Hyderabad: Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said Monday he will spend more time mentoring coaches after the Tokyo Olympics to ensure that Indian badminton delivers its promise of becoming a super power in the sport.
“Post Olympics, I will be spending more and more time on mentoring and ensuring that coach the coaches and sports science research becomes a big part of my programmes for the next few years,” the coach of both PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal said during an event where he announced his association with ‘The Sports School’.
“Post 2020, would be to have our knowledge being shared and us working together and benefitting together, progressing toward so that the scale of Indian badminton which promises to grow, has to deliver on that hope. We could be a powerhouse and all of us working together can make it happen for our country,” added Gopichand.
The former All England champion, who has been at the helm of Indian badminton for one and a half decades, will be mentoring the badminton programme in ‘Anup Sridhar Badminton Academy’, which has been brought on board by the Bangalore-based ‘The Sports School’.
Gopichand, who has been instrumental in guiding Saina Nehwal and Sindhu to Olympic medals, said he has been working with other coaches to create a team around each player.
“We have coaches, for example, Saina has personal coach, physio, trainer and masseur and similar is the case with Sindhu and the doubles players. So now we have the luxury to say that they are individual players who have their team or groups working with them,” informed Gopichand.
“What I have done in the past, we cannot be getting the same results now as numbers have grown. As for me, my expertise need to be shared, I have to move into the coach the coaches programme, move into sports science and research to ensure that more people can benefit from my experiences,” Gopichand signed off.
Agencies