Even though the Pullela Gopichand Academy and Prakash Padukone Academy continue to frontier the Indian badminton landscape; former World No.22 Arvind Bhat believes that the current crop of coaches aren’t at par to produce the next PV Sindhu or Saina Nehwal.
“Even though I’m a coach, right? But I’ll say, be it foreign or Indians, no coaches have managed to take charge of a career and actually make it happen – an elite Top 5 player,” Bhat told the Indian Express, underlining that Lakshya Sen, under the mentorship of U. Vimal Kumar, has broke into the elite category.
“As far as taking over the mantle goes, Lakshya (Sen) has done it. But the next generation stepping up has largely not happened,” he says.
He has taken World No.58 Tasnim Mir and World No.59 Tanya Hemanth under his belt and realizes the gulf in class in coaching with the facilities available.
“Even though I’m coaching and putting in effort, I’ll say, it’s just not enough,” Bhat says.
“When Saina, Sindhu, Srikanth came up and at a very young age, it was simply because we had a coaching legend in Gopi, who pushed them and put in the training. We have lots of coaches now – foreign ones in Agus and Park Tae Sang, those like Guru Saidatt and Kashyap, in Bangalore there’s Anup (Sridhar) and even I’m running an academy.
“Everyone has different reasons. For some, they don’t have a centre, or complete set of facilities needed. Agus and Park are good foreign coaches, but even they haven’t managed to take responsibility to make it happen for an athlete,” he adds.
Additionally, sponsorship has been a huge factor in shaping up their careers, he admits.
“I’ll speak for myself – I have struggled mainly with sponsorships because I wasn’t a big name, only a Top 20.
“Initially I didn’t have players coming in early so we could start at the right age. Then you need your own money to make it happen.
“First few years, most coaches who get into it have to manage coaching, earning for the family, and putting a setup together takes time. Now I think I’m in a good setup and putting things together, now we will see, and I can say in 3-5 years, we can aim to produce a world-beater. But what Gopi did wasn’t easy. It’s relentless work,” he added.