One of Canada’s leading badminton coaching schools, the Fernando’s Youth Badminton Academy, which is headed by former Sri Lanka national player Dharshana Fernando earned a place in the World Badminton website listing. Fernando who was highly delighted by the achievement named the development as a huge boost to his academy. In addition the official website of his academy has been listed among the top 20 badminton coaching sites in the world.
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| Dharshana Fernando |
Fernando, who is the founder and head coach, has a rich experience of 43 years from badminton as a player and coach. At present Fernando’s academies are run at several leading locations in Canada with a following of above 150 students. His academy has been termed as the yardstick for other badminton schools in the region. Fernando’s experience as a former junior national champion and a Sri Lanka national player for quite a number of years has immensely helped number of youngsters who come out as complete shuttlers.
“We have a proven track record and have developed many shuttle champions in the region. We will continue to do so,” Fernando’s deputy at his academy, Piumika Fernando said. Piumika who is a former champion in Racketlon and a level two coach under the Canadian Coaching Certification Programme further added that Fernando’s Youth Badminton Academy has different categories of students.
“Many play competitive badminton while some come here merely for fitness and recreation. We respect their demands and as an academy we have tailor made programmes to suite everyone,” Piumika added.
Fernando who is a former student at St. Thomas’ College, Bandarawela, a town approximately 200 kilometers away from Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Colombo revolutionized badminton in Ontario within a short phase. His academy celebrated the sixth anniversary with a gala awards night recently. The President of the Ontario Badminton Association was invited as the chief guest for the awards night where most of his students were rewarded with medals and certificates for their performances at regional competitions.
Fernando also has held coaching programmes in Denmark, Belgium, Czech Republic and the USA in the recent years where he has been constantly invited to hold coaching camps. The academy sent three of its promising students to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia where they received intensive badminton training from Andrew Chang, a prominent coach in Asia. Fernando said these three players were able to improve their skills while competing against faster player from Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Russia.
Fernando’s badminton academy also introduced a theory examination and a fitness test done with skipping rope. “Any badminton player should learn the theoretical aspects. We have a written test annually for the students where they are required to obtain 75% for certification in addition to the skipping tests. The idea behind this is to engage the students to an unparalleled form of exercise and cultivate the importance and benefits,” Fernando explained.
Fernando academy is hoping to make its investment big time in the latest shuttle shooter, a machine similarly used in cricket and tennis to improve batting and striking. The shuttle shooter machine is expected to free the coaches from the playing court and concentrate more on teaching and coaching.
“For a beginner this machine will dramatically accelerate their learning curve. The players also will stand a chance to improve their techniques, consistency and accuracy from this. This will be a very good mode to train against a variety of shots such as smashes, drives, fast drops, slow drops, net shots, short services, long serves, smash returns to name a few,” Fernando clarified.
Lastly Fernando revealed his intention of contributing his expertise to his motherland by helping promote badminton in Sri Lanka through his academy. He expects to assist upcoming potential players and provide them with sponsorship packages including equipments, clothing and possibly international training. |
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