Celebrate the summer with Badminton at Stoke Mandeville Stadium

Stoke Mandeville Stadium on Guttmann Road in Aylesbury is working in partnership with Badminton England to encourage more local people to play and enjoy badminton. The home of wheelchair sport and community leisure hub is launching a national badminton programme called – No Strings Badminton in a bid to promote badminton to adults and families. There are currently 535,000 adults playing badminton once a week in England and this initiative aims to increase this number to 605,000 adults playing at least once a week by 2013.

Research has shown that common barriers to participation in badminton include no partner to play with, exclusivity in clubs in terms of standard of play, commitments to annual club memberships and a general feeling of intimidation to play. No strings badminton has been created to help overcome these barriers to enable more people to get involved and enjoy playing.

The programme is a semi-structured pay and play opportunity for the casual badminton player. All ages and abilities are welcome and there is no commitment (no annual fees). There will be a playing partner guaranteed at all sessions as well as a co-ordinator to welcome new players and offer hints and tips.

Ian Seabrook from Stoke Mandeville Stadium says: “We’re pleased to be offering this new programme to the community. The sessions promise to be fun and friendly and will be suitable for all abilities. Badminton is a fun sport and we hope more people will come along and give it a go.”

Nina Bridge, Regional Officer at BADMINTON England says: “No Strings Badminton is a great opportunity for people that have not played in years to come and give it a go. It’s a fun and friendly environment with a coordinator to take you through your first steps. I’m so excited we could bring these sessions to Aylesbury!”

Sessions will run on Mondays between 2.00pm – 4.00pm, costing £4.00 per playing adult. And a separate family no strings badminton session will run from Sunday 4 September between 6.00pm – 8.00pm, costing £4.00 per playing adult and £3.00 for under 16s.

For more information call Stoke Mandeville Stadium on 01296 484848 or visit www.nostringsbadminton.co.uk.

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