Opening new vistas to coaching

THE FRONTIERS of knowledge in sport, or for that matter, in any walk of life, are infinite. There is a constant endeavour to create, conceive and configure innovations that improve, or even replace, what are in vogue. In sport it is the coaches who conceptualise ideas that project modes and methods to challenge each other. Modern sport will be mundane and meaningless, may even be irrelevant, if human ingenuity is not stretched to scripting fresh formulations aimed at giving the game a new aspect of excellence.

Competitive hockey is no exception. The progress made with regard to purveying a new vista to coaching and planning is indeed remarkable. If Europe has taken the dominating role in the last decade of this millennium with no sign of diminishing in the next generation, it is largely on account of the new insights established in coaching, technique, tactics and theory. Poignantly perhaps, Asia, the sub-continent in particular, is forced to learn a few from this to change the conventional system and adopt means that should mirror a more vibrant ethos. The resistance to modern concepts does exist, with a few arguing what has been done is only to blunt the Asian system rather than creating something extraordinary. Beyond a point, this advocacy cannot stand a logical scrutiny, if the goal is success in competitions.

It is perhaps with this end in view that the Indian Hockey Federation is making use of the courses organised by the International Hockey Federation. Conducted usually by expert coaches, who have proven credentials in competitions like the Olympics and World Cups, such courses do help to reorient the styles and system. How much the coaches who attended these sessions imbibe and change their approach may be debatable but everyone agrees they do benefit in widening their horizon.

Among the few who sincerely believe that a lot has to be gained from such courses is the national junior coach, C. R. Kumar, who attended the recent programme conducted along with the Champions Trophy in Amstelveen. There is a consensus in hockey circles that Kumar is gaining in stature for his tactical workouts, perception and interpretation, especially after his splendid role in shaping the junior squad which earned encomiums for its performance in the Asia Cup tournament at Kuala Lumpur last month. That India failed to win the final caused a surprise even to the supporters of the eventual winner, South Korea.

Kumar concedes the week-long course held by the Australian maestro, Richard Aggiss and the Dutch theoretician Boudewijn, provided an indepth study of every facet of hockey. He is impressed by the chance of interacting with so many national coaches - there were representations from Holland, U.K., Canada, Jamaica, including three women - and the discussions were extremely fruitful. Kumar's chosen area of study was ``reverse hit'' and the observations submitted, according to him, were very well received. Quite predictably, Kumar used the occasion to witness the top six men's team in the Champions Trophy to chart his programme to be implemented at Bangalore where the Olympic probables are under training now. Kumar is the assistant coach to Baskaran. In his evaluation, Holland is a perfectly balanced squad, almost flawless in approach, notwithstanding the absence of Bram Lomans, recovering from a surgery, and Jacques Brinkmann, injured during the tournament. But, Kumar feels, the Dutch played a better pace without the aging Brinkmann in the midfield and is amazed by the innovations put into use by the Dutch coach, Maurits Hendriks.

Kumar is somewhat puzzled by the acceptance of the 3-3-1 formation by all the combinations, including the Aussies, who deviated from the 4-4-2 system which had paid them good dividends earlier. His assessment is that the teams had not laid out all the cards on the table, palpably because of the Olympics in a few months. The defence, Kumar feels, in all the teams carried a chink in the armour, which probably accounted for 75 per cent of the goals coming from field play with penalty corners succeeding only up to 18 per cent. While paying tributes to the known strength of physical fitness of all the six teams, Kumar says the perfection in technique for the European teams emerges from the hi-tech. video equipment where the technicians clip and paste various sequences which can be easily explained to the player concerned and not make the whole team watch the entire tape. As for players, Kumar is tremendously impressed by Pablo Amat of Spain, whose body dodges, he says, will put any Asian top player in the shade, and also by the skills of the 19-year-old Spaniard, Eudward Tubau. Kumar is also intrigued by the formation and positions played by Micehal Green and Florian Kunz and wonders what is the game plan of the inscrutable German coach, Paul Lissek. He attributes Britain's disastrous show to the excessive dependence on Calum Giles in penalty corners. British coach Barry Dancer's emphasis in this area was at variance with the others.

Kumar is of the view that top coaches still view India as a danger outfit. They discuss a great deal about containing the forwards Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh Dhillon and Mukesh Kumar. Although most of the coaches say they are familiar with the style and tactics of these, they fear that India might come out with a variation at the Olympics. Kumar stresses the fact that the attack involving Mukesh, Dhanraj and Dillon, should contain more surprise element to upset the rival defence. A prosaic approach as is evident now will easily be countered by the defence.

Understandably, Kumar is sad that India failed to win at Kuala Lumpur. He is happy that the country today has the best of talent in shape for the future. His faith is in Bimal Lakra and Bipin Fernandez whom, he feels are Olympic material.

Is Kumar shaping like Cedric D'Souza? It may be an irrelevant poser at this point. But there is every reason to feel that here is a coach who is not averse to theorising a bit, think a lot and conceive systems that are refreshing and, in his estimate, can be rewarding. What he has acquired in terms of knowledge during the week-long course is bound to enhance his comprehension and find a cure to the growing complexities to modern hockey and its adaptation to this country.

S. THYAGARAJAN

Chennai

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