Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju formally launched a High Performance Coach Education Programme at the National Centre for Sports Coaching under the aegis of NSNIS Patiala on Thursday.
The course, spread over six months, will have seven modules. At least 250 top SAI coaches will form the core group of nurturing the best sports talent in the country as coaches. Each batch will have a limited capacity of 20 students only.
“We go to smaller countries (for training) and we think foreign coaches have an edge over Indian coaches,” Rijiju said during the virtual launch in the presence of chief national badminton coach P. Gopi Chand, Union Secretary (Sports) Ravi Mittal and Director-General SAI Sandip Pradhan.
"We speak about Atmanirbhar Bharat, it is the Prime Minister’s vision and is applicable across the board. So, we need to be Armanirbhar in sports too,” he said.
“This can happen when we have only Indian coaches across all disciplines in Indian sports. We cannot be running around (to other countries) for a coach.
“Our long-term goal is putting India among the top 10 nations in the Olympics and it is not unrealistic,” Rijiju said.
“I think this kind of Higher Performance Programmes for coaches is the key towards achieving that,” he said.
Gopi said this kind of programme would help in the emergence of Indian coaches and lower the reliance on foreign coaches.
