Syed Mohammed Arif (born 29 January 1944), popularly known as Arif Saahab, is an Indian

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

coach. He is a recipient of

Dronacharya Award The Dronacharya Award, officially known as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is sports coaching honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Drona, often referred as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a cha ...

and

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

Award by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

Early life

S. M. Arif is from

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

. He received his

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from

University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (UoH) is a prestigious public central research university located in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Established in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students and 400 faculty, from ...

. He also played cricket at School, led Anwar ul Uloom college for four years and played for Deccan Blues in the HCA league. He quit after being sidelined by his cricket coach and pursued badminton.

Career

S. M. Arif, during his college days, won the inter-varsity badminton championship by representing University of Hyderabad. He also represented Andhra Pradesh in several national tournaments. He earned a diploma in badminton coaching from National Institute of Sports at

Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, India, Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak, Patiala, Qila Mubar ...

. In 1974, he joined the national panel of coaches for badminton and in 1997 he was appointed as the National Chief Badminton Coach. Arif coached several Indian badminton players, including the former All England Badminton Champion Pullela Gopichand, the former Indian National Badminton champions P. V. V. Lakshmi, Jwala Gutta, and

Saina Nehwal Saina Nehwal (; born 17 March 1990) is an Indian badminton player. A former world no. 1, she has won 24 international titles, which includes ten Superseries titles. Although she reached the world's 2nd in 2009, it was only in 2015 that she was ...

Awards

, Government India for his contribution to Indian Badminton - 2000. * Meritorious certificate award,

Badminton World Federation The Badminton World Federation, aka BWF, is the international governing body for the sport of badminton approved by the International Olympic Committee. It was founded on 5 July 1934 as the International Badminton Federation with nine member ...

- 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arif, S. M. Racket sportspeople from Hyderabad, India Recipients of the Dronacharya Award 1944 births Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Indian badminton coaches