Vaulting into the ring, Lal is ideal coach

In the first bout of his life, Chandra Lal outscored his opponent, a six-time national champion. “I had nothing to lose and therefore went all out once I saw him faltering against my battery of punches. I wrapped up the fight in just two rounds,” states Lal. “I used to watch all the bouts right from the beginning to the end and I was hungry to learn whatever I could, because my state didn’t have a trained coach.”

In 1983, when Chandra Lal jumped on to the coaching bandwagon, many raised questions about his experience and some advised him to continue boxing. But having been trained by a non-professional boxer, he knew the importance of being a qualified coach. He boxed for a year more and later joined the National Institute of Sports in Bangalore.

But, for the soft-spoken Lal, the NIS coaching certificate was not enough. He was adjudged the best trainee among the 44 participating countries including, Cuba at the International Olympic Association programme. After looking at Lal’s performance, the quota for India was increased from 1 to 2.

Lal, who hails from Tangassery in Kollam district, started assisting Indian chief coach, Anoop Kumar in training the girls when boxing was introduced for women in 2001. He had a humble start after going with eight girls to Turkey for the World Championship.

Though there were top-bracket fighters in MC MaryKom, Sarita Devi, Meena Kumari and Karanjeet, only Sushila Devi returned with a bronze.

Later Lal played an instrumental role in uplifting the standard of women’s boxing in Kerala.

Boxing until then, was regarded as a North or North-Eastern sport. To achieve quick results, in 2002 Lal got his girls started with weight training and busted the myth of muscles leading to stiffness. “I have always told my boxers to go for the kill and hard training,” says Lal. Kerala won the National women’s championship and were runners-up next year.

“I advise them to stop boxing if they aren’t good enough and I always stress that girls should try to peak early so that they have time for a better family life,” points out Lal, who has trained 13 girls from Kerala, with most of them employed and active at the national level.

KC Lekha, who won a light-heavy gold at the World Championship held earlier this year in Delhi, acknowledges Lal’s support. “When I was doing athletics (she was a shot putter), I had no coach. It is because of him that my career in boxing took off from 2001.

“The award is a just recognition of the great efforts on part of the boxers and not me,” says a humble Lal.