Sport coaches: India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Athletics
Prominent in 2018
These athletes have won gold at the recent Asian Games in Indonesia. Sunday Times chats with the coaches who spotted the spark early and nurtured their talent
Seen on the street
KM Peter Trainer of Jinson Johnson, 1500m
A bank employee, KM Peter first saw a 16-year-old Jinson Johnson running on the streets of Kulathuvayal in Kerala’s Kozhikode district. When he asked if the boy would train with him, Johnson nodded. Peter, a part-time running coach, started Johnson on the basics. The 56-year-old saw that Johnson had the speed and stamina needed for a sprinter. “Johnson stayed just a kilometre away my place, so I’d wake him up early in the morning for training,” says Peter. Within a year, Johnson, now 27, was participating in district games
Short, overweight but man, could she jump
Subhash Sarkar
First coach of Swapna Barman, women’s heptathlon gold
In 2011, Subhash Sarkar met a 14-year girl who kept challenging herself. “She was not at all what a sportsperson needs to be. She was short, overweight, but could do high jump,” says Sarkar of Swapna Barman. Sarkar, a 55-year-old former national-level long-jump runner, looked beyond. “She was lacking in speed but had determination,” he says. Within a year, her high jump had improved and he asked her to take up javelin — and before long she was training for the seven events of a heptathlon
A chubby kid with an impressive arm
Jaiveer Chaudhary Got javelinist Neeraj Chopra to throw for the first time
In the winter of 2010, Chaudhary was practising his javelin throws at Panipat’s Shiva-ji Stadium when he spotted Neeraj Chopra, then a chubby 13-yearold, exercising to lose weight. Chaudhary insisted, and Neeraj threw a javelin. “It travelled 35-40m, pretty impressive for a first-timer,” he says. A quote on a wall at Chaudhary’s home in Khandra reads: ‘A single idea can light up your life’. It certainly did for gold medalist Neeraj Chopra
Baby brother to star
Anil Dhankar First coach of Amit Panghal, 49kg boxing
Amit wasn’t the one boxing at Anil Dhankar’s academy in Rohtak initially; it was his older brother Ajay. Amit came to watch. One day, Dhankar spotted Amit sparring with some of his academy’s senior members. When he was transferred to Gurgaon, Dhankar took Amit along. Amit stayed with Dhankar’s family for five years, and both would go to the stadium early in the morning.
Today, Dhankar teaches more than 100 children in Rohtak who are keen to follow Amit’s path
Gave up his dream but helped students’ dreams come true
Amit Sheoran First coach of shooter Saurabh Chaudhary
Amit Sheoran was a state-level shooter but gave up his dream as he couldn’t afford training.
“I decided to teach youngsters, give them the opportunities I never got,” says Sheoran, who set up a range on his farm. When Chaudhary arrived at the tin shed range in 2015, he was 13 and had never held an air pistol. At the academy in Baghpat district, Chaudhary took baby steps, and is now one of the country’s stars
Foreign Coaches
Olympics 2021
Sabi Hussain, August 10, 2021: The Times of India
From: Sabi Hussain, August 10, 2021: The Times of India
Apart from our athletes’ perseverance, determination and resilience, it was the expert help from a bunch of foreign coaches and their entourage of support-staff members, from scientific and analytical advisors to physios, masseurs, mental conditioning coaches and psychologists, which helped separate these sportspersons from the also-rans.
These coaches, especially the ones from foreign shores, have brought about a sea-change in both the attitude and performance of our athletes. They have mostly remained unsung but deserve accolades for shaping the careers of these athletes.
Consider this: Gold-medal winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s career has been shaped by the late Garry Calvert from Australia and Germany’s legendary Uwe Hohn and Klaus Erich Bartonietz.
The Rani Rampal-led women’s hockey team had Dutchman Sjoerd Marijne to guide them. Not to be left behind, the men’s hockey team has Australian Graham John Reid at the coaching helm.
The bronze-winning Lovlina and the women’s boxing team have Italian Raffaele Bergamasco shoring up their glove skills. Wrestlers Bajrang Punia (Shako Bentinidis), Vinesh Phogat (Akos Woller), Ravi Dahiya (Kamal Malikov) and Deepak Punia (Murad Giadarov), who are ranked among the world’s top five, have all been trained for Tokyo by their personal coaches.
Bronze-winning shuttler Sindhu, the first Indian woman with two individual Olympic medals, has had a slew of foreign coaches in recent times, from Indonesian Mulyo Handoyo to South Koreans Kim Ji Hyun to Park Tae-Sang, who was there with her in Tokyo. In Mirabai Chanu’s case, it was US-based strength and conditioning coach Dr Aaron Horschig whose rehabilitation sessions, to overcome shoulder and lower-back problems, proved crucial for the weightlifter.
In all, 32 foreign support-staff members accompanied 126 athletes across nine disciplines. In comparison, around 50-odd Indian coaches travelled at the government’s cost. The athletics contingent saw the highest number of foreign coaches, seven, followed by six in hockey and four each in badminton and wrestling, among others. Some foreign coaching support staff have travelled on ‘P’ (personal) category accreditation.
In the current sporting ecosystem, India has the highest number of foreign and high-performance directors, an impressive 38 of them. Last year, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) extended the contract of 32 foreign coaches in 11 disciplines till September 30, 2021 to ensure that Tokyo-bound athletes could retain continuity in their training. With the focus on Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, SAI has decided to draw up four-year contracts for foreign and Indian coaches.
Roping in expert foreign help isn’t exactly a new trend. It started in the 1980s when the athletics federation hired specialists from abroad. The surge, however, came around the 2000 Sydney Olympics when hockey, shooting and weightlifting started seeing merit in foreign expertise.
It’s no secret that the country’s athletes and sports administrators prefer foreign hands over our national coaches for their sheer experience of coaching champion teams, scientific knowledge, tactical and technical acumen, food-supplement awareness and, above all, a disciplined and time-bound approach.
The contracts of these foreign coaches with SAI contain a clause in which they must share their knowledge and impart coaching lessons to Indian counterparts. That’s the reason why their pay brackets range from anywhere between $4,000 and $15,000 per month (see box).
FOREIGN COACHES & SUPPORT-STAFF MEMBERS ACROSS DISCIPLINES
ATHLETICS: Dr Klaus Erich Bartonietz, Galina Petrovna Bukharina, Elmira Kiseleva, Uwe Hohn, Andrei Filimonau, Alexander Sinitsyn, Alexander Artsybashev
BOXING: Santiago Nieva, Raffaele Bergamasco
BADMINTON: Park Tae-Sang, Evangeline Baddam, Mathias Boe, Santosa Dwi Agus
EQUESTRIAN: Grigorios Maleas, Johanna Katariina Pohjonen, Veronica Louise Sinz
FENCING: Nicola Zanotti, Angelo Carnemolla
HOCKEY: Graham John Reid, Robin Anthony Webster Arkell, Clark Gregg Stephen, Sjoerd Marijne, Wayne Patrick Lombard, Johanna Maria Schopman
SHOOTING: Oleg Mikhailov Sailing: Ian Stuart Warren, Alexander Denisiuc
WRESTLING: Kamal Malikov, Giadarov Murad, Shako Bentinidis, Akos Woller
32 Foreign coaches & support staff in Tokyo across 9 disciplines
38 Total foreign coaches and high-performance directors
