Meet our Summer Camp coach, Paz Ben-Sira. Coach Paz is a former professional badminton athlete from Israel who has been a part of the Bellevue Badminton Club since 2006 and is our lead Summer Camp coach for the past 16 years! Now living in Puerto Rico, Coach Paz comes back each summer to lead our fun summer camp which students look forward to each year!

How did you get started in badminton?

I started playing badminton when I was 8 years old. I played tennis when I was 5 but two of my older brothers played badminton. Badminton was always nearby as the gym was close to my home and I was naturally good at it since I already played a racket sport.

What do you like about badminton?

Badminton really caught me early on and I loved it from the first moment I played. I really enjoy the excitement and the full-pack action badminton has to offer. Tennis was so slow and long to me but badminton had so many shots and so many ways to move your opponent. I can really be more creative in badminton.

What are some of your badminton experiences as a player?

I was quite good early on and became a national champion in Israel in U10 (Under 10 age category). I won nationals in every age category all the way up to U18 and even joined the Junior National Team when I was 12 years old. I got to travel to 4-5 tournaments a year in Europe and attended many training camps until I was 18.

At one point when I was 16, I spent 5 days playing a U16 tournament in Italy, came back to Israel for the weekend to train, and then flew back out to the Netherlands to play Thomas Cup!

When I started playing professionally, I played many tournaments around the world including big tournaments such as Russian Open and US Open. I was the national champion in 1998 and medaled in many international tournaments including winning the Cypress Open. I’ve also represented Israel at the 1997 Sudirman Cup (World Team Championships), and I was also on the Thomas Cup team in 1992 and 1998.

How did you get started with the Bellevue Badminton Club?

Through my endeavors and traveling, I met my wife whose family lives in Seattle. When I came to Seattle, I started working at REI and wanted to join the Bellevue Badminton Club because I use to play professionally and wanted to keep playing the sport I love so much. I ended up talking to Geoff Stensland and began volunteering my time coaching the Summer Camp in exchange for membership. Through coaching here, I found that I really loved coaching and developed a big passion for coaching, especially coaching beginners. I was part-time coaching for a couple of years and eventually became the Head Coach.

You come back every summer to coach our summer camps, you must enjoy it! What can kids expect when they join our summer camp?

I really do enjoy coaching Summer Camp and my main goal is to show how much fun badminton is!

Days are divided into exercises and fun games. Towards the end of the week, we add more fun competitions. Not everything is all on-court and it’s not all badminton. We do lots of running games and fun activities to play as a group to develop athletic skills, coordination, and teamwork. When we do work on badminton, we cover basic badminton skills building it the correct way from the start.

What do the kids and coaches enjoy most about summer camp?

The kids always enjoy snack time! We have great healthy snacks for the kids during the morning and afternoon sessions. Friday is a fun day for the kids and the coaches because we have a fun skills competition and a mini-tournament. After spending the whole week Monday to Thursday learning different skills we get to see them all in action! The kids and coaches really look forward to Friday! The kids also enjoy challenging the coaches to games on Friday.

What do you hope the kids will learn and gain from joining our summer camp besides badminton skills?

We do many skill base activities but ultimately, it’s the values of the sport which is most important to me.

Sportsmanship, respecting your coaches, respecting each other; these are most important and must be learned first. We immerse ourselves in badminton but we also learn how to treat our bodies better, how to treat each other better. It’s important kids learn how to call lines correctly and not to cheat. There is so much more to it than badminton too, like keeping your area clean, not being late, listening to directions, waiting your turn, being patient, and working together. These are all life skills we can learn from badminton.

Also, I have zero tolerance for bullies and negativity. Summer Camp is a positive environment where everybody can succeed. Even kids who may not be as good right away can be in a safe environment to try their best.

I look forward to seeing new students as well as returning students this summer!

Coach Paz, standing third from the left. 1997