The Ghana Badminton Association (BAG) has trained 51 teachers in coaching and technical officiating under its Badminton in Schools initiative, popularly known as Shuttle Time, as part of a sustained drive to deepen the sport’s roots in Ghanaian schools.

The programme is a key pillar of the BAG’s ambitious eight-year capacity-building strategic plan, which targets training 600 coaches and 174 technical officials by 2032 — an essential step in its mission to bring one of Ghana’s fastest-rising sports to the doorstep of every community.

Participants were drawn from schools and communities across the country, stretching from Nadowli in the Upper West Region, through New Juaben in the Eastern Region, to Keta in the Volta Region, underlining the BAG’s determination to ensure nationwide access to badminton education.

An initiative of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the Shuttle Time programme is designed to make badminton fun, accessible, and inclusive for children aged 5 to 15. It equips teachers with practical training and resources to introduce the sport in schools and nurture and improve the skills of talented pupils.

Last Friday’s training session at the Borteyman Sports Complex in Accra brought to 354 the total number of coaches and technical officials trained by the BAG over the past eight years in Sunyani, Ho, Koforidua, Winneba and Accra.

As part of the next phase of the project, the BAG plans to extend the programme to additional regions later this year, including the Northern, Bono, Ashanti and Volta regions, with sessions scheduled for April and May.

“The future of badminton is bright; this programme has equipped participants to educate kids and develop badminton in their communities, ultimately growing the sport nationwide,” said the BAG President Evans Yeboah.

A week earlier, the BAG also organised a one-day training seminar in Accra for 18 sports journalists, designed to enhance their understanding of the sport’s technical aspects and terminology, thereby improving the quality of badminton reporting in the media.