Arvind Bhat, made the World Top 20 of rankings after completing his engineering in Bangalore, but couldn’t quite crack the Top 10s and win the big titles. Having graduated into a coaching career this past decade, he has now taken over the mentorship of promising women’s singles players, Tasnim Mir and Tanya Hemanth. However, he says India needs to get realistic and acknowledge that despite academies and coaches proliferating, it is very difficult to achieve what Pullela Gopichand achieved – taking shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth to Top 5.
“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 says from the Senior Nationals at Bangalore.
Excerpts:
Q. Where are things getting stuck in India producing elite badminton players in the last few years?
Arvind Bhat: As far as taking over the mantle goes, Lakshya (Sen) has done it. But the next generation stepping up has largely not happened. And the reason is, look, we don’t have great coaches. Even though I’m coaching and putting in effort, I’ll say, it’s just not enough. 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. But the class of coaches is simply not there, in the way he coached and the benchmark he set. Juniors are not getting that extra push, because no coach is taking complete responsibility, by saying ‘I’ll make you a world champion.’
Q. What stops you or other coaches from giving the same results?
Arvind Bhat: 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. 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.
Q. What set him apart as coach?
Arvind Bhat: For starters, Gopi himself was a player par excellence. He won the All-England Championship, was World No 3, and beat the Chinese comfortably. Then he was a self-made success, much like Prakash (Padukone) Sir. They built their own success, never had it easy. The hard work that Gopi put in is unimaginable. I’ve seen it myself – the sheer grind for days and days, months and months together. He would start at 4 am and be standing on court till 1 pm. He took complete responsibility of a player, and gave them importance, pointing out their mistakes honestly. Also he is great at taking calculated risks, when to field a player in which tournament, when to rest them. Saina, at 16, could’ve easily played easier International Challengers. But he knew this girl can win bigger, and played her in Grand Prix Opens. New players now lack that class of a coach. Also, a coach needs to put in effort from his heart, be convinced completely, or it might not happen even if you have the best physios and trainers. You can make a Top 30, Top 50 or 100 player, but a Top 5 needs heart, it’s missing in all of us, local and foreign coaches.
Q. What are the challenges for coaches of this generation to work with players?
Arvind Bhat: If we have to compare, I did my engineering and reached Top 20 somehow. But as someone plunging into playing badminton seriously, we didn’t know what our future was. India wasn’t economically so well-off 30 years ago, so we were told to study and play seriously. Now the talk at home is not about the fear of what the future will be. Now it’s about the vast number of opportunities. If a badminton career doesn’t take off, they’ll say ‘we will go do a start-up or get into content creation.’ They have many coaches and many advisors, and many take their parents for a ride.
Q: Is it ambition that’s lacking?
Arvind Bhat: I know many players in Bangalore whom I coach, and who are at a good level in badminton, who will quit at the drop of the hat. Parents tell them they have property or a business, and kids continue a few years, only as a favour to their parents. Of course many players are motivated. But unlike cricket or tennis where you can make it big, badminton doesn’t even have the money even if you reach a fairly high level. There are so many players who don’t take up the PSU jobs these days because they’ll earn Rs 50K at most, and get stuck. Reasons to stick on in badminton are very limited, so they drop off and don’t fight.
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