Sports is essential for our country's happiness index to go up: Gopichand

BADMINTON CHIEF COACH Pullela Gopichand is popularly known for his exquisite coaching skills. His ability to produce talented and successful shuttlers has repeatedly brought pride to our nation. The recently-concluded Olympics drew more eyeballs towards Gopichand's coaching when his student PV Sindhu became the first female athlete to win a Silver medal at the women's singles badminton event.

Both Gopichand and Sindhu were felicitated by the Maharashtra Badminton Association on Tuesday in Mumbai.

Gopichand, while addressing the guests and media, made a few strong points that everybody needs to ponder upon.

"How do we decide which sport to play, unless every kid knows how to jump, how to throw, how to move. I think in our race to become more and more educated alphabetically, we've lost the fundamentals of physical movement and it brings back to our early days when our own native games used to have so much physical literacy in them."

Recalling a poignant coaching episode, he divulged, 

"I remember about a year and a half, I threw a shuttle to a kid who was about 13, who missed the shuttle, got back and asked me 'Sir, show me how to catch,' and it really shook me apart. Olympics is at one level, but what is important is that kids really need to play."

He further added,

"Until a kid doesn't know how to throw, jump, run he won't be able to play any sport. It is very important that every kid needs to play and every adult needs to play. Because it is proven that adults enjoy sport 360% more than kids. So if we need our country's happiness index to go up sport is essential."

He also emphasized on the need of the education system to prioritize physical literacy.

"I think it is time that our education system needs to put physical literacy up there. Aurobindo and the mother said physical activity brings new cells and todays latest research says that new learnings don't bring out new brain cells, but physical activity brings out new brain cells. So more you exercise, the more smarter you are."

He also quoted Swami Vivekananda,

"What Swami Vivekananda said is true, that it is better to play football than to meditate. We need to prioritize sports just like education. Talent is abundant as there is no dearth in talent."

The 42-year-old thanked everyone and concluded saying that he will always try to live up to everyone's expectations.