Gold was won again by Galway. GLTC players were proud to be a part of both of these teams, as well as many others over the years. These teams are a unique aspect of
Badminton in Galway and a wonderful chance to train and play with coaches and players from other clubs in the County.
Every year, the GCBA host a number of tournaments for the more competitive players, at all grades, known as “The County Championships”. These are evening competitions held on Wednesdays from 7.30pm in GLTC. Each week a different grade is scheduled and affiliated players from all Clubs are welcomed to GLTC to compete for a chance to be the best in Galway.
All Men’s and Ladies’ Doubles events happen in November, with the Finals Day happening on the last Sunday of the month (subject to change).
All Mixed Doubles events take place in January, with Singles events taking place in February, culminating in another Finals Day in early March for both the Mixed and Singles events.
While GLTC host and supply players to these events, they are run and organised strictly by the GCBA League Secretary.
“Provincial” Competitions
These tournaments include the Connacht Open, Connacht Masters (over 35s), Connacht Closed and, of course, include the Connacht Leagues and qualifying stages for the County Teams (only one County from each Province goes on to the All-Irelands).
Connacht Badminton is run by a dedicated group of volunteers from all over the Province, including some GLTC members, and even run an associated Juvenile Committee for the encouragement and growth of Badminton among Junior players. More of these events can be found on our Calendar of events as well as those for Junior players.
One of the biggest responsibilities of the Connacht Committee is to oversee the Player Grading process, its fairness and application to all events involving Connacht Players.
More information on the Grading process can be found under “Grading”.
“National” Competitions
Badminton Ireland are effectively our Mothership. They oversee all events, affiliations, player development, Badminton growth, competitions and everything in between. Each Club is given a set of guidelines and rules and these must be followed explicitly in the interest of fairness across the game. Badminton Ireland run a number of tournaments each year at a National level, usually taking place alternatively in different provinces and we are delighted to be one of the Clubs Badminton Ireland visit regularly.
These events can all be found on our Calendar of events and include Individual Graded Open Tournaments for Grades A to G, both the Inter-Club League All-Ireland and the Inter-County All-Ireland finals, the Club Championships, National Masters events (over 35s), national training, Interprovincials, National Team & Olympic players exhibition matches, Premier League exhibitions and many many more.
Every year Badminton Ireland organise a “National Badminton Week” where a huge emphasis is put on badminton across all local communities, schools, universities, Clubs and everyone in between to come along and try out badminton. In conjunction with this BI initiative, GLTC Badminton run a week-long promotional campaign at the same time, which includes free Club Nights, social media competitions, photo competitions, a table
quiz, cake nights, linesperson courses and much more! This week has recently been scheduled in December, as an exciting build up to the international and professional event, the Irish Open, which takes place and is free to attend to watch at the National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown, Dublin.
One of the biggest responsibilities we have to Badminton Ireland is to ensure that not only are our facilities among the best in the Country but also that all our players can enjoy a fun, safe and rewarding experience every time they play in GLTC. This involves all players being “affiliated” to Badminton Ireland for the year, which means everyone becomes a registered player with BI and pays the insurance fee of €25 annually. The Badminton Committee organise and ensure this is enforced every year but you can find out more about this and how it affects you as a player under our “affiliation” section.