We need to empower our coaches: Abhinav Bindra

Mumbai: Former Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra continued his support for better sports infrastructure at grassroots level in India.

Bindra, India’s only individual gold medallist at Olympics, was speaking at an event organised by Bajaj V, on Tuesday, to recognise and celebrate common Indians who make the country proud.

The shooter stressed that there is a need to invest at the grassroots levels to create a platform for young athletes, so that they can develop and bring glory to the nation.

“We lack grassroots level programmes, where young people are encouraged, where young people are given the adequate facilities; they are given the adequate know-how,” said Bindra.

“If we setup a strong grassroots programme, then only we will be able to get the sort of success we aspire to achieve. If you set up a strong base, if you set up a programme that allows our athletes to set strong foundation, set strong base, it will help us to grow and we will get many more champions,” added the ace shooter.

The 2008 Beijing gold medallist also asked the government to look after the development at the grassroots level.

“Government of India is doing good work in helping to fund the training of each athlete, but the funding still needs to infiltrate down to grassroots level.”

High quality training is necessary for India to produce more champions, but you need the best coaches to help athletes improve their game. The veteran suggested that it’s equally important to empower Indian coaches, as it's to invest in athletes.

“We have adequate no. of coaches, but we need to empower our coaches. We need to expose them to the best techniques in the world. Indians can make great coaches. They need little more exposure and set frameworks in place which enables them to be the best in the world.”

The Olympic champion recently set up a high performance centre in Chandigarh. The one-of-a-kind centre will help athletes to asses their performances as well as train. Bindra added that India is far behind in using technology and science to improve athletes’ performance, and technically advanced facilities in this era is a must.

“India is many years behind in sports science and sports technology.

“The role of sports science and the role of sports technology can’t be ignored in today’s world. If we want our athletes to compete with some of the best in the world, then we have to give them at par facilities.”