The Great Debate of Coaching In Pakistan Sports |
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23-Apr-2012
The Great Debate of Coaching In Pakistan Sports
Aamir Bilal
When I accompanied Dave Whatmore from Islamabad to Abbottabad in the summers of 2007, I realized that Whatmore was a superior coach with exceptional qualities of head and heart that were required to train the difficult and un-coachable side like Pakistan. He is the type of coach who has the ability to install the fighting spirit in minnows like Bangladesh, and make them fight as tigers against superior teams.
Such is a coach needed by Pakistan Cricket and other competitive sports in the country. After the visit of national camp I raised my voice in favor of Dave Whatmore, but the management preferred Jeff Larson over Whatmore for reasons better known to them. The decision of appointing Lawson later back fired and Jeff Lawson resigned from his coaching assignment on differences with PCB top management.
Amongst the long list of internationally recognized coaches the name of John Buchanan stands out in the history of modern cricket. The sustained Australian supremacy in sports in general and Cricket in particular owes a lot to Australian sport structure, planning, programs and qualified coaches like Buchanan.
Was Buchanan a former test player with insurmountable test records? Astonishingly most of the outstanding coaches in Cricket and other major sport around the world, including Buchanan were never out standing sportsmen of any international worth. However these successful coaches have sound coaching philosophies, workable and practical training programs, outstanding leadership traits and the ability to accept the responsibility in case of defeat and victory.
These successful coaches inspire their teams by giving them a system and not just few unstructured, outdated and desultory practice session, without measureable outcomes. There systems are so designed that very little is left to chance and players are benefitted to the maximum from their coaching efforts.
Cricket is a dominant sport of sub continent which is captain’s oriented. But this does not means that coach has little or no role in Cricket as advocated by most of our sportsmen turned into coaches. Coach is the person who play dominant role in shaping the skill, strategy and character of the players and teams. Coaches are of different level and categories ranging from elementary or basic and to national level, varying in their knowledge, experience and expertise. But their need is always felt as a masters and think-tank to mould the final out come of the game and player’s performance, starting from development of correct fundamentals to the formulation of strategies and game plans. This is the reason that coaches are always kept in high esteem and worshiped as god fathers.
B.C. Olgilvie and T. A. Tutko the pioneer workers in the area of sport psychology studied the characteristics of sixty four successful coaches of major sports including Cricket. Olgilvie and Tutko deduced that successful coaches were highly orderly and organized people with strong need to stay on top. These coaches were unusually well equipped by temperament for handling emotions when under stress. The sport psychologists also observed that they are open, trust worthy people who would actively seek roles of leadership and accept criticism with open heart and mind when the things are not going their way. They were very well equipped with the knowledge of the game and exhibited the highest average of psychological endurance of any sample of group of people ever studied.
Pakistan team managements under took several experiments of employing local and foreign coaches, especially in Cricket and Field Hockey. Mostly the decisions backfired at the highest level because the national athletes are not accustomed to the discipline of coaching from the very beginning of their careers. The foreign coaches usually fail to deliver in Pakistan because of language and perception barriers, but more importantly they are subjected to undue criticism by the deep rooted, unqualified local coaching mafia that starts with a defaming campaign against them, thus labeling foreign coaches as “laptop coaches” and so forth.
I am a firm believer that coach plays a vital role in the performance of team at all levels in every sport including Cricket. I also believe that consistently successful coaching is usually the by-product of a team’s or athlete’s success in the preparation phase that revolves around hours of practice and training. An equally important factor is a coach’s ability to instill and inspire, in a nurturing environment, winning tracts in athletes: enthusiasm, courage, compassion, tenacity desire, belief, selflessness and patience. These qualities ultimately become the glue that binds a team, the spark that ignites the spirit and passion within the athletes, enabling them to sustain high levels of performance during their competitive years and beyond.
Coaching psychology and styles have changed over the past 35 years. Players seem to be more complex, less pliable, and more apt to fight for what they feel they deserve than they were in Vince Lombardi or Islah-ud-Din’s era of sports. The coach of modern day need not only be a great performer of past but a person who is aware of innovative ways to develop positive and productive situations with more open communication with players and support staff, that in turn, enhances athletes performance under pressure. Many examples exist in Pakistan where coaches were involved in brawls with players over petty issues resulting in ugly situations which we need not discuss.
Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden and Adolph Rapp were two of the winning coaches but they rarely talked to their players about winning a particular match or series. Supposedly, they never referred to “beating” an opponent or side, although winning was equally important for them. Instead, they focused on preparation for extraordinary performance and urged athletes to do their best with win as an automatic byproduct.
These coaches produce players not only with correct technique but also players with character that is indicative of moral strength, personal integrity and conscience. Ricky Ponting also known as “Tasmanian Devil” is not just a natural gifted and talented player but a product of Australian Cricket Coaching System, who displayed tremendous character and courage in scoring his double century, despite being hit by a lethal bouncer from Umar-Gul. Ponting once said that “besides talent he owes his success as a Cricketer and a person to his remarkable coaches”.
I have great respect for Mr Intikhab Alam as a gentleman and his coaching record by virtue of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup win and T-20 World Championship is remarkable. However I was utterly surprised when Intikhab Alam was given the responsibility to coach Pakistan Cricket team in December 2008. The recent concluded test series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia under the coaching of Intikhjab and few others was a true test of there abilities, which now stands fully exposed and vulnerable.
In Pakistan, we first need to understand the difference between coach, trainer and the resource person. Because of program and structural weakness the boards and sports federations have failed to install the coaching culture in our sports system. Our ex-international players after retirement aspire to seek coaching positions with senior national teams, but are not interested to coach junior strings or visit the training camps in the capacity of a “resource persons” to develop a particular area of specialty in the team or to address the individual’s weakness. This burning desire to be appointed as head coach of the national team ultimately leads to intrigues and undesirable situations in the management where athlete becomes the ultimate casualty.
The other vital area of coaching debate in Pakistan is the appointment of foreigner coach. The thumb rule of appointing a coach is to first find the local coach, as he best understands the local culture, language and customs which are as vital in the training as the technical and tactical aspects of the sport. However the services of a foreign coach become imperative in the absence of a qualified world class coach for the national side when there is no alternative available.
The boards and sport federations should remain mindful of the fact that foreign coaches are best utilized in building the capacity of local coaches and not the national teams. When China decided to build its Basketball team in year 2000, they contacted FIBA to acquire services of world class coaches. The coaches provided were not employed for the training of senior national team, but they were assigned the duty of building the capacity of local Chinese coaches.
The internal coaching courses offered within the country lacks the scientific approach. There are many weak areas in our level I, II and III coaching courses which lacks focus and attention at the development of mental training and game strategies. Mostly the focus of attention is at the development of technical side of the game, which does not suffices the ultimate training and the athlete remains under prepared to face the tough challenge of modern international competitive sports.
In order to overcome these deficiencies, Pakistani sport authorities must run well thought and elaborated refresher and capacity building courses for the local coaches under the supervision of foreign experts, to develop the missing links of coaching in different aspects of game. Ultimately these trained coaches should be employed in local teams, regional academies, coaching centers and even down to district and club level.
A sound system of performance evaluation for the coaches is also the need of hour so that coaches of appropriate level and competency can be made available for every tear of sport. The coaching pathways must be created and the deserving, trained local coaches should be appointed to impart training to the national junior and senior teams in designated camps and tour abroad.
In the absence of an elaborate coach training system, we may acquire services of trained foreign sport psychologist to chalk out mental fitness programs for our athletes and help the local coaches improve the performance of the respective teams at all levels.
The trained and qualified coaches world wide understand that the true battle in sports has less to do with external events than with internal battles against losing enthusiasm, courage, fearlessness and comparison. Coaches in modern times are teachers and not just ex-international players, who discover creative ways to instill qualities of head and heart and help their athletes cope with failures, mistakes and set backs and not just leave them to chance. They are not the type who pass the buck to bad luck, lack of form and poor umpiring decisions in case of defeat, but accept complete responsibility of each and every happening within and outside the sports arena.
The time has come to end this long and laborious debate of coaching philosophy and culture in the country. If Pakistan wants to rise internationally as a serious sports power of South Asia, than establishment of scientific coaching culture will have to take precedence in our sports programs. Even if at this critical juncture we fail to understand the requirements and demands of modern day coaching, and continue serving our hidden agendas of saving our unethical and unprofessional designs without sufficient merit, then our talented players and teams will continue to lose vital matches and tournament in days to come.
The onus and burden of humiliation in form of defeats would thus lie on the shoulders of incompetent sports administration and top sports management of the country that has miserably failed to understand the importance and utility of scientific and modern coaching in the make and break of players and the teams.
Aamir Bilal
Qualified Coach IOC
27 Jan 2010 |
