E-learning opens up new avenues for young badminton enthusiasts

Rewind 15 years. Could a youngster sitting in his house in a remote town in India imagine learning the tricks of playing badminton from one of the best coaches in the world?

Not really.

Cut to today, and that futuristic dream is now a reality, thanks to a tutorial channel launched by PNB MetLife on YouTube.

Called the PNB MetLife JBC Bootcamp, this channel is part of a larger initiative known as the Junior Badminton Championship (JBC).

It’s a welcome move, given how expensive coaching for badminton is in the country today. There are tutorials by current players such as Mohnish Sharma and Aditya Prakash, and former champion U.Vimal Kumar. It’s indeed commendable as to how PNB MetLife is making such videos available free of cost on the internet.

Here’s a look at some of the tutorials.

In its 5^th year now, JBC aims to take badminton to the grassroots. It also wants to spread the message of good health among the youth.

E-learning in sports
For a large part of India’s population in tier 3 and tier 4 cities, access to expert coaches and training facilities for badminton is very limited. This keeps many children and young adults from learning the sport well, even if they have a talent for it. For those hailing from not-so-affluent backgrounds, sports coaching is seen as a strain on the family’s resources.

With online tutorials, however, that is never an issue.

Virtual tutorials are also not dependent on the person’s location of stay. One could be anywhere and still be on top of some of the world-class techniques.

Basic skills, such as body positioning, proper footing, racket position, and strokes can easily be learnt through online videos.

The other big advantage is that tutorials can be followed at one’s own pace. Often, in groups, children are expected to move on to the next skill when the whole group transitions to it. For the ones who are slow to pick up, however, this could mean skipping to a new skill before the old one has been perfected.

Further, PNB MetLife will soon launch tutorials in Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil to enable more people to learn the skills of badminton.

A major boost to sports
One sees many top athletes training overseas with renowned coaches to be on a par with the rest of their peers coming from different parts of the world. But this could fast change with e-learning in sports.

At present, India has a whopping 370 million internet users. This figure is soon projected to reach the 500 million mark in what is being termed as the country’s digital revolution. With such a large number of people getting access to the internet on their computers and mobile devices, learning in general, and for sports in particular, is also slowly moving online.

Games like badminton, which require budding athletes to practise core skills such as hand-eye coordination, strength, speed and mental sharpness on their own, are fast riding on this e-learning wave.

Here is to more Sainas, Sindhus, and Srikanths!