If there was one person who played a substantial role in the rise of Indian badminton, then it has to be the present chief national coach Pullela Gopichand.
The former All England Open Badminton Championship winner contributed in several other ways than being the chief national coach. His Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy has helped in producing several stars for the country and they are currently ruling the roost in the badminton world.
The academy was set up in 2008, with an eight-court badminton hall. He started his academy with no more than 60 trainees with an ambition of creating several shuttling superstars. He has so far managed to do it.
Saina Nehwal was the first player from the academy to be publicly acclaimed for her stupendous performances. Notably, the Bronze she won in the 2012 london Olympics turned the spotlight towards the academy.
Since then, the facility has trained several other players like PV Sindhu, Srikanth Kidambi, HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap, Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma among others.
Sindhu’s Rio Olympic Silver medal, Srikanth climbing to the summit of the BWF rankings and other incredible performances from the shuttlers was a testimony to Gopichand’s incredible training and man-management methods.
“He has played a very important role in everybody’s career. If you can see the top players like me, Saina, Srikanth, Prannoy all are doing really well in the circuit. I think the dedication and the way he focuses, he is from morning to evening there training us, he has sacrificed so many things for us. So I think he is doing a really great job and I think we all have to be very very thankful to him,” Sindhu says.
Srikanth concurred with her statements and went on to praise all the staff members for where he is right now.
“As a player, I would really like to give credit to my coaches and my support staff because it is definitely not possible without them. I think badminton is such a sport where coach has a big role to play and the kind of injuries we have, our physios do play a big role so I really like to thank my coaches and support staff for really helping me,” Kidambi tells you.
Gopichand has indeed made many sacrifices to give his all to his players. He is the first to reach the academy at 4am every morning and is known to stay as long as his players need him. Rightly so all the players have realised the value of Gopichand and other coaches in the academy and have praised them for their contribution.
“The effort put by them (coaches) is appreciable and I hope they keep doing it and probably we can deliver much more medals,” Prannoy says.
Academy coach Mohammed Siyadath Ullah Siddiqui explained why this academy is a big plus for all the players.
“It’s one of the best academies which has everything in it. There is a training ground, there are physios, and there are recovery centres, everything in one academy. Usually, you don’t get it in one place and you have to travel for each of it separately,” he tells you.
Everyone training under one roof will help the shuttlers be prepared for different challenges during the world tour, said Siyadath.
“In one academy there are different kinds of players playing. When you look at the world level, there are also different kinds of players playing. So it will be easier practicing for that. So that is really important,” he says.
Prannoy reckons it will help them in learning new things from others. “I think it’s a good thing that is happening right now because everyone is training together and it is really important that everyone trains together because there is a lot of positive energy when you train together.
“A lot of things you can learn from these counterparts when you play together and there are a lot of different styles of games that you play against each other. That is really good because when you go out in the circuit you get to play against so many different players. A lot of chances to learn new stuff,” he explained.
After seeing his academy doing so well, the 44-year-old Gopichand is undoubtedly a proud man.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think I’m very happy with the work that has happened over the years and very glad to see Indian badminton go the way it’s going,” Pullela says.
“Having gone through this journey for so many years, I think it’s important that Indian badminton moves ahead. More importantly, they need to ensure that good quality players are identified and nurtured. That is my core focus and that is what I’m looking at,” he says.