BFN Holds Badminton Outreach Training for Students, Teachers in Yola

By Amaechi Agbo

The Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) in collaboration with the Adamawa State Sports Council, the Ministry of Education and the Adamawa State chapter of the Nigeria School Sport Federation (NSSF) recently held a badminton training in Yola, the state’s capital.
The event which was held on 24 and 25 September 2025 was attended by 20 Physical Education teachers and 80 secondary school students in the Yola area of Adamawa State. The event was held at the Hall of General Murtala Mohammed College in Yola.
This badminton training which was facilitated by George Shitta and four other badminton coaches is aimed at introducing the game of badminton to the grassroots level. It would be noted that the BFN and their grassroots partner, Community Sports and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative have in the past three years held “Shuttle Time” and “Outreach Badminton Training” events all over Nigeria with a view of using these training events to provide teachers and students with unique opportunities to learn a sport together and improve their social skills.
The teachers and students were taught basic badminton skills like the grip, footwork, how to serve, flexible stance work, doing stroke, game strategy, as well as how to warm up properly before starting to play the game of badminton. The teachers and their students listened passionately to the instructions of the five coaches, asked relevant questions, and made good use of the opportunity to practically demonstrate some of the knowledge that they learned from the coaches.
At the end of the two-day training event, basic badminton kits (rackets, shuttlecocks and nets) were freely distributed to the teachers and students of the participating schools.
One of the remarkable aspects of the training was the attendance of the Director of the Adamawa State Sports Council, Mr Daniel Ahmed and the courtesy visits to Haj Aisha M. Umar (the Permanent Secretary of the Adamawa State Ministry of Education) and Birsan Panuel (Executive Secretary of the PPSMB) by George Shitta who is the Director of Sports of the Taraba State Sports Commission. It is a pointer to the fact of what could be achieved in future if major stakeholders work together in order to promote the academic and athletic capacity of teachers, grassroots coaches and students in Adamawa State.