Was in Patiala/Chandigarh the last three days and i guess words like dissapointing, uninspiring, disenchanting, dillusional all would perfectly describe the outing. But i will rave and rant about that later on in the week. There were some bright spots but today i want to focus on one of the brightest spot hitting Indian Tennis. Apollo Tires yesterday announced they are investing 100 crores into Indian tennis for the next ten years.
Mahesh Bhupathi (one of my closest buddies) initiated the deal. I maybe a bit biased towards him but the bottom line is that he has brought in more money (his magic number being 140 crores combining the Mittal Trust and FIST) to Indian sport as a whole than any other human being EVER!!!! Of course his exploits on the tennis court are great but this is so much bigger here is a guy who is proving not to only to be a great athlete but an even better human being. He has single handedly raised money for Indian sport with absolutely no vested interest other than seeing his country move up in the world. Not so long ago this same guy was accused as being non patriotic which is hilarious since here is a guy who has redifined the termed "giving back"!!!!
Anyway for all those who only thought that it was a lack of money that kept us in the doldrums its time to pull your socks up and deliver since the money is coming so now lets get some results going.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Wide world of Athletics.
Let me start by apologizing for long gap... there are way too many reasons (some personal) for why i haven't had a chance to update the blog.
Am presently in Knoxville, Tennessee (USA) for some meetings with coaches and in particular the head coach of the Track&Field who has produced 7 Olympic medals in the last two games.
Just to summarize my last week or so I have been from Ottawa, Toronto, Cincinnati and now Knoxville (which is my last stop thank god) in search of an athletic program that will agree to take on some Indian athletes.
Our athletes are decent at junior levels but just like most other sports they don't get the right development and push to the next stage. Have met various coaches who feel that they can take up the challenge. It is so refreshing meeting people here to are so ambitious and even coaches who are in charge of development and coach young kids do their job with so much pride.
I am of the feeling that i would like to base the athletes outside India only because peripherals like nutrition, strength, rehab will get taken care of. This is an area we don't even address at home and it shows.
In Knoxville, the coach here has given me a test that he has devised which he says gives a 99% idea whether an athlete has a chance or not. He specializes only in the 400 and 800 which also seem to be where a bulk of our athletes seem to be. After the fitness test, there is a medical test which is only done in 3 places here that measures the amount of "fast twitch" muscle fibres and compares it to what you need. So it is a pretty fool proof... except that after an athlete passes these two tests, the mental aspect and desire which will come into play.
However am excited at doing these tests, from what i can see of it already the coach said i would be lucky if i found 3-4 people. Anyway headed back to India tomorrow and will keep all posted on the test front....
Am presently in Knoxville, Tennessee (USA) for some meetings with coaches and in particular the head coach of the Track&Field who has produced 7 Olympic medals in the last two games.
Just to summarize my last week or so I have been from Ottawa, Toronto, Cincinnati and now Knoxville (which is my last stop thank god) in search of an athletic program that will agree to take on some Indian athletes.
Our athletes are decent at junior levels but just like most other sports they don't get the right development and push to the next stage. Have met various coaches who feel that they can take up the challenge. It is so refreshing meeting people here to are so ambitious and even coaches who are in charge of development and coach young kids do their job with so much pride.
I am of the feeling that i would like to base the athletes outside India only because peripherals like nutrition, strength, rehab will get taken care of. This is an area we don't even address at home and it shows.
In Knoxville, the coach here has given me a test that he has devised which he says gives a 99% idea whether an athlete has a chance or not. He specializes only in the 400 and 800 which also seem to be where a bulk of our athletes seem to be. After the fitness test, there is a medical test which is only done in 3 places here that measures the amount of "fast twitch" muscle fibres and compares it to what you need. So it is a pretty fool proof... except that after an athlete passes these two tests, the mental aspect and desire which will come into play.
However am excited at doing these tests, from what i can see of it already the coach said i would be lucky if i found 3-4 people. Anyway headed back to India tomorrow and will keep all posted on the test front....
Monday, May 7, 2007
Back from Bangkok
No idea for some reason the last two posts didn't publish. Well in a nutshell the women were a disappointment and not much to even write about other than maybe Avneet who shot MQS so not much pressure.
There are only two more chances for an Olympic Quota which is Munich starting the 28th and then the Asian Championships later on in the year. Anyway there will be more shooting for me at the beginning of next month since i thought i would go and check out my shot gun athletes as well.
Off to Toronto tonight to try and find an athletic base to send some of our talented athletes and also various testing and fitness facilities. So more on that later.
There are only two more chances for an Olympic Quota which is Munich starting the 28th and then the Asian Championships later on in the year. Anyway there will be more shooting for me at the beginning of next month since i thought i would go and check out my shot gun athletes as well.
Off to Toronto tonight to try and find an athletic base to send some of our talented athletes and also various testing and fitness facilities. So more on that later.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
DAY II
Today's events were the Men's 10m Air rifle and women's 10m Air Pistol. Few Indians were in action, and from the "Trust's" point of view notably Abhinav Bindra.
The day started at 6am which is when he left for the range. By the time i got there at 7.30am all were standing on the firing line ready to go... and it all began at 8am.
For those who have never been to an Air rifle match (that will be a lot of you) imagine being in a movie hall with deafening volumes of the dolby surround soud system, then imagine the plug being pulled on the system and that sudden silence where you can even hear the seats breathing... now throw in the popcorn machine making the noise it does.... that is the feeling you get in an Air Rifle match arena.
Now the format...there are 2 groups of 55 shooters who shoot one after the other and the top 8 make the final. We had Gagan and Abhinav shooting in the first group followed by Raghu and S. Rajput in the second. Each shooter shoots 6 rounds of 10 shots each.
It wasn't an ideal start for Abhinav shooting a 98 (which is 8 of 10), followed by another 98 and for those of you referencing with Kamesh he will tell you that is not the best of starts. It looked like Abhinav was in a bad mood and basically very unhappy.... he later told me that is how he is all the time. Anyway he then shot a 100,100,100 and 99, which gave him a final score of 595. He managed to be second out of the group but still had to see how the other group scored to know if he would make the final.
He described his performance as sheer determination and power that got him through and said it was more a boxing match than a shooting one. He was having a horrendous day and it was only his strong mind that got him through.
The other group started right after and i can't give you any details since i wasn't really watching but when the dust settled India had two people in the final, Abhinav and Rajput. So that was heartening....
Going into the final (which is 10 shots on command) Abhinav and the other Indian faltered out of the start which quickly took them out of medal contention. Abhinav managed to recover at the end with a 10.8 which was a good finish to the tournament. I think he finished 7th but on the whole a remarkable performance after a 6 month lay off and only his third tournament back.
It is very clear to see why he is such a champion and so well regarded, his attention to detail concerning his sport is phenomenal. He is very clear with not only his goal but also the road he wants to take to the goal. It is one step at a time with each step being ahead of the last and they are all leading to the top of the podium at the Olympics....
Now off to dinner, followed by tomorrow which will be the girls day out... Women's Air Rifle starts at 9am with Suma, Avneet and Anjali in action. Lets hope we can bring home some silverware...
The day started at 6am which is when he left for the range. By the time i got there at 7.30am all were standing on the firing line ready to go... and it all began at 8am.
For those who have never been to an Air rifle match (that will be a lot of you) imagine being in a movie hall with deafening volumes of the dolby surround soud system, then imagine the plug being pulled on the system and that sudden silence where you can even hear the seats breathing... now throw in the popcorn machine making the noise it does.... that is the feeling you get in an Air Rifle match arena.
Now the format...there are 2 groups of 55 shooters who shoot one after the other and the top 8 make the final. We had Gagan and Abhinav shooting in the first group followed by Raghu and S. Rajput in the second. Each shooter shoots 6 rounds of 10 shots each.
It wasn't an ideal start for Abhinav shooting a 98 (which is 8 of 10), followed by another 98 and for those of you referencing with Kamesh he will tell you that is not the best of starts. It looked like Abhinav was in a bad mood and basically very unhappy.... he later told me that is how he is all the time. Anyway he then shot a 100,100,100 and 99, which gave him a final score of 595. He managed to be second out of the group but still had to see how the other group scored to know if he would make the final.
He described his performance as sheer determination and power that got him through and said it was more a boxing match than a shooting one. He was having a horrendous day and it was only his strong mind that got him through.
The other group started right after and i can't give you any details since i wasn't really watching but when the dust settled India had two people in the final, Abhinav and Rajput. So that was heartening....
Going into the final (which is 10 shots on command) Abhinav and the other Indian faltered out of the start which quickly took them out of medal contention. Abhinav managed to recover at the end with a 10.8 which was a good finish to the tournament. I think he finished 7th but on the whole a remarkable performance after a 6 month lay off and only his third tournament back.
It is very clear to see why he is such a champion and so well regarded, his attention to detail concerning his sport is phenomenal. He is very clear with not only his goal but also the road he wants to take to the goal. It is one step at a time with each step being ahead of the last and they are all leading to the top of the podium at the Olympics....
Now off to dinner, followed by tomorrow which will be the girls day out... Women's Air Rifle starts at 9am with Suma, Avneet and Anjali in action. Lets hope we can bring home some silverware...
Friday, May 4, 2007
Sawadeeka.
Greetings from Bangkok.... its been a long day so will try to keep this succinct and to the point... got here from Bombay at 6am and before i could put my bags down i got a call from Abhinav who was already up and heading to the gym so i decided that i had to also pretend to kind of be an athlete and so i joined him.
After a shower and food we headed to the range, Abhinav had official practice at 1pm and i was perplexed at why we were heading there at 10am but i decided not to argue. The whole Indian contingent was there and it was good to catch up with everyone. The air rifle and pistol contingent comprises of around 50 people and they have been on the road for the last two months so there is no dearth of good gossip. Of course there are those usual stories of people not having seen three of the five coaches ever since they have reached bangkok but being Indian would we expect any different?? Then there are juicier ones that i (as much as i want to) can't really write about but my point being that it was good.
While all this was going on Abhinav of course was not around he had gone to the armory to get his weapons and was sitting behind his shooting point, i assumed he was focusing so didn't interfere.... then after a while he changed into his shooting clothes (better described as armor) and at around 12.30 was standing at his place aiming at his target but not shooting... there were about 30 others doing the same thing so i didn't think it was too odd. Then as soon as the digital clock showed 1:00pm there was this cacophony of gun fire... it sounded like hail on a tin roof and i jumped since i was still busy shooting the breeze with Suma and didn't expect it.
Exactly 23 minutes later, Abhinav packed up his gun got out of his clothes, went dropped off his gun and we was ready to get out of there. So we went there 2 hours early just to prepare to shoot for 23 mins... Amazing....
So in the next ten mins we were on our way back to the hotel, where we went back to the gym, and then headed to re-fuel our stomachs.
The thing I found odd was that its only Abhinav staying in this hotel. He does his own practice, he makes his own schedules, he does his own fitness and there is no one around. Not anyone of his "team" mates, no coaches... i know he probably likes it this way but it is a great reminder of even though it is a team event it is still very individual.
So tomorrow being the Men's 10M event... we are all off to bed early... all the action begins at 6am (that is the time he is leaving for competition preparations) tomorrow so can't wait to actually be a part of it. The atmosphere at a sporting event is something hard to describe it is unbelievable and watching any sport live is a thrill which no sports lover should pass on....
After a shower and food we headed to the range, Abhinav had official practice at 1pm and i was perplexed at why we were heading there at 10am but i decided not to argue. The whole Indian contingent was there and it was good to catch up with everyone. The air rifle and pistol contingent comprises of around 50 people and they have been on the road for the last two months so there is no dearth of good gossip. Of course there are those usual stories of people not having seen three of the five coaches ever since they have reached bangkok but being Indian would we expect any different?? Then there are juicier ones that i (as much as i want to) can't really write about but my point being that it was good.
While all this was going on Abhinav of course was not around he had gone to the armory to get his weapons and was sitting behind his shooting point, i assumed he was focusing so didn't interfere.... then after a while he changed into his shooting clothes (better described as armor) and at around 12.30 was standing at his place aiming at his target but not shooting... there were about 30 others doing the same thing so i didn't think it was too odd. Then as soon as the digital clock showed 1:00pm there was this cacophony of gun fire... it sounded like hail on a tin roof and i jumped since i was still busy shooting the breeze with Suma and didn't expect it.
Exactly 23 minutes later, Abhinav packed up his gun got out of his clothes, went dropped off his gun and we was ready to get out of there. So we went there 2 hours early just to prepare to shoot for 23 mins... Amazing....
So in the next ten mins we were on our way back to the hotel, where we went back to the gym, and then headed to re-fuel our stomachs.
The thing I found odd was that its only Abhinav staying in this hotel. He does his own practice, he makes his own schedules, he does his own fitness and there is no one around. Not anyone of his "team" mates, no coaches... i know he probably likes it this way but it is a great reminder of even though it is a team event it is still very individual.
So tomorrow being the Men's 10M event... we are all off to bed early... all the action begins at 6am (that is the time he is leaving for competition preparations) tomorrow so can't wait to actually be a part of it. The atmosphere at a sporting event is something hard to describe it is unbelievable and watching any sport live is a thrill which no sports lover should pass on....
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Shooting in Bangkok
Alot of people keep asking me why i have to travel the way i do and what i actually do when i go on trips. So i am leaving for Bangkok tonight for the shooting World Cup and will be doing a daily diary situation to give people a better understanding of not only what i do but also of what the shooters really do. I know shooting is not exactly a great spectator sport but still something we are really good at. It is the only sport where we have two World Champions in the same year and have around 6 top ten shooters in the world. It is also a learning experience for myself since it is the first time i will be seeing the shooters in action. I watched shooting in Doha also but was too "green" to know exactly what was going on. I will be also giving my readers (all 2 of them) a behind the scenes insight :) For all technical questions please try and reach Kamesh who in my mind is a authority on the air rifle and pistol events. For those of you who don't know Kamesh... he writes for the Hindu and can be reached on kameshshrinivasan@hotmail.com. He doesn't know i am throwing his name out there but am sure he would be happy to help those with queries :)
So back to the event, it is the 3rd World Cup in the shooting calendar and all our air rifle and pistol shooters will be in action. We haven't had a great season with only one person securing a quota place. Abhinav Bindra also coming off a long lay off will be in action and i am excited at watching him after months of dissecting the sport through long phone conversations. For those not really interested in the sport, this is going to be a boring read for the next week or so.
So back to the event, it is the 3rd World Cup in the shooting calendar and all our air rifle and pistol shooters will be in action. We haven't had a great season with only one person securing a quota place. Abhinav Bindra also coming off a long lay off will be in action and i am excited at watching him after months of dissecting the sport through long phone conversations. For those not really interested in the sport, this is going to be a boring read for the next week or so.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Time to Introspect
Sports in India is a 1500 crore industry... of which 1499 crores goes to cricket. It is a sad statistic but true. We have various sport management groups cropping up all over the country to try their hand in managing athletes but finding these athletes is turning out to be a tall task. The truth is there are none..... Why?
Well a not so anonymous reader of my blog has been commenting on how the domestic circuits in all sports need to be revamped with more people playing to be able to find eventual champions. I couldn't agree with that more. The truth is to be able to get thousands of people playing at all levels and have a competitive domestic circuit is the only way to "breed" future champs.
The last year has given me the opportunity to delve into the various sports in India and from what i have seen the sports we are the closest to an Olympic medal are Archery, Shooting and Boxing. Incidentally, these are also the sports where the domestic circuit is the strongest. Our archers come from below the poverty line and so all their major competitions are national ones. The Archery Association has done a phenomenal job in keeping its circuit of National ranking and prize money tournaments hence there is a lot of depth. Other than Korea we are the only nation who have full time archers and it is now just a matter of fine tuning these athletes to be able to compete at the international stage.
Boxing is similar since most of the pugilists are from rural backgrounds. Haryana has done a great job garnering and nurturing talent and there are around 2000 boxers coming out of that state alone. They to function on a strong domestic schedule and the best boxers are constantly participating in different events around the country.
The shooters also participate in a lot of domestic events, that is a bit skewed because they are forced to participate since only the top 20 shooters can acquire a gun licence. This is a good ploy which forces internal competition which is essential before the kids can compete internationally.
I think all associations should take a look and really set up a great domestic circuit before bidding to host various international tournaments. It is great to host these big time events but not at the cost of national tournaments.
It is the only way we will be able to consistently churn out winners and the Mittal Champions Trust is going to look to support long term sustainable circuits that will be able to eventually sustain themselves.
Well a not so anonymous reader of my blog has been commenting on how the domestic circuits in all sports need to be revamped with more people playing to be able to find eventual champions. I couldn't agree with that more. The truth is to be able to get thousands of people playing at all levels and have a competitive domestic circuit is the only way to "breed" future champs.
The last year has given me the opportunity to delve into the various sports in India and from what i have seen the sports we are the closest to an Olympic medal are Archery, Shooting and Boxing. Incidentally, these are also the sports where the domestic circuit is the strongest. Our archers come from below the poverty line and so all their major competitions are national ones. The Archery Association has done a phenomenal job in keeping its circuit of National ranking and prize money tournaments hence there is a lot of depth. Other than Korea we are the only nation who have full time archers and it is now just a matter of fine tuning these athletes to be able to compete at the international stage.
Boxing is similar since most of the pugilists are from rural backgrounds. Haryana has done a great job garnering and nurturing talent and there are around 2000 boxers coming out of that state alone. They to function on a strong domestic schedule and the best boxers are constantly participating in different events around the country.
The shooters also participate in a lot of domestic events, that is a bit skewed because they are forced to participate since only the top 20 shooters can acquire a gun licence. This is a good ploy which forces internal competition which is essential before the kids can compete internationally.
I think all associations should take a look and really set up a great domestic circuit before bidding to host various international tournaments. It is great to host these big time events but not at the cost of national tournaments.
It is the only way we will be able to consistently churn out winners and the Mittal Champions Trust is going to look to support long term sustainable circuits that will be able to eventually sustain themselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)