Indian Hockey & Sansarpur Hockey

      In the response to the item ( 4 a ), all respondents answered in the negative i.e. none of them have received any formal coaching.

      However, in response to the item ( 4 a ), which asks them to name the sources from where they received the greatest amount of practical help, all of them considered self practice and observing others  as the sources.

      Among the categories of players , who provided practical help to the respondents, although international players come on top, but they too have been considered by only 28% of the respondents, where as National and other Senior players have been considered by negligibly small percentage of respondents ( 2% and 4% respectively )

      Among the categories of coaches , who provided practical help to the respondents, school coaches get the highest percentage of votes but even their share is only 18%, where as college, university, national coaches are considered by a negligible fraction of respondents ( 4%, 4.%, 2% respectively ).

      Thus, we find that none of the respondents had the advantage of formal coaching and all of them mastered the game through self practice and by watching others only.  Though a few of them got practical help from international players ( 28% ) and school coaches (18% ) also.  However, some other remarks were also made by the respondents, which are given below:

      Udham Singh Kullar says that though he learnt a lot by observing great hockey players of his era and nothing minutely their techniques and mistakes and weak points of rivals, he did not have the benefit of formal coaching.  Basically he remained self coached hockey player.

      Balbir Singh Kullar says that he has not received any formal coaching and he learned the game through self practice and by closely watching the game of stalwarts of his time.  He narrated that in 1956, national hockey championship was organised at P.A.P., hockey ground, Jalandhar Cantt., which is 5 Km away from his house Sansarpur.  At that time he was eleven years of age and was studying in class VI.  He watched all the games of the tournament for which he had to walk all the distance on foot as there was no conveyance available.  He says that he still remembers the names of all the teams and players which took part in that tournament and remembers the score of each game too.

      Darshan Singh Kullar says that initially, he did not got any formal coaching later 1961 onwards, when he had already played for India, he received extensive coaching from G.S. Bodhi, who was a national coach at that time. Darshan Singh Kullar says that G.S Bodhi helped him to improve his shooting through extensive practice.

      No formal coaching but some finer points were taught by my seniors Peter and Shankar Laxman ( Lal Singh Sohal ).

Filed under: Factors