Gustavo Enrique Godoy Silva
Badminton Federation of Chile
I was an active child with a lot of sports and physical activity. My parents instilled in me a taste for learning by doing. I studied Pedagogy in Physical Education. I was initially involved with tennis, later on I familiarised myself with other racket sports.
One of the earliest times I saw badminton was at the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992 on television. Later, in 1995, I was living in Gothenburg. I was invited to play tennis and we ended up playing badminton with the ambassador of Greece in Sweden.
First Impressions
The shuttlecock moving at high speed, the sound of the impact, the impact of the blow, the physical condition that is required. Each player can strive according to their own technical and physical level. It requires all your senses to be attentive to the trajectory, speed, and height of the shuttlecock.
Badminton and Me
I was never serious about practising badminton until one day a director of the School of Physical Education told me: “Gustavo, you must learn badminton.” Since then I have not moved away from badminton. I bought a professional racket and will soon get another.
What Badminton Means
I currently teach in two higher institutions, so badminton helps provide part of my monthly income. It is part of my life and students are motivated by their learning.
Badminton is a good tool of education, not only for the physical part, but also in values, internalising movements, and the movement of the shuttle in space.
It can be adapted to various environments, indoor and outdoor.
Developing Badminton
In each university annually there is an approximate enrolment between 25 and 35 students.
In other universities where I provide services (Universidad Mayor, Universidad San Sebastián), in the subjects I teach called Motor Learning, Psychomotricity and Motor Training, I familiarise my students with the sport and they are always interested. At Universidad Mayor there are improvement courses for teachers and we have programmed Badminton Courses with the idea of training teachers to be included in PE classes in schools.
Impact of Shuttle Time
Students of Individual Skills at Santo Tomás University sometimes watch the training of the Chilean badminton and Para badminton teams, so there is a lot of interest and interaction between these groups, which helps motivate our students.
Lessons from Shuttle Time
It is a sport for life, which can be practiced by everyone irrespective of gender or technical or physical level. It is easy to learn and inexpensive, with players acquiring flexibility, endurance and speed.
