When the COVID-19 pandemic first struck in March 2020, it upended the international badminton calendar, forcing players across the globe to train at home.
English mixed pair Jenny Moore and Gregory Mairs chose to use the time off from competition wisely by creating a YouTube channel titled “Badminton Insight”.
Since its launch in April 2020, the channel has reached 68,000 subscribers and counting, and hit over 5.18 million views.
“There were so many people asking what we were doing to stay fit and, how we kept up with training. So we thought, rather than answering all of them individually, we’d just make a video on YouTube,” said Moore.
The duo have been creating a weekly badminton tutorial since. From tips on mastering your serve, learning how to play a late backhand, basic badminton grips and even personal development books, they have everything you would want or need to know about badminton in a friendly and positive way.
“At the very beginning, we sat down and brainstormed, we came up with about 200 ideas,” remembered Mairs.
Having amassed a wide audience, they sought to ensure their content could appeal to everyone.
Below is their most viewed video.
“We’re trying to keep our videos very varied,” said Moore.
“So one week, it might be more for beginners. The next, it might be quite an advanced skill, which is aimed at elite players. We want to cater for everyone. We want to show the sport in a good light and what’s great about the sport.”
Admitting it takes a lot of effort to create, edit and publish videos, the pair are thoroughly enjoying the process.
“It’s very rewarding, that’s the main word I’d use to describe it. We put a lot of time into making sure we cover all the details. It’s just really important to enjoy the process. But also, we’re having fun making videos every week trying to keep it varied,” revealed Moore.
With fans flocking to the channel from across the world, the feedback has been warmly welcomed.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with how much nice feedback we’ve had. We try and reply to them all, because it’s great to just hear back from people, that they are enjoying our videos and finding them useful,” said Mairs.
“We said our goal for 2021 was to hit 50,000 subscribers by the end of the year. So that level of support is something we never expected.”
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