The badminton department of TGS Dietzenbach is looking for female players. Teams are formed with both genders.
Dietzenbach – The Dietzenbach gymnastics society (TGS) is celebrating its 140th birthday this year. Founded on May 10, 1885 by 15 young men, the club is now one of the oldest in the district town. Our editorial team presents the departments in no particular order. The badminton department will follow at the end of the anniversary year.
“Badminton is a demanding sport,” says division manager Markus Völp. The 57-year-old started playing the sport because of his children and stayed with badminton out of conviction and love. He has been swinging the racket for 15 years now and knows what makes the sport so special to him: it demands hand-eye coordination, hitting technique and strength, and requires the ability to concentrate. “But what’s particularly nice is that there’s no jostling or tugging. It’s a gentleman’s sport.”
Because unlike football or basketball, there is no physical contact in badminton. “The game is fair.” And not just in terms of the physical test of strength, but also in the team composition. “The sport is cross-gender. You can play mixed doubles, which is great for couples; that doesn’t happen so often in other sports,” says Völp. A regular team is made up of both women and men.
The TGS badminton department wants to resume team operations with more players
But that is exactly the biggest challenge for the badminton department at the moment. It was founded in 1973 after initiator Om Virmani moved to Dietzenbach and approached the gymnastics society in order to be able to continue playing badminton in today’s district town. The then chairman of the main club, August Krapp, made the founding of the department possible, and soon up to 170 members came together to swing the bat together. “In the 90s, this number shrank over the years,” reports Völp. Since he joined in 2010, the number of members has remained constant at around 90 players. What is particularly noticeable and poses a problem for team formation is that a lion’s share of the members are men.
“It is difficult to get women interested in our department,” says Völp. A team consists of at least four male and two female players, plus substitutes.
Players have to bring time: teams also train on weekends
For Völp this means: “We need around three to four women who can be on the team and train on weekends.” But many adult players find it difficult to play club sports in addition to their professional and family life.
Due to a lack of female adult players, the department currently has no team registered and does not compete in the league. An exception is the men’s team that was set up in 2022/23, but has no longer been active since then. Völp therefore hopes to be able to get more potential members interested in badminton in the future in order to get team operations going again. The board also wants to modernize when it comes to digitalization and make the badminton department visible on social media.
What makes club sport attractive in his department is the low entry barrier and the opportunity to get a taste of training. The game is not based on performance; instead, the players support each other in free training. “You can really let off steam and burn a lot of calories,” jokes Völp. Beginners also don’t need to invest a lot of money in equipment, so clubs can be rented initially. (Kristina Geldt)
