As part of its long-term strategy, SLB is to benefit from its Regional Development Committees (RDC) that has embarked on the establishment of Regional Development District Pools that will identify and develop 20 young men and women in each district as a feeder to the Junior National Pool.
This ambitious program is directed by the RDC in collaboration with the Provincial Associations who overlook District Activities. Accordingly, coaches, assistant coaches and coordinators were nominated from the Provincial Structure in collaboration with the District Associations to conduct these training pools in all districts within the nine provinces that would produce future top talent for the sport.
These Provincial units needed to acquire a model development program which RDC thought was important to put in place. With this in mind, RDC conducted an intensive two-day residential workshop for 55 Provincial coaches, assistant coaches and coordinators drawn from the districts at its Stadium covering a gamut of important disciplines from basic administration to district pool training fundamentals, physical wellbeing, exercise routines, sports nutrition and preventive medical interventions.
The expert subject specialist panel comprised Dr. Thushan Wijesinghe (Sports Medicine and Nutrition) Pradeep Welagedara (National Coach) and Ashoka Jayasundera (Physical Trainer).
The fifty five participants represented 19 Districts namely Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Ampara, Batticoloa, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Kalutara, Matara, Galle, Kegalle, Matale, Badulla and Moneragala.
RDC Chairman, VP Roshan Gunawardana led the program with the wholehearted support of SLB President Rohan de Silva and a host of SLB officials, medical and subject experts who shared their experiences and put together a well-knit planning, training and implementation mechanism targeting the age group of sixteen years and below, that will stand in good stead as the Regional Development District Pool Administrative plan unfolds over the next several months.
RDC intends covering all 25 Districts during 2021. In doing so, this would provide a feeder of 500 talented new badminton players into the junior national pool, greatly enhancing the skills set laying the foundation to graduate in to the senior and National Pool with the absolute focus required to move into high performance and international competition thresholds.