Indian athletes at ease with ‘home’ languages
JAKARTA: Regional languages seem to have become the new mantra of success for Indian sportspersons, with coaches finding it more convenient to convey a message succinctly to their players on the field in crunch situations.
Be it Olympic bronze medalwinning wrestler Sakshi Malik or the experienced hockey player Sardar Singh, there has always been the language barrier with foreign coaches.
When Sakshi pulled off a sensational win over Aisuluu Tynybekova in the play-off bout at the 2016 Rio Olympics and won bronze, instructions from her coach Kuldeep Malik in chaste Haryanvi made a big difference. “Pakad le chhori, patak de jor se (grab the rival girl, bring her down),” coach Kuldeep shouted in the dying minute, and within seconds Sakshi was there pumping her fist in jubilation.
“Language is a big gamechanger now as our players, especially wrestlers, prefer instructions in the language they are fluent with,” said Kuldeep, who feels Indian sportspersons, especially those in power games, have issues with other languages, though he didn’t spell out in as many words that English was creating barriers.
“I speak with my wards in Hindi or Haryanvi as they are comfortable with it. I don’t want to go into technicalities but the communication between players and coaches should be perfect so that both are on the same page during competition. These days, Indian sportspersons prefer Indian coaches.”
Hockey midfielder Sardar Singh and former captain Manpreet Singh feel that having an Indian as the head coach has helped overcome communication barriers and it has helped tactically. “We feel more comfortable with an Indian coach like Harendra Singh,” said Sardar. “Our understanding of each other and our game has grown because we discuss things in our language. He knows that as senior players we can’t change our game overnight,” said Sardar.
“With foreign coaches, you hardly get time to understand them in crunch situations, especially in the last couple of minutes.” In 2015, language became a huge barrier when Australian hockey coach Ric Charlesworth took over the reins of the women’s team. Players were at sea for weeks as they couldn’t understand Ric’s instructions.