The present and future of sports coaching in India

Vishal Uppal assesses the state of coaching in urban and rural India.

The success of a player primarily depends on coaching. A player needs coaching at every stage. A good coach works on multiple aspects. The fitness, diet, technique, execution and strategy required to play a particular sport is devised by a coach. Successful players have publicly admitted the role of their coaches and their coaching. The standard of coaching has drastically risen in last two decades. Coaching is now available at every level. The gradual rise in quality and availability of coaching can be attributed to multiple factors.

The first factor is inspiring performance of Indian sports fraternity on world stage. Indians players are winning medals and are being ranked in top few in certain sports. India is doing exceptionally good in Cricket, Hockey, Badminton, Tennis, Table Tennis, Boxing, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Shooting, Archery, Gymnastics and Athletics. Children as young as five are aspiring to learn and excel in sports. Parents are now seeking services of coaches to train their kids from elementary level. This has opened avenues for coaches. The coaches who worked only in academic institutions now run their sports coaching classes to supplement their income and train the aspirants. The sportsmen who were not able to make it higher levels are now working as full time elementary coaches.

The second factor is availability of sporting infrastructure. The boom in sectors such as Information Technology has brought people in IT hubs. This led to development of condominium complexes. These housing complexes are equipped with basic infrastructure that is helping children work on their basic skills. A good housing complex has swimming pool, badminton court, squash court, volleyball court and many other based on the how premium is the complex. In addition, municipalities in Tier A and Tier B cities in India have developed sports facilities that provide skating rinks, large grounds for hosting cricket and soccer tournaments and indoor halls for practicing badminton and table tennis. These facilities also host summer and winter camps for coaching players. In addition, big sports equipment merchandisers have opened courts in and around malls in Metropolitan cities. Decathlon stores in India have provided courts for practicing basketball, hockey, skating and other popular sports. 

The veteran wrestlers in village gymnasiums are training entrants to compete at village, district and state level. Most wrestling champions are a gift of traditional training methodology where the teacher and pupil share a deep bond. As emphasis on sports is increasing, the villages are churning out sportsmen trained in traditional sports.

The good part is opening up of specialist training academies. These academies are being opened by retired sports personalities and are contributing by training men and women in competitive sports. Some of these academies are meant for training the learners for international level. The Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad is headed by Pullela Gopichand. The academy has produced current and former world number one shuttlers; P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. The cricket academies like National Cricket Academy headed by Anil Kumble; Vengsarkar Cricket Academy founded by Dilip Vengsarkar; Sehwag Cricket Academy run by Virender Sehwag and many other similar academies are imparting quality coaching in Cricket. However, India is still dependent on foreign coaches and academies in foreign countries for specialized coaching in hockey, tennis, archery and shooting. But as former players are hosting camps and venturing into coaching, the dependence will reduce in coming years.

The future of sports coaching in India is on rise and young men and women can definitely get into it. It is a sunshine sector as Indians are keen to get into sporting careers. The coaching profession has scope for making sustainable income; it also presents an opportunity to serve community and nation and finally it is a profession that brings job satisfaction. It is thrilling to see your students grow and win.

Image Source:  Man photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com

The success of Indian women in sports is an inspiration for others to come out and win. The contributions from Indian women sports fraternity are bound to increase.

Vishal Uppal present the story of women who broke the shackles of conservatism and emerged as winners.

The role of women in societies marred with conservatism was limited to domestic chores. Women remained in shackles of home, caring for family throughout their life. Even the educated and employed women led a role of supporting the family and caring for their needs. The society in India believed in defined roles for men and women from centuries. There were only countable women who broke out of role stereotype and ventured into unknown fields. However, these women were from affluent background and got patronage from their parents or their community. Some communities in India were liberal in their outlook and supported their women in their endeavors. In pre independence era, there were women who ventured into difficult realms like flying. Few Anglo-Indian women participated in Wimbledon and even won matches. However, there were few women in sports. The pre independence era only witnessed nomad women who worked as gymnasts or trapeze artists in circus companies but there were hardly any women in competitive sports. Even after four decades of independence, there were hardly any women in sports. P T Usha sowed the seeds and became one of the greatest athletes in India. She won 13 gold medals in Asian games and Asian meets. She dominated the athletics scene in 1980s. An ordinary girl became inspiration for many female athletes. Anju Bobby George, another athlete, represented India internationally in athletics meets in 1990s and early 2000. Now India is proud to have Hima Das. Hima is bagging gold at several International meets in the categories she participates.

The real acclaim came when Indian women started bagging individual medals in Commonwealth games, Olympics and other World Championships. Indian women surpassed men and won medals that became dry after the end of golden spell of Indian Hockey Team in Olympics. In 2000,  Karnam Malleswari bagged India's first individual medal in Olympics. She bagged bronze in weightlifting.This was just a beginning. India won Olympic bronze through efforts of M C Mary Kom in boxing and Sakshi Malik in wrestling. P V Sidhu won Silver in badminton in 2016 Olympics and later became world number one in badminton. There are notable female players who remained top ranked in the world. Saina Nehwal reached World Number 1 rank in Badminton in 2015 and Deepika Kumari in Archery in 2012. Sania Mirza was rated India’s top ranked tennis player by WTA in singles and doubles tennis for almost a decade. Dipa Kamrakar is another world record holder in gymnastics. She successfully landed the Produnova, which is regarded as the most difficult vault performed in women's gymnastics. The lesser-known squash player, Dipika Pallikal became the first Indian Squash player to break into top 10 in the PSA Women's ranking. She is spouse of  Dinesh Karthik, who is a well known cricketer.

Those who have seen the movie Dangal can visualise the glory of Geeta Phogat. She became the first woman to win gold in wrestling for India. The breakthrough came in 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. Geeta Phogat became synonymous with girls who are coming out from most feudal and patriarchal regions of the country. Her father, Mahavir Phogat is a true hero as he coached and mentored his three daughters in wrestling. His vision to see his daughters out of traditional role is remarkable.

In a Cricket loving country, it is worth to mention the names of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur. Both of these cricketers are winning accolades and wins in international women's cricket matches.

In a society, where government is still trying to teach through slogans of "Beti Bachao Beti Padao" meaning "Save Daughters Teach Daughters", the women sports fraternity is setting a living example for parents to nurture their daughters and let them pursue the stars.

Image Source: Kate [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sania_Mirza_-_Roland_Garros_2011.jpg