Even as Indian sport federations continue hiring foreign coaches, countries who excel in Olympic sports have started appointing coaches from India to give their wards the edge in major international competitions.
Meet Ramandeep Kaur Brar, a rifle shooter-turned-coach who has recently been appointed the National coach of the Canadian shooting team. Ramandeep has won several medals at National Championships and has been into coaching since 2006.
She was the coach of the Punjab sports department from 2008 to 2014 and was stationed at Jalandhar where she trained shooters to reach international level. Ramandeep did her ISSF ‘C’ coaching course in 2013 at Finland. In 2014, she was the only person selected from India for the prestigious ISSF ‘B’ coaching course at Montreal. “The ISSF had selected me after analyzing my performance as a shooter and a coach,” said Ramandeep.
In 2015, she was invited by the International Shooting Spot Federation (ISSF) to conduct training for the local coaches in Sri Lanka.
Her growing popularity in the world of coaching was first noticed by Sri Lanka who appointed her as their National coach in 2015. In her short tenure of one year, she guided the rifle shooters to win five medals at the 12th South Asian Games in 2016. The Sri Lankan shooting federation wanted to retain her as the national coach but Ramandeep opted to move to Canada.
“I am also doing an advance two-year coaching diploma from the Sports Institute of Ontario. This diploma teaches scientific methods of sports training. This is Canada’s highest diploma in sports coaching according to the Canadian Olympic Committee. After this diploma I will be a level 5 coach which means the highest in Canada”, said Ramandeep.
She says Canada’s sports structure is very strong and they invest in training their coaches.
“The sports structure of Canada is very strong. They have a scientific approach and their preparation for Olympics is very well planned. Their policy says train from top to bottom that means train the coaches well so that they can train athletes at the grassroots level. Their government spends a lot on coaches for their training”, added Ramandeep.
