S. Murali frequently sits up late at night, watching track and field videos online, reading research notes and soaking in whatever he can.
He isn’t a trained athletics coach — the former triple jump international works for Southern Railway in Palakkad — but Murali is a man on a mission.
His son, M. Sreeshankar, is a prodigy who recently broke the men’s national long-jump record (NR) with a leap of 8.20m at the Open Nationals in Bhubaneswar.
Nature and nurture
Murali has been coaching Sreeshankar ever since he showed promise as a child, first in the sprints and then in the long jump. The youngster certainly has the right genes, with a jumper for a father and an 800m runner for a mother (K. Bijimol).
Murali realises, however, that he will now need to delve deeper to unlock Sreeshankar’s full potential, given the 19-year-old is already the country’s best ever.
Every time he tries something new, Murali is very cautious.
“My main worry is whether he can take heavy loads, especially after the appendix surgery early this year. I give him very light loads, like what we’d probably give school children. And because of that he never gets tired,” explains Murali.
It’s one reason Sreeshankar has turned down offers from American universities; he is comfortable training with his father.
“He has been getting a lot of calls, especially from Florida University. But there, he may have to take a heavy load,” says Murali. “He has got to this level on his talent alone, so I think if I’m not there, things may not work well.”
Technical changes
At the Junior Nationals in Guntur late last year, jumps coach Robert Bobby George advised Sreeshankar to switch from the ‘hang’ technique to the two-and-a-half ‘hitch kick’.
It worked wonders. He nearly cleared eight metres (7.99m) at the Federation Cup in March. And at last month’s Open Nationals, Murali tweaked his son’s approach run and the results improved again. Indeed, within the space of 10 months, Sreeshankar’s personal best has increased by an impressive 48 centimetres!
“My run-up had been troubling me, I felt this at the under-20 Worlds at Tampere (Finland, in July) and the Asian Games,” says Sreeshankar. “It was never a problem during training because your mind is free, you never think of a foul then. But it troubled me in competitions.”
In the long jump, it’s paramount to effectively carry the speed generated in the run-up into the jump. And during the first attempt at the Nationals, Murali noticed that Sreeshankar was stuttering and checking his run as he neared the take-off board, worried about overstepping the line.
“After the first jump, he [Murali] told me to push back the start of my run-up by 1.50m. I was surprised. Many jumpers change their approach by 20 to 30cms during competitions, and here my dad was telling me to push it back by 1.50m!” says Sreeshankar. “But that turned out to be a masterstroke. It freed up my approach and I felt a good rhythm. I could use all my speed and strength in the take-off.”
Although Sreeshankar fouled his next attempt, he breached eight metres for the first time (8.11m) in the third round and a little later broke Ankit Sharma’s NR of 8.19m. While they are happy with the 8.20m, Sreeshankar and his father are thrilled with the second jump too, the one which was red-flagged.
“That was something like 8.30m. Of course, it’s an assumption, they did not measure it. But they had kept a cone at 8.19m to indicate the national record and my jump was well over it,” explains Sreeshankar.
Hit by a heat-stroke a day before and clearly exhausted, Sreeshankar had considered skipping the final.
Medal territory
“Now my dad feels that if I could do 8.20m despite being unwell, I can do 8.40m next season if I have a perfect day,” says Sreeshankar. A jump of that distance would have won a medal at any of the last five editions of the Olympics and the Worlds, even gold at the last three Olympics!
“If everything goes well and if I don’t have the sort of problems I had this year, definitely I will be aiming for a medal at next year’s Doha Worlds,” he says.
That would be marvellous, but it isn’t how life pans out.
“It takes time to stabilise a certain performance,” says Bobby George, who guided Anju Bobby George to India’s only senior World Championships medal, a bronze, in Paris in 2003. “This is a bit complex because body physiology, from what I have learnt from my experiences with Anju, changes every year.
“There will be physiological changes in the body’s maturity, its muscle maturity. If you repeat the same kind of training programme next year, the body may not respond the same way. So, it will be really good if he repeats this year’s performance next year.”
Bobby is convinced, however, that Sreeshankar will produce big jumps in the next few years.
“If you rank our long-term prospects for the Olympics and Worlds, he is currently among the country’s three best, with javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra being the first and quartermiler Hima Das the next… and then comes Sreeshankar at No. 3,” says Bobby, who feels that the youngster has adapted nicely to the ‘hitch kick’.
“But he has had rigorous training over the last few months for the under-20 Worlds and the Asiad, so he should not rush things. The Open Nationals were actually an over-stretch. Instead, he should have taken an immediate break and let his body completely recover. But he is very sensible and disciplined.”
Bobby feels that it is best for Sreeshankar to train under his father until he wants a change. “Emotionally, he is attached to his dad. It is not fair to break that partnership and put him under a new system all of a sudden.”
European exposure needed
Bobby does, however, recommend a stint in Europe — like Anju’s during her prime. The meets there offer quality exposure and will help him lift his level. Sreeshankar, Bobby says, is made of “champion stuff”; he just needs to peak at the right time.
Like Murali, national jumps coach Bedros Bedrosian predicts an 8.40m jump from Sreeshankar, too. No wonder there is a lot of excitement among athletics buffs. He’s a boy who promises to bring India the world.
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The hitch-kicker’s guide
Robert Bobby George breaks down the technique Sreeshankar adopted late last year
The ‘hitch kick’ is just a continuation of your natural running technique, only that you’re continuing the same in the air. You get a better speed in the take-off and even in flight, you can maintain that speed. There is also a fast thrust in the air which helps you to maintain your speed and balance. For people who have better speed, this is an advantage. This is more natural as well.
