Thomas René, president of the Condé-sur-Vire badminton club (Manche), looks back on the development of the association.
How long have you been president and how has the club evolved?
I took over the presidency four years ago, there were ten of us and it was essentially a family group. By communicating mainly through word of mouth, we grew to sixty two years ago and we hope to reach 80 licensees this year, including around ten young people. There are no lessons for children, it’s just leisure. Tous en shorts helped us a lot because it’s a good showcase for us. We also communicate on social networks but it is mainly word of mouth that brings us licensees each year. There is a good atmosphere within the club, it is friendly.
So your three training sessions are busy?
Yes, we have three slots on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. globally. We have four courts, we work in doubles, we play a set then we rotate the teams. The ideal would be to have the possibility of doing two time slots per session.
More licensees means more equipment?
Indeed, we started with a few snowshoes but that is not enough. We offer discovery sessions so we must provide snowshoes to arriving licensees before they equip themselves. As the club is registered with Ufolep for competitions, we also need specific shuttlecocks and we have just acquired scorers to be able to organize our first tournament this year.
Several licensees are entering competition?
Yes, many have the competitive spirit and have asked us to do so, so we are registered and we will participate in the tournaments. Here too you have to adapt because the matches can be men’s doubles, mixed doubles, women’s doubles or even parent-child doubles, a new formula that is very popular.
Badminton Bimbo’s Club. Contact : [email protected].
