Zeeshan Ali and Ashutosh Singh give tips to coaches at the All India Tennis Association and Sports Authority of India’s Education Webinar

On the penultimate day of the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) jointly organised Education Webinar for Coaches, current Indian Davis Cup team’s coach Zeeshan Ali and Ashutosh Singh, former Davis Cup player and National champion, laid emphasis on smart work, patience, passion and perseverance while imparting their knowledge to the AITA registered coaches in attendance.

Coming from similar backgrounds of having born in a family who breathed Tennis all day long both Ali and Singh shared their experiences of picking up the sport and various anecdotes from the junior days.

The panelists and attendees were also getting involved in the conversation with their queries during the talk by the celebrity duo.

“I was blessed to have been born in a tennis family, it gave me an extra leeway. But I had to work hard too. As my coaches and seniors used to tell me, “Lage Raho Munnabhai”, I would suggest you all to inculcate that mindset of just keep at it, give it time. It takes time and a lot of perseverance to yield results at top level tennis,” shared Singh as a tip to the coaches.

Ali, who was junior world number two at the age of 16 but had to cut short his playing career at the age of 25 due to injury, underlined the importance of physical fitness in tennis.

“As a coach, you must focus on the fitness and keep the player injury free, along with teaching him tennis skills and techniques,” said Ali.

Ali added, “Over a period of time, the concept of hard work is gradually getting replaced by smart work. So focus needs to be on re-inventing coaching techniques to accommodate smart work. And along with this, one needs to show patience and have the passion, a fire burning inside a player to become the best tennis player he or she can be”.

As the penultimate session of the Webinar progressed, SAI representatives Isha Chopra, SAI Coach, South India and Chandra Bhushan, Senior SAI Coach, Delhi joined the panel. Chopra focused on Coaching for U-14 Tennis while Bhushan discussed the Fundamentals of Tennis.

On the final day of the Webinar, Bharat Oza, Chairman of the AITA Coach’s Education and Certification Program will join all the tennis experts who have been a part of the panelists starting from day one and hold a collective session and engage with the participants.