He crafts talent
It’s so often for a player, regardless of the sport he represents, to take up the role of a coach or a mentor post his career on field or a court. But is it a necessary for a coach to have played the game at the highest level? Logically yes.
But so often we have seen great mentors or coaches achieving spectacular success despite not being big names during their playing days. Have doubts? Think of Sir Alex Ferguson or the highly acclaimed Valencia manager Unai Emery.
Much closer home and in a very different game M. Venugopal is following a similar path. Coach of the Gujarati Seva Mandal table tennis academy, Venu is a known name for the afficionados of the sport in the state. Venugopal’s playing career was restricted to a few local tournaments and matches played at the YMCA Secunderabad but his coaching career has been laudable.
Just a glimpse at the list of players this 40-year-old, who is also a carpenter, has mentored will cast away any doubts about his credentials. Nikhat Banu (India No.5 in youth girls category), Varuni Jaiswal (India No.8 in cadet girls), Akshi Sancheti (AP No.2 in youth and junior girls and Jishnu Vakaria (AP No.1 in sub-junior boys) are a few who have trained under Venugopal.
Venugopal, who runs a furniture shop near Paradise, Secunderabad, learnt the nuances of the game in 1991 at YMCA Secunderabad. Few years later, he started imparting the knowledge to young TT enthusiasts in the City. And in 2000, Veeshan Gupta, a student of Venugopal, became the State champion.
But it was in 2004 that Venugopal made heads turn. Under the guidance of T. Nagaraj and him, Nikhat brought laurels to the State by emerging the national champion in sub-junior category. “When Nikhat won the nationals, people started noticing me,” says Venugopal. Back then Venugopal was coaching in a small room that was provided by the Gujarati School, Secunderabad. In fact, Venugopal coupled his carpentry skills with his new profession to make a couple of tables and other other training equipment for the kids. Venugopal, who also had a brief coaching stints at other schools in the City, soon won over the members of the Gujarati Seva Mandal.
Acknowledging his ability, the Mandal opened a new academy with a lot more equipment. “A lot more parents started enrolling their kids,” said Venugopal. “The Andhra Pradesh Table Tennis Association also provided a lot of help,” he added.
With the growing reputation of the Academy, Venugopal started taking expert guidance from outside for other aspects of the game like physical training and diet control. “Dr Bhaktiar Choudhary began giving expert guidance to the kids. I take the players to the clinic near Villa Marie College on weekends,” said Venugopal. With such dedication Venugopal is clearly changing the rules of the game.
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