Badminton Queen of India Saina Nehwal (7 page)

Mahboob Ali, died on July 24, 2011 in Hyderabad. He was 69.

S.L. Goverdhan Reddy and
S. Mohammed Arif

Syed Mohammed
Arif

Saina trained under S.L. Goverdhan Reddy and S. Mohammed Arif from 2001 to 2003. Goverdhan worked on her indoor training with court practice and strokes. Saina believes that coaches are more than just trainers for players. They are family and stay with them through thick and thin. Since coaches remain with the players through most intense moments of their life, they play a crucial part to a player’s performance.

Saina could clearly remember an incidence that took place in her life when she was twelve. Her mother met with an accident and suffered serious head injuries. Her coach Goverdhan was with the family within minutes. Mrs. Usha Nehwal got eight stitches on her head and her condition was declared critical.

Saina had to leave for the Junior Nationals at Guntur the next day. Dr. Harvir convinced her to leave for the tournament as there was nothing she could do besides sitting with her.

Mr. Goverdhan helped her recover mentally from this difficult time.

Syed Mohammed Arif was born on 29 January 1944. Also popularly known as Arif Saahab, the Indian badminton coach is a recipient of Dronacharya Award and Padma Shri Award winner. The Government of India conferred the coach with Dronacharya Award in the year 2000 for his sterling contribution to Indian Badminton – 2000. Arif was honoured with Padma Shri in 2012.

Arif has nurtured some of the top badminton talents in the country. Saina Nehwal was ‘special’ for him. The man can vividly recall the 1998 summer camp in Hyderabad. This was the place where coach Nani Prasad Rao selected an eight-year-old from a bunch of 250-odd kids. This child was Saina, just an average kid to start with. But Arif felt that the girl was a cut above the rest. This was evident as the days passed.

According to Arif in an interview to a popular magazine, “Saina was prepared to follow whatever she was told. She would never shy away from hard work and was always ready to push herself. She literally pushed her body to limits in the training. That is when I realised that she was a special talent and will go a long way.”

Saina trained under Arif at the Lal Bahadur Shastri indoor stadium till the latter retired as coach from the Sports Authority of India.

“At a young age, she used to compete in 4-5 events in age group tournaments and she would win. She was playing at the senior level when she was just 14,” said Arif in an interview.

Arif is also aware of the kind of sacrifice Saina’s family had to make in order to help her shine out.

“She used to stay far off from the stadium and we would start at 5.30 in the morning. Her father or mother would bring her along and pick her up. To do that for years was not easy. The family has had to sacrifice a lot and I am happy for them today,” mentioned Arif.

In the year 1984, the 57-year-old Hyderabadi was appointed India’s badminton coach by erstwhile Badminton Association of India president Fazil Ahmed, and since then he’s been grooming players for international duty. Syed Mohammad Arif is also referred to as the driving force behind India’s top men’s badminton player Pullela Gopichand.

Pullela Gopichand

Saina with her coach
Gopichand

Pullela Gopichand was born on November 16, 1973 in Nagandla of Prakasam district, (Andhra Pradesh). He is an Indian Badminton player. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in the year 2001 after defeating Chen Hong of China in the finals by 15-12, 15-6. He became the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone, who won it in 1980. Pullela was trained by Syed Mohammed Arif.

He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year 2001. But later on, his game was affected due to injuries and his ranking dropped to 126 in the year 2003. In 2005, he was awarded the Padma Shri. The same year, he started training Saina Nehwal.

At present, he runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy. He is a very renowned coach and winner of the prestigious Dronacharya Award. Pullela is also known to be the main force behind the emergence of successful players like Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap.

“She has a lot more belief in her and the desire to win is very-very intense. Not many players have that kind of huge desire to win,” said Pullela Gopichand about Saina Nehwal in an interview.

According to Saina, Pullela was a huge help for her at the Nationals in the year 2002. It was also the time when Pullela was planning to start a badminton academy. Since India had only one badminton academy, ‘Parkash Padukone Badminton Academy’, the young aspirants looked forward to opening up of new institutions all over India.

In 2003, Gopichand was offered space at the Gachibowli Stadium by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh. The space had about ten outstanding courts for practise. Pullela’s own badminton academy took about 4 years to complete. It was finally inaugurated in the year 2008.

Soon, Pullela was conferred with the post of national coach. Students from all over the world thronged into practise the art. The academy is spread over 5 acres and comprises of about eight beautiful courts. Gopichand made it a point to equip the academy with hi-tech facilities and requisite elements to encourage students to take up the sport seriously. The place abides by international level facility requisites and rules.

According Saina, Gopichand is cooler as compared to other coaches she has known. She is impressed by her Buddha-like patience and even temper. He rarely reacts to the outbursts of his students.

Since, Gopichand had been Saina’s coach for the longest-term, they share a nice equation. His encouraging words help Saina focus on her goal and out do her best performance.

According to Gopichand, “Saina has done really well for India. She is India’s Gold.”

Soon after she started training with Gopichand, her schedule changed. His valuable experience and knowledge in the international circuit helped her a lot. Gopichand helped her stay impeccably fit and increase her stamina. Under his guidance, she learnt techniques like ‘Yoga Nidra’. It helps her maintain requisite energy levels and stay optimistic.

Saina feels that Gopichand had rearranged the structure of her training and it made all the difference. He made Saina an aggressive player. The training was extremely successful because within six years of training under the veteran, saina gained the coveted ‘number 2’ position.

“I couldn’t have done it without him,” says Saina Nehwal.

Pullela Gopichand has an ability to get very aggressive during the training sessions. This had been a great advantage for Saina. She used to get the opportunity to hit Gopichand back more aggressively and win the challenge.

Saina had once said, “Gopi Sir is the kind of coach Indian Badminton team needs.”

Gopichand is an avid watcher. He keeps close tabs on all his students when they are playing in a tournament. This helps him groom the players as per their flaws and strengths.

Saina Nehwal with Coach and Mentor Pullela Gopichand

Atik Jauhari

Atik Jauhari – Saina Nehwal’s
current coach

Atik Jauhari is the current coach of Saina Nehwal. He was born on 14th August, 1949 in Tangerang in Indonesia. He is a renowned badminton coach from Indonesia. Jauhari played as badminton Senior National Coach between the period 1999 and 2003 for Swedish Badminton Federation (SBF).

He coached the Swedish Team to reach the final round of Thomas Cup and Uber Cup in Malaysia for the year 2000. Jauhari is also the owner of the Atik Jauhari Badminton School (Sekolah Badminton Atik Jauhari). The institution is focused on talented youth Badminton Athletes and also open classes for professionals and groups.

The talented Indonesian master coach Atik Jauhari was at his highest spirits as he talks about Saina Nehwal. According to Jauhri, Saina Nehwal’s Hong Kong Super Series win has been one of the most satisfying results of his 29-month long stint with Indian badminton.

Jauhari prefers talking to his student in person rather than phone. He thinks that the manner in which Saina calculatedly decimated her Chinese opponent Wang Shixian in one of the tournaments is simply incredible.

Jauhari feels that Saina uses her mental toughness to win a match. According to the coach, even during a match that she could easily lose after going down in the first game, but it’s mental toughness that got her through. The coach remembers an instance where the girl worked around Wang and eventually prevailed (15-21, 21-16, 21-17). According to Jauhari, who has previously coached legends of the game like Indonesian Lim Swie King and India’s Prakash Padukone, it is a well earned victory for Saina.

Many have felt that Saina’s Asian Games was a huge disappointment and a shocking event. But Jauhari doesn’t feel that way. According to this legendary coach, there was less than a month between the New Delhi Commonwealth Games (Oct 3-14) and the Guangzhou Asian Games (Nov 12-27). And to add to this, since Saina won gold in Delhi there were loads of felicitation functions to attend too. This left her with absolutely no time to prepare for the Asian Games. So, for Jauhari doesn’t think her defeat in the quarter-finals of the Asiad is all that shocking. In fact, Jauhari feels that the girl has a very bright future ahead.

The coach believes that the golden age for a singles player is 25 and Saina has a long way to reach that peak age. Besides, most of her top opponents are older than her, which means they will quit the game by the time she hits her peak. He truly believes that Saina will make the entire world proud of her incredible badminton skills.

The Importance of a Mentor in a Player’s Life

Saina understands the importance of coach in a sportsperson’s life. They are the ones who enhance a player’s skills and encourage them to play better. A coach is closely related to a badminton player. They are aware of a player’s diet regime, training schedule, strengths and weaknesses. For a mentor, the task of nurturing a player and make him or her reach to the top is not easy. Since, they have to focus on many players at a time, understanding them and focussing on their skills can be nerve wrecking.

Saina believes that coaches work harder than players. For a player who has his session at 5:00 a.m. sharp in the morning, the coach needs to reach the court before that! They respect discipline and expect their players to do the same. This is their way to make a player respect time, the game and importance of court etiquettes.