'India's talent is world's envy'
Former world champion Peter Karlsson believes that the strength of India’s table tennis talent pool has become a reason for envy for many top nations.
Interacting with media persons after a three day coaching clinic under the aegis of Manav Rachna Trust-STAG initiative in New Delhi, the 43-year-old said India’s talent pool was just second to China in terms of numbers.
“However, what is lacking here is proper infrastructure and also something needs to be done to ensure that there are enough quality coaches at the grass root level,” said Karlsson, who also trained India’s Olympic bound paddler Soumyajit Ghosh under the Olympic Solidarity program.
During the three day workshop, Karlsson coached about 100 students from around Faridabad and National Capital Region in two sessions and worked on their basic techniques.
Amit Bhalla, Vice President, Manav Rachna Educational Institution, responsible for the 3 days camp said they were looking to work with Karlsson on a long term basis to create a High Performance Training centre in North India at their facility, which is also being used by the Table Tennis Federation of India for their national team’s coaching camps.
“Our aim is not to just run a coaching center for table tennis players. But we are also designing a course for coaches with the help of STAG and Karlsson and hope to contribute whole-heartedly in the development of table tennis in the country,” he added.