Indian coaches still prefer to live in the past and follow old techniques, says Yogeshwar Dutt

Any panel discussion on Indian sports and the way forward normally revolves around nostalgia of the achievements years ago and the lack of infrastructure, facilities and basic coaching, a primary requirement for producing champion athletes.

While there is nothing new for those involved in the system for years, there is always hope that someone may come up with a bright idea that can be a catalyst for change or there is someone blunt enough to call out the ills of the system without trying to be politically correct.

This time, the occasion for yet another panel discussion was the launch of JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sports in a 42-acre campus in Vijayanagar, Karnataka, with an aim to produce more Olympic medallists in boxing, wrestling, judo, athletics and swimming.

And the panellists did not disappoint.

If Balbir Singh Sr, the legendary hockey player, regaled the audience with stories from the 1948 and 1952 Olympics and what it meant to win independent India’s first ever gold medal against a country that had ruled the nation over 100 years, India’s only individual gold medallist was more forthright in saying that it is the future that matters and the corporate sector needs to really invest in this journey.

“The US Government doesn’t spend any money on Olympic preparation,” he said. “It’s the corporate world and that has to happen in India.”

Bindra insisted that everyone talking to him wants to talk about that one day of glory but don’t really speak about the numerous failures. Sports is lot about focusing on the mundane and trying to get better at it, he said.

But it was probably, London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt who hit the nail on its head when he said that it is the Indian coaches’ lack of hunger to learn that has hurt the country’s prospects over the years.

“Indian wrestling began doing well only after foreign coaches came,” he said. “The foreign coaches are willing to learn, study new techniques, discuss and if you have the hunger you can succeed. But Indian coaches still prefer to live in the past and follow old techniques. I can’t say about other sports but in wrestling we definitely need foreign coaches,” he added.

Dutt, who underwent multiple surgeries on his knees during his playing career, said he started getting the benefits of the scientific knowhow in sports when he was 26 and the focus should be to provide these facilities to athletes at a very early age. “This institute has all the facilities required and the coaches and support staff to help the athletes,” he said.

Speaking about the vision behind the the centre, IIS founder Parth Jindal said the idea was to create a facility that can produce multiple champions. “We picked combat sports like boxing and wrestling because India has traditionally been good in these. We felt that judo had a lot of similarities with wrestling and with proper training India can be at par with top nations in the sport.

“We are nowhere near top standards in athletics and shooting. But these are the two sports with the maximum number of medals in the Olympics,” he added.

While the combat sports program is up and running with about 100 children training in Vijayanagar, athletics will commence at the end of the year and swimming within a year or two.

Mahesh Bhupathi, who was credited by Jindal as the reason behind the sports movement he has started, insisted that with the technology and research happening in sports it was imperative to lay down a strong foundation. “I am a strong believer in reverse engineering,” he said. “You study where you want to be and lay down the foundation at an early age. The aim of such facilities is to do just that.”

There is probably a long way to go for the IIS before they can aim for Olympic champions. Those running the program have set a target of getting a few of them into the 2024 Games and then aim for medals four years later.