Fusion Lifestyle to offer family Badminton classes

‘No Strings’ is a weekly ‘turn up and play’ Badminton session for adults and their families, now available at Fusion’s Leys Pools and Ferry Leisure Centres. The sessions will be taking place alongside family swimming and junior gym sessions.

With Britain’s winters getting colder and wetter** over half (54%) of parents in Oxford fear they are losing the battle to keep their kids moving, with screen time winning over physical exercise.

Talking to parents of school-aged kids across the region, a new study from Fusion Lifestyle, a leading registered charity, providing quality sport, leisure and fitness facilities to local communities, revealed that 68% of the mums and dads polled, said they felt they should do more to stop the sense of family fragmentation from January – March.  One in ten (13%) say they regularly do things together as a family at this time of year with half (50%) of parents saying they feel they should be doing more exercise themselves, to set a better example.

According to behavioral psychologist, Dr. Simon Moore, one of the biggest problems we face in our tech-driven lives is losing connection with others around us, adding “this isolation can have a serious impact on our long term physical and mental health.  Spending more time on virtual interaction can cause a disconnection from real world relationships, such as those with our families”.

With three quarters (80%) of parents polled also saying they would love to find more activities for the whole family to do together, family-fitness experts at Fusion are building on their range of family friendly activities on offer. 

Nick Rimmer from Badminton England said: “Badminton’s such a great way to get the whole family involved and moving more.  You can’t help but feel good after a game as it really works the whole body as well as creating lots of fun and memorable moments to share”

Chris Jones, Head of Sports and Community, Fusion said: “Childhood inactivity is a real problem and we recognise that families want to do more together.  We’re responding to this by developing more activities that people of all ages can get together and play. These new badminton sessions are the first of many family activities to come”

Councillor Linda Smith, Deputy Leader of Oxford City Council, said: "These family badminton sessions are another great reason for families to visit our leisure facilities when they want to spend some quality together. In can be hard to tear kids away from their electronic devices and get them active, especially in the midst of winter, but our leisure facilities in Oxford are a great family friendly destination with a wide variety of activities on offer for all ages."

To help families get started, up until the end of March, Fusion is offering a free trial for families.