A spine injury curtailed her tennis career as a player in 2015, but Namita Bal found a way to channelise her energy and stoke her dreams of guiding young players to be champions of the country.
The 26-year-old daughter of Nandan Bal, Namita has been coaching juniors and had recently been traveling for events in the men’s circuit as well.
“Once you let go of the idea that you know what is best for you, it widens your vision towards interesting possibilities,” said Namita before the final session of the Global Professional Tennis Coach Association at the DLTA Complex here.
Namita, quite versatile, has learnt a lot about strength and conditioning. Thanks to Alberto Castellani and his coaching course, she has also picked up the nuances of the mental side of coaching. She deals with nutrition with ease.
“My dad has always told me that observation is the key to good coaching. Anyone can find a mistake, but how to make the change. That is the challenge. It all starts with understanding your player. I always ask the players how they feel and what they could have done better,” said Namita as she provided an insight into her coaching methods. She believes there is a lot of scope for young girls to reach the standard of the likes of Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi, and go beyond. However, she feels the girls need to be groomed early in their career about the right way forward.
“Many times they are forced to unlearn a lot of wrong methods. I do believe we can create champions for the country. We need to work on the mental aspect as much as we work on building the physical strength of the players. If you want to be a champion, you have to train like one.”
