US Junior Badminton

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Submitted by Fred Coleman

1. Junior Nationals
A. Site – Reaffirm if greater than 250 entrants expected 10 courts needs 6 days, 14 or more courts may have 5 days. For 190-230 entrants, 10 courts for 5 days.
    - Maximum play of 9-10 hours (8-9 am to 5-6pm)
    - Criteria for site selection (if more than one bid)

1. Regional priority to region that has had longest time without a Junior Nationals.
2. If two sites in same region bid goes to site which has had the longest time since hosting.
3. If site has never hosted a Junior Nationals, a member of the Juniors Committee must visit during another tournament to assess facility.
4. There must be a local Badminton Community or a source of knowledgeable volunteer pool and goal of development. Two Junior Nationals – Atlanta and Shreveport led to no new development.
   - Current Potential future sites include Bay Area, Seattle, LA, Miami, Chicago

B. Size – as long as an adequate number of courts and less than 300 expected athletes – if a regional site reasonably expects greater than 300 athletes, a regional qualifier may be required. Issues of greater than 300, greater than 350 participants.

1. Facility size – both number of courts and space for athletes, facilities for spectators.
2. Draw size may need to be limited. eg. 32 or 48 with qualifiers, 1 or 2 days before for unranked local athletes to play a qualifier..
3. Draw style of full feed in cons vs 1st round loser cons (a bye is not a 1st match). [Committee favors retaining full feed in to increase numbers of matches for most players]
4. A separate, secondary facility for      
   - some age groups
   - consolations rounds

C. Structure –
    DISCUSSION – U-9 event –
Pro – it is popular and kids and families enjoy it, and we want kids to play. Con – do these athletes burn out earlier (defeats the purpose), younger players may be more prone to injury (evaluate), are affected ?? poorly psychologically (child development issues). Overall Committee wants 6-8 year olds to play but unclear if an event at junior nationals is appropriate. 
    VOTE – to retain U-9 event for 2010, study past 10 years of U-7, U-9, U-11 re what happens to them over 10 years. Solicit information on impact of intense competition on 6-8 year olds. 

    DISCUSSION – U 22 event
Pro – it keeps athletes involved more years. (We lose many after U-19. Older kids are role models and help with coaching. Only College students can play Collegiate Nationals, not everyone goes to college. Con – It uses valuable tournament space. Most countries stop at U-19. Our 19’s should play Adult Nationals.
    VOTE – Retain U-22 for 2010. Consider a U-22 National Tournament

D. Goals of Tournament

1. Development of the sport.
2. Marketing – both Locally and Nationally
3. Regional Cohesion – Tournament is an opportunity for diverse clubs, Board, Community, adult players to pull together.
4. National Badminton Community Development – unlike brief weekend tournaments, kids/families are together for a week to create ties.

DISCUSSION – Who does this tournament belong to?
NEED – Development of Marketing Tool Kit

E. Time lines

1.  Early deadline – entries “6 weeks”.
2. Rankings will be posted on USA Badminton’s website, match rankings with entries to post seeds 4 weeks ahead. Challenge deadline 3 weeks ahead. 
3. Post draws 7 days before
4. Agenda for Junior’s Committee – 4 weeks before
5. Regional Reports 6 weeks before

F. Coaching – All are welcome to coach. Head coaches, assistant athlete coaches, Parent coaches.

• All coaches must register
• All coaches must sign coaching conduct statement BWF
• All will receive updated coaching guidelines
• Training Session – Day 1 for Junior Coaches
• Expectation of all coaches to attend Coaches Meeting on day 1
• Use Junior nationals to select Junior coaches for Development program. 2008
• Credentials – Overall Process went very well for the first time.
• Plan – Credentials to be worn by all on-court, on-floor, in-chair coaches – Head Coaches, Assistant Coaches, Junior (Athlete) Coaches, Parent Coaches.
• Outcome – Playing floor was uncluttered by spectators. Courts looked much more professional. Court Umpires could more formally address coaches.
  2009 – Coaching credentials not used

FUTURE ISSUES –

• One or two coaches for each team on court. Issues of pairs from 2 clubs, of Head Coach teaching a Junior Coach.
• How do we effectively train Junior coaches.
• Coach may have video camera on tripod, but not hand held camera.
• No cell phones.

PROPOSAL –

1. WBF Code of Conduct Sheet, to be signed at coaching registration
2. On first evening, a 30 minute training session for all Junior/Athlete Coaches (mandatory).
3. Using Junior Nationals as one selection site for Young Assistant Coaches for Junior Coaches to accompany Junior Pan Am/Jr World Teams for coaching training.

G. Referee/Umpires

• Organizers required to provide the number of umpires equal to the number of courts plus four more.
• Insure enough referees for all tournament days especially Finals day.
• As addition to Entry Form, we need a registration form for athletes who are interested in training as an official with a 1 hour session the on Registration Day 
• Need funding for umpires to come a day early to do training.
• 1 to 3 Regional Trainings pre Junior Nationals
• Junior  scorekeeper training Day 1
• “Scorekeeper” ok for cons match.
• Update Umpires on issues
  1. Injury protocol
  2. Athlete request for lines person change
  3. Athlete request for referee
  4. Spectator misbehavior.

   
H. Lines people – The Committee continues to believe that having all athletes serve as lines people meets several important goals

• Responsibility to give back, not just receive.
• Better appreciate the work involved.
• Play is better when athletes don’t need to worry about lines.
• However, if not run efficiently, the process can be very hard on the officials.

    GUIDELINES FOR LINES PEOPLE (Venue may use either A or B)
Option A

1. A separate roped off seating area one for on-call athletes, one for lines people.
2. After a match, the official takes both singles players, or losing doubles team to the lines people area. ---- By tracking last match athletes or court X, call them back.
   Concerns – if wrong club issue, if wrong age group, increase request for volunteers
3. If the player needs food, water, etc – a teammate or parent must either take their place in the box or bring the necessities.
4. If a coach wishes to do post match coaching, he/she should go to the box or may take the player/s to the box personally.
5. For start of play each AM, or after lunch break, courts are assigned to clubs, e.g. Court #1 to OCBC, Court #2 to Bintang, etc. One or more courts/club based on number of athletes.
6. An umpire picks up the players for their match from the player on-call box, and picks the 2 lines people who have been waiting longest. At an umpire’s discretion, older, or younger lines people may be selected based on the age of players in the match.
7. A Parent/Volunteer may be needed to oversee lines-people area as athletes tend to wander away. (Question – would it help to have punch cards, with punches to qualify as official lines person)
8. Adult volunteers for last day?

OPTION B
By tracking last match on court with software, call those two athletes back to that court when needed

Concerns – if same clubs as new player, if wrong age (too young), need more volunteers

I. Marketing Materials – It would be valuable to create a set of marketing materials – print or electronic re USAB, USAB Juniors, USAB Junior Nationals.

J. Media Plan – A Media Plan would be helpful with media contact information for players and one central media person to send out daily/end of tournament news bulletins to increase publicity.

K. Wrap-up report form needed.

L. Draws – It would be helpful if athletes name was followed by DOB and State.
 Miscellaneous suggestions for improving Junior Nationals
- Guarantee of Internet Access in Gym
- Score Boards on courts for lines people to turn
- Locally trained volunteer line judges for finals day.
- Media Badges for any on floor – photographers
- ? Assigning specific warm-up courts to Clubs (possibly same as lines person issue).
- Courts need towels, bird baskets
- Main Desk needs adequate line of sight
- Health Issues including competition guidelines for participants with asthma, diabetes, injury (eye), First Aid Kit Requirements, Medical Resources posted re nearest clinic or ER

    PROPOSED CHANGES
a. Clarify on entry that players will be put in draw based on region, state, club – if any of these are blank or incorrectly filled out it will affect players place in the draw.
b. If any event needs to be redrawn, it will be announced at the coaches meeting the 1st night. It will be redrawn at the end of the meeting. It will be posted the next morning. If the draw was scheduled to begin at the start of play on day one, matches may be delayed.
 
M. Medical
    1.     Organizers must provide on-site health services (Certified Trainer, RN or MD). Fee of $2-5 added to each entry to fund
    2.     Entry – recommends protective eyewear, display to be provided (not required)
    3.     Automatic External Defibrillator on site (required now in school gyms)
    4.     Post WAD/USDA/Therapeutic Exemptions information

N. Draws – Post rules on seeds, random assignment, first round separation

O. Add Activities Day – Day 1
    1. Juniors – train as Umpires Session
    2. Juniors – train as coaches, on court competitive coaching.
    3. Parents – Parent Coach Education session
    4. College Update Sessions
    5. International Competition – Road to Olympics
    6. WADA/USHDA

2. Ranking/Rating –
(Old system) - Note that USAB has contracted with Rail Station to do a variety of services including rating, ranking. (on line tournament entry, on line draw, on line tournament brackets – which could post over to tournament software.com. Rating based on all head to head matches in USAB sanctioned tournaments which would have to be run on the managed service program, rankings based on rating.
This would raise concerns including but not limited to:
a. Weighting of tournaments
b. Rating/Ranking for doubles – not just an averaged singles ranking
c. Use of Shadow seeds – Injury, absence, new players.
d. Data pool to be entered from preceding 1, 2 or 3 years to form starting benchmark.
e. Interplay of new electronic draw format and tournament event scheduling.

For 2009
a. Adult Ranking will be used only if player is top 10 in Men’s ranking or top 10 in Women’s ranking.
b. DISCUSSION – should seasonal weighting be considered, e.g. does a win in April mean more than a win the previous November – No decision.
c. Recombined pairs – discussed. No change in rules.
d. Shadow seeds – no change

New System –

1. Lengthy discussion of Rail Station. Subcommittee lead by Yvonne Chern, and members Tom Yang, Victor Lim, Ray Ng, and Widya Susanto to review
        a.    Rail Station’s pre 2009 Junior National Rankings (based on 2008 Jr Nationals and 2008-9 competition year sanctioned Jr Tournaments compared to old system ranking.
        b.    Compare 2009 RS rankings post 2009 Junior Nationals with old system rankings post Junior Nationals..
        c.    Special review of algorithm for individual doubles rankings and effect on reconstituted pairs.
2. Should all sanctioned Jr Tournaments be used for rankings or only some
        VOTE - All, good for growth. Should some tournaments JN’s and JIT and/or Regional Open’s be more highly weighted
        VOTE – Defer for one year
3. Announced plan for a Competition Year does not change mid year. 2009-2010 announced by 9/30/2009

3. JIT – (Formerly the Junior International Team Trials – now the Junior International Trials since it is also a competition for places in the non-team, individual events).
A. Site – In the past 4 years it has been awarded to a site hosting a tournament (BAJO, Smashing Juniors, USBDF, and in a different region than Junior Nationals.
- The Trials has become too large to co-host with another tournament. IT has become too large to run in 3 days (18 plus matches is too many in 3 days and risks injury to the athletes). Other geographic criteria may matter, e.g. it might have been wise to compete JIT 2008 in Denver – a similar altitude to Guatemala City. 85% of the competitors and qualifiers come from Northern California and Southern California. While it is not fair to always have the other regions have travel costs, it is not economic to have the same families that pay most of the costs for international travel to increase expenditures (see cost-sharing proposal below). Despite the very clear agreement signed by players and parents that participation in the trial is an agreement to go – we still have players decline to participate on the team. These – non-competitors increase the severity of the trials (number of matches to play) and may knock another deserving player out in a pool play round (see deposit proposal below)

Comments on 2009 JIT – held in Bay area as a free standing event
 
Proposal 2010 – with Bay Area Junior Nationals – Bay Badminton Club, JIT will be held in LA (see discussion.)
 
DISCUSSION – Facility must be in operation for 6 months, have one prior tournament, minimum number of restrooms, crowd control and no known defects

B. Date – RECOMMEND – Presidents weekend, February 13-15, 2010. Tournament begins Sat AM, finishes Tues in time for afternoon flights. Three days allows fewer matches per day. Schedule minimizes school days lost.

C. Size – Years with the Junior Pan Americans in the US the size may grow further, and even with an extra day there may be too many matches. Alternatives include;

1. Give up pool play for draw. This has problem of greater dependency on Ranking/Seeding. In fact – up to 24 player pool play vs. feed in consolation is very close in number of matches.
2. Restrict size of pools to 16 based on junior national outcome (12 slots) plus 2 designated tournaments (1 east coast, 1 west coast) as pre-qualifiers. Problems – would it mean closing tournaments to non-eligible players? Many of our Junior Tournaments have International and US non-eligible players. Also, no prior notice was given re Junior Nationals.
3. Restrict size of pools to 16 based regionally (e.g. 6 to N Cal, 6 to S. Cal, 4 to rest of country). Each region to plan its own pre-qualifier.
   PLAN - Continue pool play, no other changes

D. Structure

1. Fee of $40 to organizing site and $40 to USAB - $80 entry fee
2. Require a $100 DEPOSIT at time of tournament – refunded if you qualify and go, or don’t qualify. FORFEITED – if you play, qualify and decline to go. 

E. Goals – Field strongest possible teams.

F. Timeline – Post bid package (see below) by 9/1/2009, Close bids by 10/1/2009, Announce site 10/15/09, Entry open 12/1/2009, Entries due 1/1/2010, Ranking 1/15/2010, Draws posted 2/1/2010

G. Name JIT co-coordinator from Region

H. Umpires - need larger group. Umpire training in conjunction recommended

I. Default Rule
    1. default one event, defaults all
    2. default, no injury – no selection to team or individual event
3. Retire from match, may continue same and other events
.

J. Medical – On-site trainer required (may add on tournament fee)

K. Review selection procedure (to be done by 12/1 and post with entry)

L. Review USAB Pool Play seeding regulations and whether deeper seeds are needed for Juniors.. For 2010 – Unique Issue of Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

1.  YOG first ever – Singapore, August 2010
   - Need to post detailed qualification rules
   - Current – 1 US boy, 1 US Girl.  Go to Peru mid February 2010 for zonal qualifier
   - Need USOC sanction as US only allowed to send a limited number of sports, not all sports – Dan Cloppas has negotiated with USOC
2. Cannot hold U-19 trials at JIT time this year/conflict with Peru YOG
3. Plan – U-19 trials plus a team camp 12/26-12/31. Most likely site Bay Area. U-11 to U-17 in LA. Feb 13-15, 2010. Full details for trials and camps to be posted by mid September.

4. Junior Teams – Junior Pan
A.    Coach selection – select 3 months ahead if possible. Post selection process. Goal – Fund all necessary coaches.
B.    Deposits at Tournament time not in selection process
C.     Funding – need to increase
D.     Need to fund team manager
E.     WADA/USADA ed for parents, players, coaches.
F.     Discuss private Coach rules (see USAB coach guidelines)
G.     Parent Coach – Certify Level I, Onsite training
E.     Develop Evaluation forms for – coach, assistant coaches, athlete evaluation by coaches, Job description for coach, assistant coaches, parent coaches, team manager
a. Managers – see draft Guidelines
b. Agreement to go – see Deposit above
c. Funding –
VOTE – to fund
     1) Head Coach, 1 Assistant Head Coach, 4 Assistant Coaches for 2009 Jr. Pan Ams
     2) Head Coach for Jr Worlds. An assistant may go self-funded
d. Coaching – Plan for lead coach and development coach.

4. Junior Teams – Junior Worlds
a. Malaysia 10/23 to 11/1
b. Coordinator will be Wayne Lum
c. Must name team by 9/14/09
d. Chose coach by 9/14/09

5. Development Plans – See handouts
10 Year Chart (Best filled out by a regional committee with representatives from multiple areas in the region)
1) Geography – describe centers of play/resources
            -- areas to develop with new initiatives
2) Census – estimates of all players (Jr/Adult/Sr)
             -- counts – regional and national
             -- competitors – levels of tournament
3) Athlete ID – process for identifying potential elite Junior/Adult athletes and connecting them to training programs/coaches
4) Juniors – identify programs – school, community, elite
    -- # current / # desired
    -- Junior tournaments
    -- Junior camps
    -- Regional team (for which age groups)
    -- Process for nominating Juniors to national camps
5) Programs – A program is a coordinated set of times, site or sites, and coaching aimed at development of athletes
    -- Names of current
    -- Number in planning for development
    -- What materials, resources are needed from USAB to develop
6) Camps – Regional Adult (Current / Goal)
    -- Regional Junior (Current / Goal)
    -- Local Adult (Current / Goal)
    -- Local Junior (Current / Goal)
    --What materials/resources are needed from USAB?
7) Tournaments – list sites / size of tournaments
        Sanctioned or not
        Age groups included
        If regional website regularly lists tournaments
        Participation in state games / national games
8) Coaching Needs – Number of coaches at each level
        -- Desired / needed number of coaches
        -- Plans for regional training
        -- Needs for training resources from USAB
        -- Planned # of coaches to send to USAB National Trainings
9) Centers – specific designed location with capacity to host a full program
    -- Names of current
    -- Goal number for region, possible locations
    -- Economic planning
    -- Resources needed from USAB to assist in development

6. Athlete Development – see 2009 Athlete Development Plan – Website by 10/15/2009
 
7. Awards – Need Awards Coordinator for 2010
a. Ken Davidson – Michael  Wang
b. Deb Brown – Ying-Fang, Lai
c. HSAA – Terrance Pang, Eric Kuo, Isabelle Zhong, Tina Cavazos, Karishna Kollipara, Tracy Chan
        Needs work on time line and web site materials
d. Establish Mike Gamez Jr. Coaching award for 2010
e. Review schedule of Tournament week process for all awards.

8. Regional Junior Committees – to be posted as available

9. Junior Circuit – Discussed highlights of a Circuit. No decisions made.
    a. To build national growth, we need junior players to play different areas of the country.
    b. Alternatives
        - Weight tournaments for Rankings
        - Require 1 East, 1 West Coast tournament
        - Subsidize travel to West coast for ranked East Coast
        - Subsidize housing for West coast Players playing on East Coast
- Combo package – e.g. Elite Juniors at Boston Open, Play Friday and Sat. On Sunday play a Junior’s only pool play for ranked players.

Manhattan Beach – August
Smashing Juniors – Fall
NEJO – November
Mid Atlantic Juniors – December
USBDF – December
Midwest Juniors – Jan/Feb
USBDF – April
Washington State Junior Championship  - Late April
Maryland Juniors – May
BAJO/Smashing Juniors – Memorial Day
Others to be determined (e.g. Bintang Junior Open ?)

10. Funding – See BOD long term development plan for USAB – after BOD meeting in November

11. New Bylaws/New Board – No discussion

12. Misc
    a. Medical –
        - for teams requiring medical clearance, medical history form
        - Rec – coaches do same for programs
        - Medical column on website
            Acute Injury
            Managing Return to Play post injuries
            Injury prevention
b. Live training – practice in club
c. Coach ed sessions at Jr. Nationals

9/20/2009 Addendum

We would like to ask USA Badminton to consder an amateur membership besides an athlete membership, perferably $10 a year. This is to make it easier for sanction tournaments to attract local players who don't really care about their national ranking. We touched on what USA Badminton can provide these amateur players with their membership, such as possibly local ranking in railstation.