The All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) successfully launched their unique “Webinar for Coaches” on Sunday. The jointly conceptualized and conducted webinar was inaugurated by Hironmoy Chatterjee, Hon. Secretary General, AITA and Lalita Sharma, Regional Director, SAI Sonepat.
Lalita Sharma played a key role in arranging this highly engaging and interactive learning session for tennis coaches. First day of the 12-day long webinar witnessed participation of over 300 coaches from the length and breadth of the country.
With the valuable support of SAI, it is for the first time that the AITA has introduced an online workshop for its 2000 plus strong registered coaches who are often the unsung heroes in nurturing and shaping the future of our superstar tennis players.
“AITA started the Coach’s Education in the year 1999 and till date we have done 142 Workshops,” said Chatterjee as he inaugurated the webinar. “We have 2300 AITA registered coaches and we also have 3827 International Tennis Federation (ITF) certified coaches. This Coach’s Education is going on for a very long time and they have been very successful. Not only that, we have been authorized by the ITF to certify on their behalf, so it is an on-going process but this webinar is unique thing. For the first time, we are going online and everyone needs to grab this opportunity. We can utilize this time which we are spending in lockdown and instead of wasting the time we should try and do something constructive” he added.
“In India, we have had workshops in all the zones and now, with the help of the Sports Authority of India, this is a wonderful opportunity that we have got, to go online with the Govt of India. We have to take the most out of it.
The AITA would like to thank Sandip Pradhan, Director General, SAI and Radhica Sreeman, Executive Director (Teams), SAI for SAI’s partnership in conducting this webinar and making this initiative possible”.
Suresh Sonachalam, Director, AITA Coach’s Education Program coordinated the proceedings of the webinar, whilst Nar Singh, Administrator, AITA Coach’s Education joined-in as the next expert-in-charge and shared his knowledge about AITA and its Coaching Programs across India. Online registration of players, conducting tournaments (approx 850 annually), officiating, registration of tennis academies were few of the AITA functions explained by Nar Singh during the session.
The maiden day of the Webinar was graced by the presence of India’s former National Champion, Davis Cup star player and now a leading Tennis Coach, Nandan Bal. Bal joined the talk as an expert and gave a pep talk to all the participants during the Webinar.
“I think this is a fabulous battle that we are all fighting and I think we are doing that all our lives, on the tennis courts. It requires a lot of patience, self-control and I think we are going to come out of it. He urged coaches to stay in touch with students as they would be back soon” said Bal.
In the second half of the Webinar, Gary O’Brien, Development Officer, Bengal Tennis Association, delivered a highly entertaining and enjoyable session on “Tennis during Lockdown” where he demonstrated and shared his wisdom on how to make do with substitute arrangements in case of space and equipment non-availability constraints.
AITA and SAI’s jointly organized Webinar for Coaches continues tomorrow with Balachandran Manikkath taking a session on “Communication” from 10 am onwards.
