No sportsperson can excel without feeling grateful to his/her coach. It is not just about learning the right techniques of a sport but also imbibing discipline, dedication and determination for success that a player learns from the coach.
The country needs the next generation of sportspersons who fight it out the hard way on field and earn respect. For this to happen, it is really necessary for children to have coaches early on life at their school, who would specialize in different types of sports instead of giving limited options to budding players to choose from.
Greatness will emerge only if budding players get specialized coaching. Here’s a look at some of the greatest players and their experiences with their first coaches ever.
Coaches who trained great players
- Ramakant Achrekar coaching Sachin Tendulkar:
Gruelling training sessions and a seemingly unforgivable bout of sprint with full cricket gear on after training, Sachin Tendulkar got his endurance to run between two wickets because of Achrekar.
The degree of attention Achrekar gave to each of his students, watching whether they are slacking off from their training sessions and then scolding them, every coach must learn to be impartial to their students.
- Jelena Gencic coaching Novak Djokovic:
For Jelena Gencic, tennis was the love of her life as she kept coaching students of 11-12 years of age till her death. She spotted passion in the eyes of Djokovic who was watching her and her students play tennis from afar. When Gencic asked Djokovic if would like to play tennis, he agreed without further ado.
In his first tennis tournament a few months after that, a 6-year-old Djokovic defeated a 14-year-old female player in the finals with 6-0, 6-1 score. Djokovic wrote away his love for Gencic on a camera lens recently. That’s how impactful a coach should be for a player.
- Salvador Aparicio coaching Lionel Messi:
Salvador Aparicio, Messi’s first coach, asked Messi’s mother to let him play since he was falling one player short in his team. In his second pass, Messi, a kid, tackled every player coming for the ball by dribbling past them. The rest is history.
Sometimes, all it takes for a sportsperson to succeed is an opportunity. An ideal coach should understand the potential of every player under him/her and give a chance to prove themselves.
- Bob Bowman coaching Michael Phelps:
Phelps, since the start of his journey as a 10-year-old swimmer, had Bob Bowman pushing him to his farthest limits which his fans around the world appreciate now.
One of the best things Phelps shared with media was that an athlete should always take part in sports or physical activity when he is not performing to maintain an active stamina.
More than the techniques, you need a caring, understandable and determined teacher in a coach to create history.