Even as R. Ashwin was making his mark in international cricket, he embarked on an ambitious venture through the GenNext Cricket Academy six years ago.
The academy headed by coach P. Srinivasan, who has also been working with the India off-spinner over the last six months, is trying to professionalise coaching in the city.
Identifying needs
So what’s different about GenNext? “When a kid walks in, we identify his needs than getting to the game directly. We need to address if the kid has the right motor skills or if he needs the right nutrition. We analyse that and take him through the cricket process,” says Srinivasan, who has been a coach for the past 20 years.
“If a boy’s motor skills is less, then we will make sure he improves it in the next four to five months. We will work on his vision skills, hand-eye coordination and it will become fantastic. It’s not about cricketing skills. It’s a living skill.”
In one of the videos the academy posted on its social media page, Ashwin was seen encouraging youngsters to go for their shots, something that is usually frowned upon... so is GenNext trying to break those myths?
Srinivasan concurs saying, “you have to try and learn what comes good to you. If you don’t try, you won’t know what works for you.”
The academy is working on a structured programme for beginners for two years before they graduate to Vision 2020 for four years followed by the final step — the high performance programme.
D. Sudarshan, COO, says, “Our main aim is to professionalise coaching. We will have weekly reports tracking the progress.”
