Albatros Badminton Club. Photo: Mario Gomez
The emergence of references is key in little-known or ‘misnamed’ minority sports, and in the case of badminton in Spain, the clear example is that of Carolina Marín. The great feats of the Huelva native have led to widespread growth in the practice of this racket discipline. Encouraging the younger generations to try a discipline that in Cuenca capital has been represented by Albatros Badminton since 1999.
Agustín Jiménez is the current president of a club that currently brings together more than 200 participants in the capital and province. He says that the current club has its origins in the sporting growth of a handful of practitioners from municipal schools. The need to compete beyond a close circle “and have medical assistance among other things,” defends Jiménez, was the turning point for the creation of a federated team.
A lot has happened since then, “25 years nothing more and nothing less, which goes a long way and in which we have had good moments and very bad moments, but today the Badminton Albatros is in very good health,” explains Agustín. , “because for a few years now we have had a group of young people who have been winning everything from under-15 and now have made the leap to the under-17 category.” Names like Jimena Alonso, the best Cuenca player classified in the national ranking, along with Marcos Romero, Samuel Rodríguez and Mateo Higueras, champion a young generation that is consolidating a ‘rebirth’ of this Cuenca team.
Added to all this is an increasingly broader structure, with coaches such as Jesús de la Mata – coach, player and vice president of Albatros – or Javi Soria, who joins a distribution of players both in the competitive field (with more than 60 federated players, along with two coaches and a manager), many others in the province thanks to the twinning with Proven-Fray Canforrales (El Provencio and Las Pedroñeras), in addition to the municipal schools of the capital (with more than 100 practitioners), in addition to an agreement with the Ciudad Encantada School by which between 25-30 young people practice this sport. A compendium to which we must add the Samuel Ferrer Memorial and the badminton tournament of the San Julián Festivities, also promoted by the club itself.
A SPORT THAT SURPRISES AND ENGAGES
It is clear that badminton in Cuenca is enjoying a rebound in its participation, but behind this resurgence there is also the “hand” of Javi Soria and Jesús de la Mata, the two Albatros coaches who train future promises and who defend ” “to swashbuckle” the practice of the discipline of the shuttlecock and the racket.
«It is a sport for anyone who is interested because it depends on how you want to take it. You can take it as something recreational and for sports or it can be demanding and intense, because the court seems small because we tend to compare it to tennis, but you must be moving all the time. You have to have reflexes and, above all, it is not so much strength in hitting, but much more technique,” explains de la Mata, who defends that the most “fun” thing about badminton is learning “certain strokes that allow you to manage the times and position of the game, because you have to get the idea that badminton is like playing paddles on the beach, when you learn certain strokes and techniques, you start putting the shuttlecock where you want, making your opponent run around the court, “A very, very fun game returns.”
For this reason, Albatros encourages the practice of this discipline, which ensures that “once you start, it hooks you and makes you compete to improve both yourself and against the rest of your teammates,” adds de la Mata, who remembers that badminton Matches can be played in singles, men’s and women’s doubles and also mixed.
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2024-03-24 17:39:10
#rebirth #Albatros #Badminton
