‘Need theory sessions at camps’

What went wrong for our boxers at the London Olympics?

We gave a fair account of ourselves at the Olympics. Devendro (Singh) and Sumit (Sangwan) were praised by several observers. Of course there were some matches that we lost but should have won. I mean the Vikas Krishan bout where he was penalised two points for spitting his gum shield. It was surprising that an Olympic level boxer would make such a basic error. It was because he didn’t have enough knowledge of the rules. This is why I am suggesting that we have some theory sessions at the national camps from now on.

Has there been any analysis of our performance at London?

Right now there is a tendency to take tournaments one at a time. We tend not to analyze performances in detail even after a setback. I had noticed that when a boxer makes a particular mistake in one tournament,he tends to repeat it in others as well. The fact is that coaches will have to be made accountable. Of course this becomes difficult because of the fact that there are just around 6-8 coaches in a national camp looking after more than 20 campers. In the future we will be including more coaches and also more support staff.

By the next Olympics,a number of our junior boxers will make it to the senior ranks. How do you plan to improve their performance?

The youth and sub-juniors are crucial to India’s performance in the coming years. The boxers are already going for international exposure camps but we are planning to increase their frequency. We are also planning to have tie-ups with different countries in which their boxers will come here to train and vice versa. We have already tied up with Sri Lanka and Mauritius and we are planning to approach other countries as well. Another aspect that must be changed is that we need to bring in foreign coaches for the youngsters as well. Coach Blas Fernandes is doing a good job but we also need experts like him for the youngsters as well.

One of your stated goals is to spot and nurture more talent in the sport. But it is also a fact that there is a shortage of trained coaches in India.

India has a lot of talent but it is true that we do not have sufficient coaches. For the number of young boxers we have just around 40 SAI coaches. As part of the Himachal Pradesh OC we had started this scheme wherein former international players who had retired and were staying in remote areas were given incentives to coach youngsters from near their location. BS Thapa,who was named as best boxer of the 1982 Asian Games,was one of the people who became part of this scheme. He is coaching several youngsters in his village. It makes no sense that when we have talented players,we are not making use of them after retirement.

The boxing nationals,which are going to be held next month,will be the first big national tournament in your tenure. What are your expectations from the tournament?

We are going to have over 300 participants at Hyderabad. It has been noticed that in the past,several Olympians are skipping the tournament. From this time on,we will be strict in enforcing that all players,unless they have a reasonable explanation,take part. The nationals will also benefit the coaches and referees as we plan to hold seminars to help them update themselves.