The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has invited Maduri Venugopal for the national coaching camp to be held at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose indoor stadium, Lucknow from August 22 to September 7. Three other coaches will join him in training children in preparation for the Indian Junior and Cadet Open at the Abhay Prashal indoor stadium, Indore from September 9 to 13.
“Work for the camp will be divided after we meet at the venue,” said Venugopal, who conducted two similar national camps at Indore earlier. “Different types of players will be attending the camp and they need to be handled differently,” said the mentor of many.
Venu is to table tennis what the late Mir Mahboob Ali was to badminton or Bana ‘Baba’ Ravinder is to basketball. This trio of coaches had a way with children few can match. To engage the attention of the tiny tots, so easily distracted and often reluctant to learn a sport calls for special powers. In many cases the kids are there in the first place more because of parental pressure.
“Parents often confide in Venu Sir their problems in handling their children. That is because he takes complete charge when they are left in his care. He’s like a class teacher in school, who takes overall responsibility, even grooming his junior players to respect their seniors,” says his star pupil Nikhat Banu.
“He scolds children like any right-thinking parent would when a kid is not disciplined. But behind all this, it is clear he wants his students to be the best. When he senses interest in children is flagging or they are reluctant to go to the Gujarati Seva Mandal (GSM) in Secunderabad where he coaches, he visits their houses, picks and drops them too,” Nikhat added.
Such commitment is hard to come by in these days of stressful commuting. Not surprising that one of his pupils, Varuni Jaiswal, has been chosen for the above camp along with S. Fidel Snehith, also from Hyderabad. Backing Venugopal has been P. Prakash Raju, Secretary, Telangana State Table Tennis Association.
The recent South Zone ranking tournament in Chennai testifies to Venu’s coaching prowess. Nikhat lost in the women’s quarter-finals to eventual champion Ankita Das, Mounica stunned Indian youth No. 2 Senhora D’Souza early in the competition, while Varuni lost in the last eight stage of the aforementioned category.
