The Olympic-bound Indian table tennis team is currently training in the German city of Saarbrucken with the support staff outnumbering the players who will be competing in Paris. Italy’s Massimo Costantini, who has returned as India’s head coach for a third third time ahead of the Paris Olympics, is getting help from former player Sourav Chakraborty as the other national coach of the contingent. What is unusual is that as many as four personal coaches have been cleared by the government to travel with the squad with all three members of the women’s team wanting their own through their stay in the Summer Games beginning July 26.
Two masseurs and a physio are the other members of the nine-man support staff while six members form the playing contingent (three men, three women).
Star women’s player Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath will lean on their respective personal coaches during the course of their campaign in Paris.
In the three-member men’s team, India’s flag-bearer Sharath Kamal will have Chris Pfeiffer by his side at the Games. Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar are the other members of the men’s unit.
The presence of so many coaches can lead to floating of too many ideas in the camp but Costantini, who has been with the squad for more than a month, doesn’t see it as a problem.
“The personal coaches are a part of the team mechanism. They will have their ideas and I have my own ideas. I will listen to them and they will listen to me and eventually the final call lies with me. I don’t see anything wrong in that,” Costantini told PTI from Saarbrucken.
However, only designated team coaches will have field of play access while the personal coaches can only watch the action from the stands and will also stay outside the Games’ village.
The Indian table tennis unit had courted a major controversy during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when Manika refused the court-side help of then national coach Soumyadeep Roy and later accused him of match-fixing.
That incident led to the suspension of Table Tennis Federation of India due to a “sorry” state of affairs in the national sports federation.
Ahead of the 2024 edition, all the personal coaches left with the Indian contingent for Saarbrucken last week. The team will train there till July 21 before heading to Paris.
The individual events will precede the team event in which India has secured a first ever qualification in both the categories. The seedings will be announced on Tuesday.
“Olympics is an event of life. The focus of the camp here is on footwork and stamina. Both mental and physical fitness is key especially in best of seven games scenario,” Costantini said.
“The mind and body have to be in sync for the players to excel. We are training in a pressure free environment,” added the Italian.
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