Need to improve coaching, quality of tournaments: Gopi

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 20

National coach Pullela Gopichand has said that the top priority of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) should be to introduce a proper system for improving coaching and quality of tournaments.

Gopichand was in Chandigarh to formally inaugurate the main draw round of the All-India Junior Ranking Championship on Thursday. He said that though over the past 10 years, Indian badminton had been doing well, the system needs to be streamlined immediately.

“There is a dire need to improve the coaching system. It can either be good if players shift to coaching, for which the BAI should come up with some plan, or by introducing more practical drills for the current lot at the ground level,” said Gopichand. “If we have to produce good players, we have to have a good coaching structure.”

Asked if the huge number of entries in tournaments is putting pressure on the players, he suggested that BAI should organise more regional meets. The ongoing tournament has received nearly 1,100 entries for the qualifying rounds.

“BAI should understand this concept. If someone is coming from Kerala or Assam and loses in the very first match, what is the use of such a championship?” said Gopichand. “BAI should uplift the morale of players through regional championships and should allow top performers — or say top-10 players — to play in ranking championships.”

“The players and their parents come here after spending a huge amount of money and time, which is not easy to manage. I believe a competition should provide a platform, instead of turning into a burden,” shared Gopichand.  

Tight schedule

Gopichand praised the performance of Indian shuttlers in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Jakarta Asian Games. However, he expressed concerns over tight scheduling. “We had two weeks of CWG, then two weeks of Asian Games. In the next 12 weeks we will be playing in France, Berlin, China and Malaysia, which is a matter concern for me as a coach,” said Gopichand. “Our players are not getting recovery time. The Indian and Malaysian players are the ones who are most affected by this tight scheduling.”

“Recovery is obviously more important. In media’s perception — or, say, according to a layman’s analysis — top players like Saina or Sindhu choke on stamina during tough games. But if you are playing such number of championships, you ought to have a break somewhere. Despite this, our players are doing well at the international level. There is always scope of improvement, but it could be achieved only if we have time.”

Coaching own children

On coaching his own kids, Gopi said that they are not getting any special treatment as they are among 50 junior trainees in his academy. His son Sai Vishnu Pullela and draughter Gayatri Pullela are playing in the tournament here. “They are among the other players of our academy and get the same coaching,” he said. “I would be happy if they play at the highest level for the country, nothing more than that.”