Hey there, I am currently trying to get some new players into our club. We are a small group of 15 members and some guests playing only from time to time. With the opportunity to play 4 times a week we are a pretty solid group but 10 more members would not hurt. The problem I face is: How to find new players? We are playing at a recreational level only, though there is the possibility to "train". One new member left us after half a year as our so called instructor was never there to train the new guys show them the basics and such. So he left. This is now resolved as I took over the beginners, because I was doing it anyways from time to time. The other problem I face are the old and settled members only want new players whom they can play with immediatly. But if you are able to play at our level you probably already have a club to play. We do have a webpage but either we are not found or there is no interest in Badminton or the people do not realise how great of a sport it is. Other things I tried is opening a blog with a catchy name to pop up first place in the google search. Need some more hits though =) Then we tried to aquire teenagers from schools with mediocre success. Any ideas how to attract new players or advices you found working for your club? Edit1: It is especially hard to find women.
It sounds "old school" but have you put up posters at nearby university or high school gyms or ask permission to put a poster in a local sports store ? Perhaps offer an "open night" for newcomers. Or announce a friendly mini-tournament (it might attract players from other clubs who might switch when they see how nice you are). If you are super motivated, you could talk to a coach at a local high school and offer to do a badminton demonstration or lesson for the gym class. That would drum up interest and goodwill. Club webpages are often not found randomly by any but the most motivated searchers. But there may be sports-oriented twitter pages or one of these multi-sport interest web groups that you could post a message offering your availability. These are just random thoughts from a recreational nobody. Hopefully you'll get lots more tips. Good luck. Edit1: Hard to find women? A common lament.
Posting your website in your thread would make a good start. You can advertise for players in the places to play section of badminton forum. May I ask what shuttles are being used? Plastic or feather? Opening up a class for teenagers is a good idea and needs a committed person. It takes time to build up. You can open up a junior club (no coaching ), and then also another session where some of those interested juniors can get coaching. Is there a chance to get some community funding to keep prices low for the juniors? Or help support a coach. You can use it as an initiative to help youths have other activities to keep them off the streets/away from drugs etc.
I have seen advertisements for players in local newspapers, local newsagents, community noticeboards etc. Newspapers might be a bit expensive but local stores should be quite inexpensive. Once I went on a drive in Australia along the Great Ocean Road to one of the tourist attractions. Stopped in one very small town along the way and went to pick up some refreshments from the local newsagents. They had an advertisement for a badminton club in the window - at least I saw it!!
Thank you so far. I thought that the webpage and the blog address would not be important. I assumed that everyone in here already is playing in a club. I would not think of this forum as an entrance for newcomers to the sport. But anyways: http://freizeitsport.vfl-fortuna-marzahn.de/neuigkeiten/ badmintoninmarzahn.blogspot.com
