A coach with specific goals

A TENNIS boom is truly on in Bangalore and the demand for qualified coaches and good training centres has been growing at an impressive rate. But unfortunately, good coaches are not certainly in good supply and not many nurse the vision of setting up training centres with adequate infrastructures on their own. Many coaches prefer to lend their services to reputed clubs rather than take a risk with their own venture.

Among the very few who dared to dream big is M. Krishna Kumar, who has put at stake his hard earned money to start a centre in Brookfields, a sylvan suburb of East Bangalore. Krishna Kumar is perhaps the only coach, who has high academic credentials in the country. An IITian from Chennai, with a B.Tech degree, he did MBA in Bangalore and studied further in France and served as Regional Director of Madura Coats Vyella for its Middle-East operations. Returning home in 1995, Krishna Kumar turned his eye towards tennis coaching, his first love, as he calls. ``I had been a decent player and represented the country in Nations Cup in Dubai in 1995 and tennis always remained a part of me throughout my academic and professional pursuits.''

Back in Bangalore, he opened a technical consultancy service and having done his United States Tennis Professional Registry course, he felt that his professional coaching training in tennis should be put to good use and that he did, by starting a tennis centre, sinking in his savings of Rs. four lakhs.

``Tennis to me is a passion and the desire to set up the academy here evolved from that,'' said Krishna Kumar. But the coach in him, wanted to be different. Unlike some of the coaches, tennis certainly was not his livelihood and that was his biggest strength as those who wanted to put their wards in his care, knew money can never be a motivating factor for Krishna Kumar.

As he looked at the prevailing scene, Krishna Kumar realised there are not too many good coaches at the lower level and it was that segment which needed quality coaching. ``Basically, when you take the youngster on your rolls, you have to make the coaching entertaining, educative and finally an achievement oriented one.'' It was with these three concepts, he evolved his coaching programme.

Though the basic thrust was on training in tennis, Krishna Kumar incorporated in his scheme of things, training in basketball and football as well, ``It is mainly to give the kids a broader perspective, the football and basketball drills were added on. You see, basketball has a side shuffle, which is similar to tennis and training in basketball certainly helps a tennis player,'' claims Krishna Kumar.

The training in these two non-tennis areas are handled by two pro's - Mark Mascarenhas, the Indian footballer looks after the soccer drills while the former basketball international R. Rajan guides the kids through basketball work outs. ``Such a concept is relatively unique, I don't think anyone else has tried such stuff and we are pleased with the results,'' said Krishna Kumar. ``In terms of work-outs, our kids pack more hours of multiple training than others, it helps us to evaluate the overall sporting ability of a youngster,'' he said.

In fact, Krishna Kumar would like to add on a few more sporting disciplines, while keeping the main focus on tennis. ``The idea is to make the kids more conscious about all sports. They should become a good sportsman first, then become a good tennis player,'' said Krishna Kumar.

The academy now has a strength of 50 kids with 20 in the beginners level, 20 in the intermediate section and 10 in the advanced class. ``Basically, the kids in the under-10 group have shown good progress,'' he said. He conducts inter-camp tournament for them, before sending them out for open events outside.

Krishna Kumar said the biggest challenge that is being faced by the coaches like him is in sustaining the interest of youngsters in the 16 to 18 years age group. The pressure of academics makes many children to drop out of tennis at this age. ``This is a trend that needs to be reversed by those who matter in the game. The tennis administrators have to look in depth and should come out with feasible measures. I spoke to guys like Ramesh Krishnan. With our middle class mentality, the idea of sports gets a backseat. Unless a child has the confidence that something good would happen if he pursues the game, it is difficult for him to resist the peer and parental pressure on this score. May be they should be given stipends or get attached to big academies where the centres take care of their education as well,'' said Krishna Kumar.

``The so called sports scholarships in our country, means little in real terms. In the United States, if you are there with a sports scholarship you are allowed to develop your talent, here you end up playing for your college. In fact kids use sports quota as a ticket for admission to professional courses, given the heavy demand of such courses in our country,'' he said.

Krishna Kumar believes that unless there is a mass base nurtured in the country, it will be difficult to find genuine talent. ``There are 7000 USPTR coaches in the world and 6000 of them are in U.S. alone. What they have done is create an immense base for the game there. There are millions of kids and adults who play the game, though only a fraction of them make tennis their vocation, the talent pool is good enough to produce some top notch players. But in India, tennis pro's come from a good lineage like Krishnans, Amritrajs, Bhupathi and Paes. It is hard to find a tennis player emerge from a middle class background and make it real big like Sachin Tendulkar in cricket. Tennis needs the kind of push and back up that cricket has,'' said Krishna Kumar.

Krishna Kumar also has a word of advice for parents. ``There is a tendency among parents to look for greener pastures for quick results. They should give a coach considerable time to train his ward and get the best out of him. Please don't go changing coaches and expecting miracles. It will be trauma for the kids as well as coaches,'' he said.

On his goals as a coach, Krishna Kumar was very specific. ``I am not going to claim that I wish to produce champions here. I wish to create love for sports among my wards and create a feeling among them that tennis is a good game. I would like to train as many kids as possible in the basics and even if 10 out of every 100 kids wish to play at a much higher level, it will be a bonus for me. There are good schools like Bhupathi's `Tennis Village' in Bangalore or Krishnan's Academy in Chennai, which can cater to their needs at that level,'' he said.

Krishna Kumar has big plans for the academy. ``The idea is to put at least 12 courts, add a gym and other training facilities. That costs a lot and sponsors feel that there should be a big name involved, but what we should remember is may be some day, a big name will emerge from such centres which are striving to create a mass base. Keeping that in mind, I hope sponsors will come forward,'' he said.

KALYAN ASHOK

Bangalore

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