Interview with Pullela Gopichand: "There were people who said that I couldn't be a coach since I had my own fair share of issues."

Gopichand with Saina Nehwal in 2010

On Srikanth, I believe you spotted him at just the right time. When you look at a player like him, how do you figure out that here is a raw talent who can be groomed into a future star? Is it the experience gained as a former player, or just pure instinct?

It’s a combination of everything. One is knowledge, but as a coach what is also of great use is experience by virtue of following the sport for a long time and being involved with the sport, and knowing and relating it to your previous experience. So that’s what helps you make the call when it comes to spotting players.

As a coach, you also need to be confident and be prepared to take that risk. As a player, I was like that – if I thought of something, I would go for it wholeheartedly without holding back. Likewise you have to do the same as a coach, even at the risk of you ultimately being wrong. You can’t say ‘why should I take a chance on this’ and hold back. If you feel something, you should go for it. And that’s how many of these decisions were taken.

For instance, Sindhu didn’t played juniors for a year. Even with Saina, the typical tendency for many coaches would have been to make her go through satellite, challenger, GP, GP Gold, Super Series and then the big ones. But I ensured that that wasn’t the case, and the same for Sindhu – if you’re good, you’re good, and I trusted them to do well. Initially she (Saina) had first round losses, but I believed she was winning material and kept saying that she was going to deliver some good wins. Eventually she did. For a year and a half, we didn’t make her go through the routine.

Do you advise them about their diet from a young age, since that plays such a crucial role? Does the academy have some degree of control over that?

To some extent yes, but beyond that, no. We have all these stat maps, and we try to get them to consume certain foods like sprouts. Everything is available at the academy, but if the player does not want to take it, you can’t force them. We have sprouts, and other stuff which people don’t like to eat, supplements and all that. But players like Saina, Sindhu and Kashyap, Guru, and 5 or 6 others are very good with that.

The next younger lot, not so much; Srikanth, for instance, is still not into it, and Sai has just come into it. They learn with time after listening to me and some of the senior players.

With Srikanth, we’ve seen that he puts in a lot of energy and aggression into his game. When the smashes work, they look great, but often when they don’t do the job and the other player is strong enough to get them back, he is out of position. How have you tried to help him overcome that?

Typically when players get stronger mentally and physically, a lot of the strategy also improves. If he’s physically stronger, he will not look for winners all the time, he will not keep going for smashes all the time. Some of these things evolve as they grow. So when he gets stronger, he will mature and start playing differently. He will have his strokes, but he will use them more judiciously, he will not go for them when he’s out of position. That will happen eventually with good training, good food and good rest. The player has to go there alone.

The thing is that today, we at the academy have made a system whereby if one player slacks off, there is another to try and bring him back on track.

Finally Gopi, what is your long term vision for this academy, looking beyond Rio 2016?

To be very honest, I don’t know whether you should write it down, because it might not be very interesting. I get up in the morning, come here at 4.30, spend the entire day watching people play badminton – I give it all I have, and then I go back home and don’t know whether tomorrow morning I can come back and do it again. I have done this for the last 10 years and hopefully I can do it for many more years in the future.

As a player, I have planned and failed. I had surgery in ’94, ’96, ’98 and 2002. Four surgeries in that period, and in between I played a little bit of badminton. That’s how I look at it. I thank God that through 1999-2001, I got three years of proper badminton. That was the most injury-free phase for me. So I get up in the morning, and if my knee is aching I train a certain way, and if it is not, then I train a different way.

I wish I had more things under my control, I wish I had the programs and everything under my control. Then I could do a lot of things, but unfortunately I’m not. Having gone through a lot of uncertainty as an academy, I don’t know what tomorrow holds.

So maybe I don’t have a vision like that. I just get up in the morning and then I want to learn more, study more and give more and spend more. At the end of the day, I’m still hungry; I jump out of bed and say that this needs to be done. I’m in a hurry all the time, and not relaxed, because I feel that there is so much more we can achieve.

So let’s say for Saina, okay, you won the Olympic medal, but you have two or three more Olympics in you. That’s about the extent of the long-term vision I have.