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Do Coaches Need Certifications?

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In recent times, the sport of Badminton has gained immense popularity in India due to all the champion sportsmen who have emerged from our country. As more people sign up for badminton coaching, the demand for coaches is higher than ever. As a result, many good players who have played at national or state levels have been getting into the field. However, just because someone is a good player, does it necessarily make him a good coach? Today, we will focus on the importance of coaching certification in Badminton. To get more insight, we spoke to Druva Kumar, founder of Star Badminton Academy, who got his Level 3 certification from England and is still continuing to get more certifications from BWF.

  • Do coaches need to have some certification to teach Badminton in India?
    • It is not required to have any certification to become a coach in India. In fact I would say that there are very few coaches in India who are certified to teach the game.
  • What made you do the certification?
    • After having observed my mentor Guru Dronacharya Award Winner Shri Ganguly Prasad, I have observed that being a coach is completely different from being a player. Although I could have coached using my playing skills, I wanted to prepare myself and acquire the knowledge which would make a bigger impact on my students and also differentiate me from the others in this field. Also, I feel that having a certification provides a lot of value-add  to the customer. 
  • What do you see as benefits after doing the certification? 
    • As a player, I knew the techniques of how the game is played. However, as a coach, I have to be able to come up with an overall training plan. In many cases, these training plans are not even general but they need to be customized according to a player’s capabilities. Additionally, we have a pretty large coaching team at Star Badminton Academy, and my knowledge really helps me in training and educating new coaches by developing a framework. I never would have been able to acquire this knowledge without getting my certification. Finally, I believe that our customers trust us more than others because of the value we bring through our training programs and our coaching framework.
  • What was the process of getting the Level 3 certification? And what topics did you learn about ?
    • The course itself includes both theory and practical sections, and took me close to 3 years to finish it. Mainly because I was working during the week and attending the classes during the weekends
    • The coursework focused primarily on “Periodisation”. This is a method of systematically planning an athlete’s training so that he/she peaks at the right time. So, for example, if a player is aiming to play a tournament  in a few month’s time, we break up the preparation period for that tournament into 4 different sub periods: off-season, pre-match, match, and post match. In each of these phases, we work on different aspects of his/her game like aerobic fitness, strength, repetitive drills, psychology, etc. This ensures that the player is at the peak of his/her abilities when participating in the tournament.
  • What message do you have for budding coaches?
    • My message to all budding coaches is
    • Although hardwork is the basic requirement for every player to become successful, the coach should do all the “smart work” by planning and preparing a tailormade program for each individual. And without having a thorough knowledge, we can’t afford to train a player in a random manner. So get the certification done which gives you more knowledge and confidence in your approach. 
    • Always try to provide more value-add to your customers by trying to stay ahead of the competition