For maybe most of my life it's been a 4:30 start.
It’s amazing because kids turn up early.
Some of them come from far.
They get up at 3, 4 o'clock almost,
to be there at the session.
So I think it's amazing to see the energy of those kids.
And when it happens, it's really amazing
to see how committed the kids and parents are.
It’s good to be in this space where things are looking up.
And I do believe
that we have a good future for sport in the country.
Morning.
In the morning the kids are really enthusiastic.
They are great fun to work with.
And they have such smiley faces.
To see the transformation of kids
happen from here
to the highest level is something amazing.
So for me the importance of sport
is moved I would say beyond medals.
And every kid should be given
an opportunity to train, to play, to have fun,
and to develop themselves.
Overall for me, sport has great value
and it's very important
that we really push sport for all our kids.
One of the things we’ve realized
is that it has value
for people to play sport,
to develop various aspects of the human potential.
I’ve always grown up
interacting with a lot of other sports
and athletics is something which really appealed
to me also because of the levels of poverty
or levels of lack of infrastructure
and facility and support for them.
Yes, yes.
So we, along with the Mitra Foundation here,
we built a small ecosystem around it.
And today about 40-odd kids
from different parts of different states come here.
And out of that, we almost have won 546 medals
at national and international levels.
He has adopted athletics.
This is an example for other people also.
Like, I'm in athletics.
If you want to, if you ask me to do something,
first it will come in my mind that I should do for athletics,
as I should do for my 400 meters,
but his game is different.
To have that heart,
to have that mind, it is a very....
No one can do like that.
So what Gopichand sir is doing,
he has adopted, he is giving food,
fruits or whatever the facility is.
Today also he has brought us here.
So he's taking care like a father.
He is taking care of us.
It's been a great journey for us.
For me personally, to see
transformation of kids
whose lives have been made because of sport.
So from when I was young, I was really enthusiastic in sports,
but I didn't know which one to choose.
So my father joined me in badminton
and I really started liking it from there.
After playing for some time, I realized it was really nice.
I was enjoying it. So I wanted to pursue it.
Oh, nice.
Nice power. Generate power!
Nice.
Good power. Generate power! Power!
I start my day at five o'clock in the morning.
I do my session inside Gopichand Academy.
I have my breakfast there,
and then I go back home, sleep for some time,
and then have my lunch and go for the evening session.
And after the evening session,
I have my snacks in the academy and then go back home.
And I also have home tuitions
and I have to study until 9 o'clock.
And also my home is really near to the academy,
so it's very convenient.
My wife and I decided to put her in sports.
Meghna is performing well.
She's showing good interest in sports.
She's even showing good results.
That's why no doubt Meghna has a good future in sports.
So the first priority is sports. Badminton.
The second priority is studies.
That's how we decided for some peace of mind.
Every day, evening for two hours
we used to give her tuitions
and observe her performance.
Meghna was good in her studies as well.
And also bank loan cash
and revenue receipts and here it will be subscriptions.
This much expenditure.
So my dream, like any other player,
player is to become an Olympic champion,
to win the Olympic gold medal.
My inspiration is obviously Gopi sir first,
then P.V. Sindhu.
So for me,
Sindhu has been phenomenal for Indian sport,
for Indian badminton.
She's very quick on her feet
and she has sharp angles, which she can create.
And you give her a little bit
and she's pouncing on those things.
That's where she was.
Sindhu is physically really strong out there.
P.V. Sindhu just seven points away
from a guaranteed silver medal.
In the back of your mind,
you know what the Olympic final means
because there is pressure of the Olympic final by itself.
And it was a big final for Carolina
as well for Spain as a country for Carolina.
I think she was out there playing her full
and it was a good match.
And I thought eventually
Carolina deserved to win
and it was great to see her win.
And a nice touch from P.V. Sindhu.
So for me, I'm sure the day I retire
and the day I get to see all the things
which I have done in my life, truly for me, for us,
I think a victory at the Olympics and a medal,
especially in a country
or an event like in Rio where we didn't win many.
You can get a breakthrough.
Maybe you can do a standing skill work.
Now, thankfully post 2017,
I would say, not even 16, 17,
we started to have more coaches in the ecosystem.
Ah, good!
Just think, where you are hitting,
where you are running.
Think.
When you teach basics
and when you are always seeing the game
from different perspectives,
then you actually learn.
So I think it's very important
to keep the knowledge part open,
to observe yourself
and basically know that there's a lot more to learn.
It's not about "telling" but it is about learning yourself
and becoming better at what you do.
When you are hitting...
You have to go all the way.
From here to there.
Sometimes wait in the center!
Wait in the center!
You see the good thing about the academy,
what I can say is,
almost most of the coaching
or the support staff, whoever were there initially,
almost all of us have been continuing
for more than a decade or something.
So we have seen almost four different generations
and coming based on our experiences,
what we have gained with the initial couple of people.
Now we can reasonably say
that we have found a bit of a shortcut
where probably results could be faster compared
to the same amount of physical activity
that had been a few years back.
Of course, we need to really
strengthen our own ecosystem, our own coaches,
the systems in place of selections,
so that we are consistently doing
what is required to produce players
at the highest level in the world.
There is a bank. There is a cafeteria.
There is a sports science center.
There is a coach development center.
There is a gym.
Now again we'll be having the sports science center,
which is about to come up in a year's time.
So we have really huge plans for the sport science center.
So once the sports science center starts,
it will be one of the best
in terms of center of excellence.
I think a system which is coach-led,
athlete-centric, and supported by sport science
is something which is very key for us to succeed.
From Srikanth to Saina, Sindhu,
everything the players have got from this academy.
Even in fact the coaches,
the staff, everybody, what we are today,
what we are having,
it is because of the academy.
We never thought that we could
get so many medals at the international level.
And he's someone who has made us believe that
and made us achieve that.
I don't know how to express it,
but he's very, very special.
I think when we were playing,
there used to be hardly 10 or 20 kids who were playing,
who could play decent badminton.
That number has gone to probably 10,000 now.
So what we're looking at is a huge potential.
Three.
Four. Faster.
Five. Six.
Seven. Up! Faster!
So we are sitting on that potential,
but we need to really work deep and well and consistently
to make this happen.
I'm sure Indian badminton
is there to be among the best nation
in the world
for many years to come
and possibly dominate world badminton.
India! India!