Don’t need a foreign coach, feels archer Deepika Kumari

TIL Desk Sports/ Managing to win a bronze at the recently-concluded Archery World Cup Finals without a coach, star Indian recurve archer Deepika Kumari feels there is no need to rope in a foreign coach ahead of the World Championships as it could further complicate their preparations. The Archery Association of India (AAI) — acting on directions of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) — had failed to provide a coach to archers Abhishek Verma, Jyothi Surekha and Deepika for the World Cup final last month after Jiwanjot Singh Teja resigned over a Dronacharya Award snub.

The cavalier attitude of AAI was seen as a heavy discouragement for the archers who qualified for the marquee event after a gruelling battle at the four World Cup stages earlier this year. “I cannot comment on that (no coach given at the World Cup final). We need a national coach but right now in India we do not have too many of them.

And the good coaches are busy preparing upcoming players,” Deepika told reporters on the sidelines of the first invitational Indian Open Indoor Archery tournament that concluded at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here on Sunday. Asked if roping in a foreign coach would solve the problem, Deepika said, “If we rope in a foreign coach now and he or she will teach us new things, it won’t help.” “We have already worked on a certain technique and now suddenly you will change it, it will take 3-4 years more. We would want to polish our form and work on the mental aspect as well.”