“Technology, wherever and whenever available, should be optimally utilised,” says P. Shanmugham, the coach who guided the Karnataka under 20 boys to the Junior National hockey championship title at Pune recently. ‘Sunny' to his friends, Shanmugham is a thinking man even as a player, both for Karnataka and Canara Bank, for whom he dons the green shirt at the age of 36.
“I am a great fan of Ric Charlesworth, the Aussie great, who was discarded by the Indian Hockey administrators, rather discourteously. He is a shrewd tactician and has been instrumental in the Aussies retaining the World champions tag for so long. Ric presented me a special award after the workshop he conducted in Bangalore during his tenure. I cherish it the most,” says Sunny.
Coaching juniors is not a novelty for Shanmugham. He has been on the job since 2003 and guided the Karnataka juniors (Under 18) team to the title at Vizag in 2005. He has also been involved with the Jude Felix Academy with fellow coach and bank-mate Khalid Modi.
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“Working in the Academy has given me immense pleasure...Jude brings many innovations. It is a learning experience for coaches also. It helped me in my stint with the State junior team.”
About the players, he says, “This lot — all 18 of them — are talented and adopted all the techniques tried out during the camp prior to the championship. A great deal of planning went into the sessions. It came naturally to the players which enabled us overcome some trying times against Indian Oil and SAIL, in the quarters and semis, respectively.”
He adds, “The bilateral three match series against Mumbai, prior to the Nationals in Bangalore, helped our cause a great deal as we identified strengths and weaknesses and were able to iron out the flaws. We were able to read Mumbai's game thoroughly; that helped us in the game. After that match we grew in confidence and stature and began believing that we could go the full distance.”
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Shanmugham has no international coaching certificates. “I attended the KSHA-conducted coaching programme and the ‘Fellowship of Coaching Sciences' programme. I am a voracious reader and read anything on the subjects — hockey and coaching — and try to put it to practice. A coach should be able to analyse the opponents well. I did it with the help of ordinary cameras and ultimately it all paved the way for our success,” he said.
Sunny was quick to laud the efforts that the State boys put in. “It was complete team effort that helped us bag the title. Nikkin Thimaiah, adjudged ‘player of the tournament' and responsible for both the goals against Punjab in the final, was consistent... but so were the others. Captain and central midfielder S. Uthappa, M.G. Poonacha (who scored five goals), Vinayak, defender Anup Kujur , A.D. Cariappa and goalkeeper Jagdeep Dayal stood out.”
Manager Sunil Dhiman also won accolades from the coach for his role. “Being a management man, Dhiman proved to be a wholesome package. He handled everything well and did not give any reason for the players to be worried about. He was very meticulous to ensure that we got everything on a platter, even in Pune. It is very essential for the manager to gel with the rest of the squad and this whole lot was like a happy family,” he says.