BAI hopes to cut down on personal coaching culture

BAI APPROACHED INDONESIA'S IRWANSYAH ADI PRATAMA AND MALAYSIAN TAN KIM HER TO COACH INDIA'S TOP SINGLES AND DOUBLES PLAYERS RESPECTIVELY

- Sandip Sikdar

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) hopes to slowly reduce the culture of personal coaches in favour of group training sessions under national coaches going ahead in the current Olympic cycle.

"We are spending a lot of money on coaches. If a player gets injured, then the coach for that time being can also train other players. Also, in a group, players practice better and improve much more quickly," BAI secretary general Sanjay Mishra said on Thursday.

"In a competitive environment, they become better players which is why we want them to play and train together. But nothing is final. We will discuss with coaches, how many players they can accommodate as we do not intend to overload them. We will also discuss with the players."

In recent years, almost all top shuttlers, from PV Sindhu to the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, have enjoyed the services of personal coaches going into tournaments.

The development comes in the wake of BAI approaching foreign coaches to take over the responsibility of Indian shuttlers.