All of a sudden, the national circuit is buzzing with coaches who have played at the highest level and are now guiding the creme de la creme of Indian badminton
With HS Prannoy vs Priyanshu Rajawat being not just an all India but also an all-academy affair, no coach sat courtside and let the fellow Thomas Cup champions battle it out in a second-round clash at the India Open.
But an animated RMV Gurusaidutt couldn’t help himself. Sitting in the stands with cheering fans, Prannoy’s coach was continuously making hand gestures, talking to other coaches from the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy (PGBA) that his trainee could have played shots in ‘this way or that’.
Chief national coach Gopichand has always lamented the lack of coaches in the national setup, people who can succeed the likes of himself or U Vimal Kumar and continue grooming top-quality players. “To be able to talk and give tips is one of the challenges I had. At a point, I had about 6-7 (singles) players in the top 30 and I also had to take care of doubles. I wasn’t able to be give enough time to each of them as they wanted,” said the former All England champion.
All of a sudden, the Indian circuit is buzzing with coaches who have played at the highest level and are now guiding the creme de la creme of Indian badminton. While Gurusaidutt guided Prannoy in the latter’s resurgence the last one year, 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who recently retired, is now assisting former world No.1 Kidambi Srikanth.
Until recently Anup Sridhar was coaching reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen while former India international Arun Vishnu has played a pivotal role in the rise of both Tanisha Crasto/Ashwini Ponnappa and Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly.
“I’m very happy that people like Kashyap, Guru and Arun are helping me. The players are getting the required individual attention. To have played in this era helps. It just gives them that freedom to actually have coaches who are working exclusively for them. From an Indian perspective, to have talent not contributing back to the ecosystem would be not so nice,” said the Dronacharya awardee.(HT)