Champions Make Champions, A Teacher’s Day Special

Any best sport leader may back the wrong horse in the career without the right coach. Any sporting talent may lose if they don’t have the right coach to guide and whet them to become the perfect warhorse.

In badminton, without the likes of Xia Xuanze, Hendrawan, Mulyo Handoyo, Prakash Padukone, Peter Gade, Pullela Gopichand, Fernandez Rivas, Jian-Cheng Lai, all top shuttlers on the leaderboard are not the brand themselves. There are many other coaches behind the scenes, who strive to represent their country the right talent contributing their thankless effort in the development of the next generation.

Their selfless effort is beyond their profession.

On the occasion of the Teacher’s Day, let us express gratitude to all the coaches, mentors, and guides who elevate the standard and put the country on the world badminton map.

Prakash Padukone

The legend of Indian badminton Prakash Padukone, is the turning point of the sport through his historical achievements. He has been contributing a lot through his Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, where the young talent is nurtured, trained and represented at the international events.

Padukone, who focuses more on the grassroots talent, believes that the success is initiated when given the proper guidance during the foundation.

Pullela Gopichand

The man behind the rise of the modern Indian badminton, who with his selfless dedication and assiduity, bringing up the right talent to grab the historical medals to the India’s pocket.

Today, Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy remains one of the superior academies of the Indian badminton. It is more than just the training center and diversified enough to train in terms of age; planning the unique training schedule and fitness regimen to each player, according to their capability and strategy, needs a lot of painstakin efforts to produce an array of champions every year.

If playing and training is hard, then taking the sport to every nook and corner of the country is harder. Gopichand has been doing it seamlessly; his motivation, dedication, hard work and zeal is commendable.

Peter Gade

The winner of 24 Grand Prix/Super Series titles and five times European Singles winners, this Dane coach is incredibly talented and one of the most successful coach.

The coach of the French Nationals Team and former world no. 1 has been role model to many aspiring players with his excellent sportsmanship and down-to-earth attitude.

Fernandez Rivas

The person behind Spain on the badminton map, the coach behind two successful players - Carolina Marina and Beatriz Corrales - Fernandez Rivas plays very crucial role in the Spanish Badminton.

Rivas, after his appearance at the Athens Olympic Games, started his career in 2004 as the coach to put forth the path for the future role models in badminton.

Rivas didn’t limit himself from just badminton, but took the further step and pursued Sports Science before his Athens participation.

Mulyo Handoyo

The Indonesian coach Mulyo, who coached Taufik Hidayat - the former Worlds champion - to Olympic gold at Athens, had similar plans to Srikanth Kidambi - which led him to grab four Super Series titles - during his coaching period last year in India, before leaving back to the country.

His idiosyncratic schedule for the players, credited with shaping Indian badminton into consistent success.