Academy of Sport Spotlight: Q&A with Nathan Barker-Chadwick

I compete at Badminton 

As soon as lockdown finished, I started playing with friends and slowly improved through having fun instead of consistent, hard training. My friend asked me to go to my local club one day and I have never looked back since. 

At the moment for my club, I compete in the first division of the Crewe and District league but in regards to the college, I compete at a college national level and I won the West Midlands Badminton Regional Tournament. 

My best sporting achievement was probably when I won a tournament at my local club. It was against other players within my club but winning that tournament and getting the trophy was like I had just broken down a barrier in front of me. It showed me that dedication, passion and love for the game will beat experience. 

I competed in College Regionals in which I won the event. I have competed in other local tournaments but way too many to remember how every single tournament went. 

At the moment, I am working towards performing my best at the Association of Colleges National Championships in April. This is my first time going to college nationals as I didn’t make the cut last year. So after a strong entry through winning regionals, I cannot let my teammates down. 

My favourite thing about badminton is that it is easy to learn but hard to master. It creates a huge skill gap between people who can play the sport with the correct technical knowledge and people who play for fun. I find it really satisfying to play when you hear the shuttle ping off of your strings every time you hit it. There is too much I could talk about loving the sport but if I had to pick one, it is definitely that it is a very inclusive sport and can be played at all levels whilst still remaining fun.

One thing has to be the price. It is ridiculously expensive to play badminton. You would not look at a high quality racket and think that it is £180+. That is just the racket alone, advanced – professional players carry 3-5 of the same racket with them to tournaments. High quality shuttles feel like they get more expensive each week and court costs are never cheap.

My sporting icon is a Malaysian badminton player called Lee Chong Wei. He is sort of like an uncrowned King of badminton. He retired in 2014 and got asked in an interview if he thought his career was successful. Despite being called the best badminton player of all time by some people, he still feels like his career wasn’t successful as he didn’t do enough to get a gold medal in major tournaments. This is how I got my mentality of people only see results, this is why you work so hard outside of the court so that the results show how hard you have worked.

My favourite memory is probably winning my first tournament. It really boosted my confidence and made me believe in myself. It made me love the sport even more and convinced me that if I kept playing, I would improve.

My favourite thing about studying at NSCG is the facilities they have. With my course being very digital-based, I am always in need of a laptop to complete my work. The college have a huge library which is available for me to use desktop PCs to complete my work.

Hopefully I will get a degree apprenticeship so I can continue with higher education but in a more practical work environment. I feel like that is what will suit me best as it is hands on work whilst still getting a degree.

My long-term career goal is to be a software developer or any similar job that involves an element of programming. I understand that with AI taking over the IT industry, I have to adapt to the new way things will have to be done. A degree apprenticeship gives me a lot of flexibility to do that.

Badminton isn’t the most popular sport. I understand that. It makes it a lot harder for the college to provide help with my sport. However, despite this tough obstacle, NSCG still supported me through regionals in my first and second year of college as well as helped me by getting our college involved in a National cup tournament that took place late last year. With the limited support that can be provided, the college have still found a way to support me in the best way possible and I am so grateful for it.

Focus from day one. NSCG is great for your social life but education should always come first. NSCG provides you with so many wonderful career paths and opportunities and the facilities are amazing. Make the most of your time at NSCG.