Indian Hockey & Sansarpur Hockey

      Out of 50 respondents, 45 ( 90% ) consider “ total hockey system” was responsible to a great extent for poor Indian  performance in Barcelona Olympics ( 1992 ), where as 5 respondents ( 10% ) did not give any response to this item.  Thus, in the unanimous view of the respondents to this item, “ total hockey” was a failure.  Many of the respondents felt rather strongly about it and made special comments to elaborate up on the reasons for total hockey’s unsuitability.  These comments are given below:

      While discussing the “ total hockey system”, Balbir Singh Kullar  made two very significant points.  In his opinion no change in the system should be brought abruptly as it is not possible for players to change their style of play over night.  Thus, if any change is desired, it should be first discussed thread bare at the level of coaches and then first experimented at club level and at state level and only if found superior interm of result production, it could be implemented at the national level.  Without these preconditions i.e. a thorough discussion and experimentation of lower level any system, no matter how good it may be for others, is bound to fall, remarked Balbir Singh Kullar.  Personally Balbir Singh Kullar is not much in favour of total hockey system as he feels that it is more suitable for fitter, faster players of European teams who have experimented with it at lower levels, where as for our players, who are not used to this system and or neither as physically fit nor as fast as Europeans, this system is simply not suitable.  Still, he feels that before reverting to old system, we should have a national debate on this topic among national players, Coaches and experts in this field.

      In the words of Jarnail Singh Kullar, total hockey demands total physical fitness on the part of a player.  As Indian players  are not generally as physical strong as players for European Countries, total hockey is not suitable for us.  Among Indian players, players from Services teams are generally more physically fit and disciplined as compared to the players  from other teams due to their military training.  Thus, if we wish to build a strong hockey team, we should train our players in military lines  therefore, total hockey is suitable for fitter teams like Services.

Filed under: Factors