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Serving the right aces

Tennis Village, run by Krishna Bhupathi, says it is offering an all-round tennis camp for children this summer

PHOTO: MAHESH HARILAL

METHODOLOGY A step-by-step approach is used to coach kids

Summer vacations are around the corner and it is time to start planning for coaching camps. Tennis camps are a favourite among parents and over the years and they have grown to meet the demand. Besides the traditional training centre established by noted coaches such as C.G. Krishna Bhupathi, Shashikanth Kanbargimath, B.R.Priyadarshi, Shanta Raj and Peter Vijaykumar, the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association also conducts its annual summer programme under the supervision of coach Ramesh. The choice for young hopefuls is vast but Tennis Village run by Krishna Bhupathi, father of Indian ace Mahesh Bhupathi, has its own methods and tries to be different from others.

For a start this season, Tennis Village has a comprehensive programme, which covers not only tennis, but also others sports like mini tennis, swimming and golf with physical training.

"There is a lot more variety for the novices and of course for advanced players, who just want to play tennis. What they need will be offered in full measure," says Bhupathi. Tennis Village also offers day care facilities for children. Parents can drop the children in the morning and pick them up later in the day. Off court, children can relax, work out in the gyms, use eat out and cyber café facilities. "The idea is to keep them occupied throughout."

Bhupathi promises individual attention. "For beginners, we have to bunch 10 to 12 players together, but as they go up we take three players per court and at least one coach is constantly with them to put them through their paces in an intensive manner."

He says his trick is to make the coaching as simple as possible. "I have learnt from Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan himself and of course from my contemporaries such as Rama Rao and Vijay Amritraj. They always strived to make training look simple. We Indians don't have a big build like the Europeans or Americans. Our aim then should be to play the ball early and keep rallies short. I don't claim that to produce champions, but once in a while, comes a player such as Rohan Bopanna or Sania Mirza. When I have them, I look at the ways to realise their potential. Most youngsters whom I have trained have found ready acceptance in the U.S. with a sports scholarship."

The biggest challenge that a coach faces is changing the style of players who are playing the wrong way.

According to Bhupathi, one cannot expect overnight changes in 99 per cent of the cases.

It has to be one step at a time. "When Iciri Rai came to me, she had a weak forehand and it took me three years to turn it into a potent weapon for her. Suppose a player has faulty serve, we teach him the right serve, by breaking the lesson into six or seven steps. We don't allow him to serve at all, till he has mastered the right way of serving. With such a step-by-step approach, the player is able to get rid of a poor serve."

To contact Tennis Village call Nethra on 9342529502 or 23641747 or Sriramulu on 9886144333.

KALYAN ASHOK

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