Krishna Bhupathi revolutionised tennis coaching in the country with his 15-year-old labour of love: the Nike Bhupathi Tennis Village on the outskirts of Bangalore. Now the former Dubai-returned banker —better known as the father of 11-time tennis doubles grand slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi — is all set to lay the foundation for Indian success in a variety of sports. “It’s distressing that a country with over a billion people struggles to produce top performers in globally popular sports. That’s because the fundamentals of athletic development of children are not given the importance they deserve in the formative years,” says Bhupathi.
The outcome of this awareness is a new programme. Speed Kids was launched in Bangalore for children in the age group five-nine to expose them to a gamut of sports at a young age, put them through the paces, and help them discover the sport that best suits their aptitude and abilities. The second objective is to ensure the basics of athletic development are learnt early. Getting the basics right early is important to develop fitness, stamina and pre-empt injuries, says Bhupathi. “When Sania (Mirza) came to me she was already 15 and still had puppy fat on her,” he says, making the point that while talent is important, balanced athletic development from a young age is critical to achieving success.
Speed Kids has tied up with the best in the business to expose children to a wide range of sports. The Brijesh Patel Cricket, Prakash Padukone Badminton, former Olympian Ashish Ballal hockey academies provide coaches and instruction on the rudiments of their games. Moreover reaction training, multi-directional movement, vision drills and yoga are all part of the curriculum with swimming compulsory to strengthen lungs. Around age eight, children will start leaving the programme to focus on a game or sport of their own choosing.
With the informed public well aware of Bhupathi’s successful development of the Nike Bhupathi Tennis Village into a nursery of champions, response to the Speed Kids initiative has been enthusiastic. Over 125 children signed up for the two-hour-thrice-weekly sessions in the first three weeks of the programme’s launch, and Bhupathi hopes to take the number to 225. More importantly he plans to take the programme out of his own academy to other parts of Bangalore and to other cities through franchise arrangements. Detailed training manuals have been developed for this purpose.
Looking ahead, Bhupathi believes that within the next three years 20,000 children countrywide will be trained under the Speed Kids programme, and expects a new breed of champions to surface from within it in the next six-seven years. “I am a dreamer and my dreams always come true,” says this tennis coach extraordinaire, who has made the development of India’s next batch of world champions his life’s calling.
Binu S. Thomas (Bangalore)