NEW DELHI: Olympic silver medallist and world champion shuttler PV Sindhu on Saturday said it is important to have good coaches, who can understand the mindset of the players and address their specific needs to create more champions.
“I would say we need to have really good coaches, who analyse each player because every player’s mindset is different, so he (the coach) needs to understand the player’s mindset…,” Sindhu said in a virtual session when asked what needs to be done to create more players like her.
“Because I might have a different type of game, I might have a different mental state, where (as) other players, for example Saina (Nehwal) or anyone, they might have different mental mindset, so you need to understand the player (properly) and accordingly change what he or she needs to be done.”
The 25-year-old Hyderabad-based shuttler also exuded confidence that “in a couple of years, there will be a lot more players who will represent the country and also get medals for the country.”
“As far as I know, we (as a badminton team) have been getting really good infrastructure and all equipment that we need, so I am sure in couple of years (or) when I look five years down the line there will be lot more people playing for the country and doing really well,” she said. India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra on Saturday batted for “imbibing sports culture” in India, saying it will help the country reach its aspiration of winning multiple medals at the Olympics.
“… for us to really move ahead and maybe make a mark in the years ahead and somehow come to reaching our aspirations, winning multiple gold medals at the Olympics, … we have to try and really imbibe a culture of sports in this country,” Bindra said at the virtual ‘Wharton India-Economic Forum’.
According to Bindra, who won the gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in 10m air rifle event, it was necessary to make sport a social movement in the country.
“I do know that we are all very excited about the prospect of winning and all of that, but I think we have to really make sport a social movement in this county, we have to make more people just play sport for the sheer joy of playing sport,” the 38-year-old said.
“And when we do see that happening, performances in elite sports will automatically increase and it will become a by-product of that whole movement.”
The former world champion in 10m air rifle, who turned entrepreneur after the Rio Olympics in 2016, said “a lot of work thus need to go in really making sports more accessible.”
“… when we have families going and involving themselves in sporting activity over a week-end, instead of going to movies or something like that, that’s when real change will be triggered and that’s when we will come closer to our aspirations,” he said. Ace-tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi also attended the session which was moderated by IOA vice-president Sudhanshu Mittal.
—PTI

Press Trust of India