Indian Hockey & Sansarpur Hockey

Sl.No	Sub  Factors	Agree		%	Disagree		%	Undecided		%
3.1	Parents	33		66 %		17	34 %		-	-
3.2	Family members		29	58 %		21	42 %		-	-
3.3	Neighbour villagers		-	-		50	100%		-	-
3.4	Olympians		31	62 %		19	38 %		-	-
3.5	Coaches:   a ) National   b ) School   c ) Higher level		07 31 05	14 %  62 %  10 %		40 19 42	80 % 38 % 84 %		03    -   03	06 %     -  06 %
3.6	Players:   a ) School   b ) College   c ) University		02 03 02	04 %  06 %  04 %		45 44 45	90 % 88 % 90 %		03   03   03	06 %  06 %  06 %

 

      Item No.3  asked the respondents to name the personality ( personalities ) who have been source of greatest encouragement to them in their hockey career.  Highest percentage of respondents consider their parents as the most dominant source of encouragement for them (  66 % ), followed by encouragement of other family members (  58 % ), which shows that family were an important source of motivation in the opinion of majority of respondents.   

      Other major sources of inspiration were Olympians ( 62 % ) and School Coaches ( 62 % ).

      However, influence of neighbouring villages is not considered a motivating factor by any of the respondents and other players from Schools, College & University teams are also considered a motivating factor only by a negligible faction of respondents ( i.e. 4%, 6% & 4% respectively ).  Similarly insignificant percentage of respondents consider national & high level coaches a source of motivation for them ( i.e. 14 % & 10 % respectively ).  The analysis shows that     

a ) Parents

b ) Other family members

c ) Olympians

d ) School coaches

      emerge as the dominant sources of motivation where as

a ) Neighbouring villages

b) National Coaches

c) Higher level Coaches

d ) School, College and University players

      could not be considered as important among the motivating factors.

     Thus, parents , other family members , olympians and school coaches are the only dominant factors responsible for providing encouragement to the respondents , where as neighbouring villages, national coaches, higher level coaches and school , college and university players cannot be considered as factors for the same.  Some respondents also made special comments in favour of  the dominant factors, which are given below:

      Among the people from Sansarpur who inspired him to play hockey, in addition to his family members Udham Singh Kullar showed deep reverence for Gurmit Singh Kullar the first Olympian from Sansarpur and Gopal Singh Kullar who also played hockey with distinction at national level.

      Udham Singh Kullar also has deep respect and gives credit for moulding him into great hockey player to his national coach Habul Mukherjee and Harbail Singh, Director Physical Education, Khalsa college, Amritsar.  Udham Singh Kullar say that these two not only were the coaches of the teams for which he played but took personal interest in him and provided the much needed psychological support. Udham Singh Kullar says that he is greatly influenced by the thinking of Habul Mukherjee who laid great emphasis on development of hockey skills and did not neglect but put physical exercises at second place.

      Gurjit Singh Kullar said that as he lost his father at a very early age, he was hardly 4-5 years old when his father expired, he could not get any encouragement from him.  When he was a student of high school in N.D. Victor High School, Jalandhar Cantt., his coach Ballu took great interest in him and not only taught him the basic hockey skills but also provided all the encouragement and motivation.  The other source of motivation for him were the players from the village who won laurels at Olympics.  Being lucky to get a chance to observe them playing in the village at very early age, he also decided to emulate them.

      In naming the various people who were source of inspiration for him, Balbir Singh Kullar became some but emotional and mentioned that from his early days to the end of his hockey playing career his family members have not only been the greatest source of inspiration for him but have also provided him with all kind of support.  He specifically mentioned the role of his mother, father brothers who were all great lovers of hockey.  He fondly still remembers the day when his name was for the first time included in the list of Indian probables, his father sent him a money order of RS. 200/- that was in 1965.

      He also said that village elders also played a great role in encouraging him to take to the game of hockey.  Among whom he mentioned the name of Tara Singh.

      He is also indebted to some Indian  Hockey  Federation officials like its ex- president Ashwani Kumar and Nagarwala.  For Ashwani Kumar he has special respects and mentioned that when his knee needed operation Ashwni Kumar not only made arrangements for his operation at Amritsar and specially requested to Dr. Karam Singh there is take full care of him saying that his knee is very precious as such players are found rarely once in century.  These words of Ashwani Kumar were certainly a great moral booster for him in those difficult days of him.  He also mentioned that Ashwani Kumar was also instrumental in his selection for 1968 Olympics team as at that time he could not take part in selection trial due to his army training in Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.  When a news reporter asked Ashwani Kumar, President, Indian, Hockey, Federation, how could his name could be included in the list when he had not taken part in selection trials, Ashwani Kumar replied that his choice is automatic, there is no need of selection trial in his case.

      Darshan  Singh  Kullar said that among the family members, his father was the greatest motivating factor for him.  He always encouraged him to play hockey and used to say, “ when will you be able to play like Udhi ( Udham Singh Kullar )”.  Though, Darshan  Singh  Kullar kept the promise he made to his father and played for India like Udham Singh Kullar but still regrets that his father could not see that day.  In early days his elder brother Pritam Singh Kullar, who played as goal-keeper for Services with distinction, used to give finer tips of the game whenever he was home in vacations.  More than the individuals, Darshan  Singh  Kullar feels that whole village atmosphere in those days, where all youngsters and elders used to talk about hockey all the time, inspired him to play hockey.  He still names Dass Singh , Mohan Singh and Satya Parkash names as the village elders who provided him all the motivation in early days to play hockey.

      Darshan Singh Sethi says it was the family tradition which influenced him most in opting for hockey career.  They are six brothers and all of them are hockey players.  Among them his elder brother Ram Chand was the greatest influence on him.  Ram Chand, who was a contemporary of Dhyan Chand and rubbed shoulders with arghasty the greatest hockey ace of India many times played hockey for services, NWFP, Rajasthan and Madras, gave him the first hockey lessons and was an idol for him to emulate.

      Pritpal Singh Aassi says that greatest motivation for him was his father Mohan Singh Aassi himself who was a venerated  figure in the Sansarpur.  His brother Abchal Singh Aassi also motivated him a great deal in his early days.  Later Udham Singh Kullar and Balbir Singh Kullar ( Services ) also encouraged him to play hockey says Pritpal Singh Aassi.  Pritpal Singh Aassi further added that coach Gurdip Singh and G. S. Bodhi, a national coach also provided him motivation.

      Jaswinder Singh Kullar says that initial encouragement was provided by family members, especially by his brother Mohinder Singh Kullar, who himself was a good hockey player.  Later when he joined S.R.C. (Meerut), his team mate and officer Hari Pal Kaushik, who was an Olympian not only taught final points of the game but was a source of motivation for him.  Jaswinder Singh Kullar says that he owes a lot to him as he was instrumental in building his hockey career.  Jaswinder Singh Kullar aslo feels indebted to his school P.T.I. Kuldeep Singh, who himself was a great hockey enthusiast and encouraged Jaswinder Singh Kullar to take hockey very seriously.

      Jarnail Singh Kullar was introduced to the game by his Uncle Sohan Singh Kullar who presentation him his first hockey stick and took him to the ground for the first time when he was hardly 4-5 years old.  Sohan Singh Kullar was himself a player of highest calibre, unfortunately he did not get the chance to play for country, though in scale of the game, he could match any International player of his time. 

       Mohinder Singh Padani got encouragement from Ram Chand Padani, elder brother, who himself was a top class player.  School P.T.I. Kuldeep Singh, though himself was not a player of repute but had the ability to motivate youngsters.

      Karnail Singh Kullar says that the greatest motivation was provided to me by my parents and Olympians from Sansarpur.  He specially name the name of Tara Singh Kullar, who was his elder and took personal interest in his hockey during his early days.  He has stated in his questionnaire that Tara Singh Kullar who himself was a hockey player used to play with the children of his age and also was instrumental inarranging their matches with Army teams and organising these matches.

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