Coach Peter Higman with Teesside Performance Centre’s Josh Young
Teesside Badminton Performance Centre head coach Peter Higman says he is “over the moon” with the potential of his current crop of players.
The performance centre, held at Thornaby Pavilion, provides coaching to the top players from across the region, including Josh Young – currently ranked number nine for singles in the country.
And Higman, a former national squad coach, believes the performance centre’s younger players are potential international stars of the future.
He said: “If you look at six years ago [when the performance centre began] the emerging squad was an old squad, we had people from the age of 17 to 32.
“Now the age group is from 12, apart from Josh, to 18 so the standard has slightly gone down but potential for the top squad has gone massively upwards.”
The performance centre is split into three squads, raw, developing and emerging with players receiving up to four hours coaching per week.
Higman said: “Potential is a big word, but potentially we’ve got top players.”
“If you look at Ella Hodgson she is 15. Although she’s not winning things at the moment potentially she is an international player there is no doubt in my mind, 32 years of experience tells me that.”
“She’s a brilliant athlete and she’s got the attitude and the physical attributes and shes also got the support system behind her because she’s at a performance centre.
“Ella is just one of them. We’ve got Tom Macrae, Zoe Beamson, Rachel Johnson, Lewis Farrell, Steve Greaves these are all players in the top squad.”
Young, 22, is the oldest and highest ranked member of the squad and Higman hopes he can break into the top five of the rankings in the future.
Higman said: “Josh is good to have with the squad because he’s a good example for everybody else to see.
“There are people in our squad now who are much better than Josh was when he was their age so if he can do it why can’t they.
“They’re getting to semi-finals and finals, in doubles we’re winning and it won’t be long before we start winning singles events.”
“In terms of potential I’m over the moon, I’m chuffed to bits.”
Higman has had a career in coaching spanning 32 years which has included being head coach of the Sri Lankan 2014 Commonwealth Games badminton squad.
Higman said: “I’ve always been enthusiastic however after 30 odd years as a full time professional coach sometimes you lose it a bit because you’ve done that much of it.
“However, because of the way things are now and the performance centre I’ve got this drive back again.”
Higman added that the success of the performance centre is also down to assistant coach Dave Johnson, Treasurer Roger Cook as well as a strong committee.
Higman said: “Dave is really improving in a big way as a coach. He is a massive help, he does some of the profiling, he’s highly committed and he’s put a lot of time into improving himself as a coach and is a massive support to me.”
“Dave and Roger are fantastic organisers.
“I couldn’t do the things I want to do without a strong committee and we’ve got a brilliant committee, absolutely superb.
“They’re so organised the structure of the whole thing in terms of the management is fantastic.”
North East Badminton 