By Jim Hoff 05. May 2024
The badminton adventure in Grønbjerg-Langelund actually started with a notice of dismissal in 1983. The following year, the protagonist of this article began a now 40-year long journey in the service of badminton in the small village community, and he was duly celebrated when the club held club championships on 30 April.
By Jim Hoff – [email protected]
CLUB LEGENDS: If you say Grønbjerg-Langelund IF Badminton, you will inevitably also say Ib Jessing. The now 65-year-old association zealot has now been a coach/leader in the local village club for 40 years and has loosely estimated that he has had well over 300 players through his competent coaching work.
Ib was duly celebrated in connection with GLIF Badminton holding club championships in Elkjærhallen. After the matches were over, there was a gathering in the cafeteria, where medals and honors were handed out.
For this festive session, the club had provided pizza, fruit and juice for the players and their parents, and then there was a line up to pay tribute to club legend Ib Jessing.
Good for making new players feel welcome
It was the badminton club’s chairman, Søren Jakobsen, who spoke for his former coach and now badminton partner. And Søren started with a fine historical review from the time when he himself wore short pants.
– I want to start by looking back at the time when I first met Ib. I played badminton in another club and was in the 8th grade with some players from Grønbjerg. These guys thought I should go out to Grønbjerg, so I went out to the club to see what it was all about.
– I was received by Ib as if I were someone who had played there all my life. This is precisely what you are extremely good at: making new players feel safe and welcome in the club, the chairman said at the outset.
Ib Jessing was gifted on the day from several places, both from the club and the players. Photo: Jim Hoff
Top competence patience
Søren then relates that 20 years had to pass before he came back to GLIF Badminton.
– But it’s just me being slow. Throughout the 40 years you have coached, there have been an incredible number of youth players through the hall. I will shoot for about 300 pcs. Here I would like to highlight some of the things you are really good at in relation to handling young players and children. Patience is one of the top skills you have. Even if there are 10 children standing and shouting questions about this and that at you, you are still completely quiet and calm. The rest of us can only acknowledge, respect and envy that patience.
Able to organize rallies
In addition to using his quiet and calm disposition in dealing with the youth players at the club, Ib also possesses another competence that the club has benefited from for many years. It’s about organizational talent.
-The thing about organizing rallies is another thing you have a good handle on – completely without the use of computers pog it. You have the overview and knowledge of so many players that you can make a fair and fine distribution of children in the different groups according to their level and strength. And now that we are talking about badminton tournaments, you are also helpful in making programs for other clubs here in the local area. In this way, you help to unite the clubs here in the region and are a leading figure in the good cooperation between the clubs here in the region.
Ib and his wife Birthe naturally also gave a nap when pizza had to be distributed to the children. Photo: Jim Hoff
Rare to meet such a stable and passionate coach
Now, running a badminton club does not consist solely of training and competitions. There is also a lot of work in the engine room, and here too, according to Søren Jakobsen, Ib is an enterprising force.
– You are very active at meetings, whether it is the local assembly of badminton clubs or at DGI meetings. For me, it is great to have a sparring partner with whom you can solve badminton problems and overcome various challenges. Finally, the club would like to thank you for the great work you have done for the youth in Grønbjerg-Langelund during all 40 years. It is a rarity that you meet such a stable and passionate coach, said the words of appreciation from Søren Jakobsen, followed by thunderous and well-deserved applause from the crowd.
Have spent a total of 5440 hours on badminton
Afterwards, Ib received a gift from the club: a badminton shirt with the inscription “Four decades, thousands of strokes, a passion”. In addition, there were gift baskets from both the players and the club, just as the popular badminton enthusiast also received a lot of heartfelt hugs from the players. He is just about the players’ man – both the very little ones aged 6-8 and up to the young handsome teenagers!
Ib’s wife, Birthe, also had a nice little feature during Søren Jakobsen’s speech, where she elaborated on the wife’s time spent in the badminton club.
– I have calculated it and found that Ib spends 16 hours a week on badminton. It will then be 5440 hours combined over the 40 years plus the loose with meetings etc.
In connection with the club championships in GLIF Badminton, Ib helped present medals and trophies to the players. Here, it is Nikolaj who coaches and is named “Best Friend”. Photo: Jim Hoff
From waiter at Propellen to badminton coach
And now that we are at Birthe, a nice bridge has been built to the story of Ib’s start as a badminton coach in Grønbjerg-Langelund.
– It actually started when I was fired from my job as a waiter at Propellen in Billund in 1983. But the idea of being unemployed was not for me, so I turned up at the badminton club and offered my help as a coach. So I started doing that in 1984. At the beginning, my wife, Birthe, was chairman of the club, I was the treasurer, so we did most of the work over the kitchen table, says Ib, who moved to Grønbjerg in 1981.
On a daily basis, the 65-year-old clubman works at Velux in Thyregod, where he has a nice senior scheme with 22 hours a week and has thus initiated a quiet downsizing of his working life.
If you stick around for another 10 years, so will I!
However, there are no plans to downsize in relation to his work as a badminton coach. When the newspaper cheerfully asked Ib if we will also meet in 10 years here at the club for his 50th anniversary, the fresh answer reads:
– If you promise that you will keep writing for the newspaper for the next 10 years, then that is an agreement. Then I will also continue for another 10 years. After all, we are both from the fantastic class of 1958, so we can probably make that deal, says the fresh jubilee with a big smile. Deal done.
It is the desire that drives the work
According to him, some of what drives Ib as a team player is quite selfish.
– I really like it. I also do it for my own sake. I expect no rewards here, it is the desire that drives the work. I personally get a lot out of it, it’s good for me, and that’s why I’ll keep going as long as it’s fun. Of course there are ups and downs in a club, that’s part of it. One year we were down to just 4 players, while we have also been up to close to 40 players. Right now we are struggling to get back after the corona, which drained us of players. But we are on our way, and our little club here is doing really well.
We know very well that there is a good woman behind every good man, and here it is Ib’s wife, Birthe, who can tell a little about how many hours the husband quite obsessively spends on badminton a week – and over the 40 years . Photo: Jim Hoff
In the summer, the racquet is exchanged for the racing bike
– Here I must also praise my colleagues regarding the work with badminton here at GLIF. Søren Jakobsen and Flemming Alexandersen are doing well, and we experienced a real “Flemming effect” when he joined the club a few years ago. When we enter the month of May, I put the badminton racket on the shelf and find the racing bike and give it gas together with the guys in Give Cykelklub on the road until September. During that period, it is Flemming who takes over the badminton training. And we match each other well: Flemming is the ambitious one, and I’m the cozy uncle – and it works just fine, notes Ib.
And it worked fine, it has Ib as Mr. Badminton in Grønbjerg-Langelund IF for 40 years now. A completely unique achievement by a completely unique firebrand – and we must remember to pay tribute to and value such good people as much as we can – because they just don’t hang on the trees anymore.
The badminton club’s chairman, Søren Jakobsen, handed Ib Jessing a nice shirt with an inscription that very nicely frames what kind of person it is to wear the shirt. Photo: Jim Hoff
2024-05-05 06:48:14
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