Sports Cult that was launched only a few months ago conducted a week-long All India Tennis Association Foundation Coaches Course. Held under the aegis of TSTA and APLTA, at Sports Cult in Miyapur, the camp concluded on Tuesday.
What made the camp stand apart was that of the 28 participants – from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh – two are parent-coaches.
The two trainees-cum-fathers are Babu Reddy from Bangalore and Giridhar Patnaik from Mumbai. While Babu Reddy, a builder, got enrolled to help his daughters, Indiayana and Bhartiyana, both of whom are ranked high in under-13 category. “I got enrolled myself to help my daughters improve their ranks in sports,” informed Babu. Giridhar who is employed with Godrej said the training is important for him to be able to groom his three-year-old daughter in the sport.
Unlike these father-coaches, another coach that stands out in the camp is Sajida Tasneem – the only lady trainee. “There are not many lady tennis coaches. The city can boast of only ten. I wanted to become a full-time Tennis coaching,” she said.
Fine tuning coaches
The camp which aims at grooming coaches, is at its basic level or level-3. After three months coaches can undergo training for level-4. Level-5 training is given to those who train with national level players. This is a license to teach the sport professionally. For level 6 coaching – currently not available in India – is offered international body and will be conducted in January next year.