PUNE, Sept 21: Are the seeds of a silent Indian hockey revolution being sown in Pune where a junior (under-19) coaching camp is under way?From what Robert Lawrence, Executive Director Co-ordination and Development Indian Hockey Federation, had to tell the press today at the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's (PCMC) Poligras Stadium, a concerted effort is being made to haul the country's fortunes out of the quagmire of mediocrity.The Sports Authority of India (SAI) sponsored camp, that began on Sept 15 and which will run until October 6, will be graced by IHF president KPS Gill and secretary K Jothikumaran along with SAI Director Camps and Teams who will arrive in the city on the penultimate day, Lawrence informed.And for local aficionados, starved of top flight hockey, the Indian junior squad who made the final of a recent tournament at Poznan, Poland, will pit wits and skills against three sides comprising trainees at the Pune and Bangalore camps in a three-day tourney commencing October 2.Lawrence, a Mumbai-based executive in corporate giants Tata's who are playing a significant support sponsorship role, enthuses not only on a set of hardy, talented bunch of youngsters but on conditions here that promise to fuel a Renaissance beginning with blooding youngsters for the 2001 Junior World Cup in Hobart, Australia.``Imagine having five boys to a room with an attached bath and water supply 24 hours of the day, good food and training facilities,'' Lawrence, a former Tata Sports Club forward, enthused on the Shiv Chhatrapathi Sports Complex, Balewadi where plans to lay an articicial surface are on. ``It's the ideal setting to embark on our plan to overhaul Indian hockey.''Match and skills training began on the the Poligras surface at PCMC Stadium after the first week of purely physical training took place at Balewadi, eight km away.Mumbai-based Clarence Lobo, fresh from an FIH coaching development course in Cologne, Germany and New Delhi-based Ajay Bansal, instrumental for Air-India Academy's manifold success in recent years including the National Junior title in Bangalore, are the coaches in charge of 49 players from four corners of the country. The camp runs concurrently with one at Bangalore where 26 players above 19 and below 21 are training in right earnest. Both Lobo and Bansal, adversaries in a thrilling final at Bangalore made the selection that includes two from Pondicherry who have contributed players to a national camp for the first time ever.While admitting that skills training and developing will be delayed this time round, the next camp scheduled to be held in November will not be held up by physical training. Bansal informs: ``The boys will be provided a written programme to continue physical training when they depart in a fortnight's time.''And by November the programme is expected to be boosted by the entry of a foreign physical trainer from either Cologne University (Germany) or Active Hockey (the Netherlands).Already, there are firsts at the camp that fuel enthusiasm among Lawrence and the coaches - the use of psychological training, yoga and a scientific diet regimen.
