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We all watched how Sindhu put the ‘bad’ back in Badminton in the ongoing Rio Olympics. She scripted history being the youngest Indian to win an Olympic medal. But behind her stellar performance is the story of her coach, who continues to make the sport his life, seeking to transform every shuttler-enthusiast into a potential medal-winner.
It was sometime in early 2008 when the Pullella Gopichand Badminton Academy was just a few months away from opening to train future champs like Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu. A journalist friend came to me and requested if I could speak to a few top industrialists and ask them to extend financial support to the Academy because Gopichand had by then given up his home, sporting career, and a good life to set up his dream academy. I tried reaching out to a few companies I was in touch with to request if they could support this venture financially. After a few earnest but not persistent attempts, I gave up. But Gopichand never did. And therein lies the story.
“Gopi is a very strict coach, but he does not do a roll call when he enters the academy at 4 a.m. He just goes and stands there right in the middle. All the players read him and take their positions.”
Unwilling to wait for tardy responses from a few samaritans, he mortgaged his home, sinking all his precious savings into creating coaching courts. The All England Open Badminton Championship–winner Pullela Gopichand and his Olympian wife P.V. Lakshmi have had to sacrifice a normal life for the the success of the academy and its wards. When he set out to form this training and rehabilitation centre, the little money he got from mortgaging his property was insufficient to build a world-class facility.
Through one of his acquaintances, he approached Nimmagadda Prasad, who then owned a leading generic drug firm called Matrix Laboratories and promised only to lend him an ear. And it did not take much time or persuasion for Prasad to loan Gopi Rs. 2 crore to build the facility once he met him. However, the upcoming building soaked up the funds very quickly and needed Prasad to do an encore. After the second round of funding, the facility was ready. But another top-up was required to accommodate the new coaches and equipment. As a penchant Gopi went to his benefactor again, Prasad decided to extend another crore rupees and made yet another donation and waive the entire loan of Rs. 5 crore, before other donor came forward to help the institute.
What Gopi couldn’t pay back in cash, he paid in kind dedicating his life and time to creating not just world class facilities, but players too. He and his family moved closer to the academy, renting a place right opposite so he could keep up his 4 a.m. schedule. V Chamundeshwarnath, the Telangana Badminton Academy vice-president, says, “Gopi is a very strict coach, but he does not do a roll call when he enters the academy at 4 a.m. He just goes and stands there right in the middle. All the players read him and take their positions.”
In fact, two months ahead of the Olympics, Gopi even confiscated Sindhu’s cellphone so she could focus on the game. Although Gopi quit playing a while ago in order to focus on coaching, he continued to train along with his students to match their fitness levels. When his wards — those aspiring to compete in the Olympics — requested to be allowed to feast on biriyani at least once a week in return for their hard work, they were told to put this craving on hold. “Gopi was like this even during his days. He rung me up once late evening while he was at a party to check if he could indulge a delicacy and went ahead only after I asked him to,” says S.M. Arif, his veteran badminton coach and fellow–Dronacharya awardee said.
This grit was visible especially when he suffered from his career-threatening injury in 1994. Arif recounts his visit to the hospital in Delhi, where Gopi was operated on after he injured himself in an on-court collision. Gopi is known to have said, “Sir, everyone is writing me off. What about you?” To which Arif replied that if he ever decided to make a comeback, there would be no stopping him. This was perhaps the most crucial period in his life, when Gopi decided to rest and recoup so could jump smash his critics and score a point over his opponents on and off the court. And that he made a comeback to achieve all that he did is now the stuff of history. “Despite his packed schedule and trips with his players to tournaments overseas, he travels to districts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to help coaches at the district level hone their skills and pick up new techniques,” Chamundeshwarnath said. In fact, the academy is readying the bench players to compete in the Under-15 and Under-19 tournaments abroad.
Hyderabad: (From Left) Pullela Gopichand, Chief Coach Indian Badminton Team, K. Srikanth and P.V Sindhu, show thumps up sign after addressing media at Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad on Tuesday. PTI Photo (PTI8_2_2016_000246B)
Today, the academy welcomes badminton enthusiasts from the world over, training them at the world-class facility it has now become since I first heard of it in 2008. I paid the academy a visit a couple of years later to interview Saina Nehwal, who had won a gold medal at an international tournament of repute. As I waited behind the glass-enclosed waiting area, I saw many a player smashing and dropping the bird between the nets under Gopichand's gaze. Even as I saw the training progress for many hours, the sight of a tiny tot slouched in a chair sipping her juice caught my eye. Every now and then, she would run up to Gopichand and tug at him, saying a few words. After a few exchanges and a pat, she'd return to her chair and continue with the sipper. I later figured the little girl was his four-year-old daughter and that she'd come straight to the Academy every afternoon after school so she could spend time with her father and mother who'd made the Academy their home.
The evolution of sport is also linked to strength of character. If hope is about perseverance, optimism, faith, and belief in your ability to win, then character is the individual’s integrity which helps you stay the course and makes you choose good over great in all circumstances. Gopichand never chose to endorse products that are detrimental to a player’s fitness even if the endorsement would supplement him with the ‘Vitamin M’ that he was short of. From the late 70s — when the Chinese began to dominate this sport — to now, Indian coaches have had to adapt quickly to the demands of the game. From competing in the famed All England Open to the 16-player super series tournaments now, coaches have had to tutor their wards to replace elegance and grace with acrobatic moves, speed and power. To combat your opponent with every stroke, you need discipline and deception. This is what Sindhu needed and it’s what her coach helped her with.
