BWF News

Humans of Shuttle Time: Raul Jara Tacora

TEXT BY BWF STAFF

This is the 46th story in our Humans of Shuttle Time series, in which we present the perspectives of those who are involved with badminton at the grassroots level. Raul Jara Tacora, Shuttle Time Teacher with Badminton Pan Am, talks about his initiation into badminton in the unlikeliest of places, and his love affair with the sport since then.

Childhood Days

My childhood was very conservative; I was not exposed to sports. I grew up in various cities and used to play football with friends. I had never heard of badminton.

First Experience

I saw badminton for the first time in the Peruvian jungle when I was working as an education assistant in a private educational institution. I was studying to be a sports technician and I needed to do my internship, that’s when I started researching spaces where I could practice and learn badminton. To my good fortune, at that time the “I Peru Para-Badminton International” and the “Badminton Youth World Cup” were taking place in Peru, where more than 40 countries participated. The tournaments needed volunteers. I decided to volunteer as I could use the opportunity for practice sessions. When I arrived I was surprised, for this sport was different. At first it seemed like a boring sport, but as the teams qualified it became exciting.

Raul Jara at a Shuttle Time session

Relationship with Badminton

After that experience as a volunteer, I returned to my birthplace. I thought that this level of competition could be organised in the interior of the country. I learnt more about the sport as a volunteer, player, line judge, coach, etc. As time went by, I fell in love with this sport, and I continue to discover new things about it.

In 2018 I started to specialise as a coach, and I took the Shuttle Time course. In mid-2019 I began my adventure of teaching and teaching the programme through associations and neighbourhoods. Currently, I work with the federation of my country and now as coordinator of my region.

What Badminton Means

Badminton for me is dreams, goal and passion. Being able to live competitive experiences with my athletes who have the same dreams that I once had and to be able to realize them is something indescribable. Every day I wake up, I’m happy to go to work and I’m aware that this isn’t possible for everyone.

This sport allows me to meet new people, transmit values, learn about myself and travel. New players can start at any time with no limit on age, gender, social status and find badminton fun.

Raul Jara

Developing Badminton

In the Tacna region, developing badminton is a challenge due to the different geographical features of Peru. In the Tacna region it is not always easy for badminton to receive adequate attention.

When I was volunteering, I always wanted to bring badminton to my region and I set myself a goal that I would coach a team. I had no idea what that would entail. The schools would not allow me to teach Shuttle Time, as it was a new and unknown sport. I needed to develop the program from scratch, recruit players, get space to teach the programme, get uniforms, create schedules, create a club, create a schedule of practices and competition. It was a very hard start, added to this the pandemic that slowed down development. After recruiting a few players, the programme has developed well enough to seek participation in tournaments organised by the federation.

Previous Stories in This Series

Humans of Shuttle Time: Lerato Lepheane

Humans of Shuttle Time: Genelyn Lansangan

Humans of Shuttle Time: Paulo Jerome Niniano Quidato

Humans of Shuttle Time: Josefa Matasau

Humans of Shuttle Time: Richard Gregory Wong

Humans of Shuttle Time: Alessandro Redaelli

Humans of Shuttle Time: Veronika Protassova

Humans of Shuttle Time: Robbert De Keijzer

Humans of Shuttle Time: Carolina M Vaughn

Humans of Shuttle Time: Sam Paterson

Humans of Shuttle Time: Deki Tshomo