Following E-mail was sent out yesterday by National Executive Director (NED) Stuart Borrie and relates to the news announcement on BA National Coach: Dear Members On Monday, Badminton Australia will put out a media release to announce the appointment of a new National Coach to start in December. As Robin at the AGM, the decision to appoint a National Coach is the result of an ongoing review of all aspects of the national High Performance Program which started in July. We are very fortunate to have Claus Poulsen joining us from Denmark in December. Claus has coached some of Europe's top national teams / squads in the Netherlands and Denmark and he is currently in a head coach position at the national Team Denmark Centre in Aarhus. Claus was previously Assistant Coach to the Dutch National Team for two and a half years leading up to and during the Athens Olympic Games and following the Olympics returned to his native Denmark to take up the position at the Danish National Centre in Aarhus. The National Coach is responsible for the technical, tactical, physical and mental preparation and international success of Australia's elite badminton players in the national squad(s). His immediate focus will be player preparation for the Commonwealth Games and the Thomas & Uber Cup and Oceania Championship in February. Claus will be working with the current team - Strength & Conditioning Trainer, Luke Pryor, Rhonda Cator, Andrew Perks and Murray Hocking will support the HP Program through assistant coaching and the HP Program will continue to work with Dr Melissa Arkinstall from Exercise Research Australia on the Sports Science side in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games. The strength and conditioning program and fitness testing protocols currently being implemented at the National Senior Squads will be incorporated at the Development Squad level - and Rhonda Cator, National Junior Coach and Corinne Barnard, Junior Development Manager will roll out the fitness testing protocols with the coaches and players at the National Junior Camp in Ballarat in January. These fitness testing protocols and the conditioning programs will be part of the coach and player development for the pilot State/Regional Squads Corinne Barnard discussed at the AGM presentation day on 23 October. I will copy you in on the media release Monday. Regards Stuart Borrie National Executive Director Badminton Australia Web: www.badminton.org.au