Multiple Coaches for multiple disciplines is the way forward for Kabaddi feels Mr. Tejnarayan Madhav

Coaches play an important role in any sport and they are the perfect guide for getting optimum performance from players and teams. Every sport leverages differently from the coaches and Kabaddi is one of those sport where the coach plays a prominent role in the success of a team and players. Multiple coaches for multiple disciplines have been the way forward for many team sports. For instance, let us take Cricket for that matter (the most relatable sport in the country), a team nowadays has 5-6 coaches who guide the players. Head Coach who is the head of all the coaches, followed by a batting coach, bowling coach, fielding coach for the 3 primary disciplines, nowadays Cricket also has a spin bowling coach and fast bowling coach. The number of coaches is emerging because the game is developing and more needs are coming up. Tejnarayan Prasad Madhav- a young Kabaddi coach from Jharkhand who was recently part of the online coaching program organized by AKFI for Jr. Indian players, has an interesting point of view on how we can use multiple coaches model in Kabaddi and how it can help teams and players to perform better, and in turn, take the game of Kabaddi to greater heights.

Tejnarayan Madhav has a very interesting Pont Of View on Kabaddi going into multiple coach model, he feels the 2nd most-watched sport in the country needs to adapt to changes that are coming its way and multiple coaches are the way forward for Kabaddi's furthermore growth in the country. He emphasized on the point that a sport like cricket grew to what it is today and one of the reasons behind that is adapting to the ecosystem and understanding what the game needs. ''Kabaddi being such potential sport, its high time we try the model and see how it works'' said Tejnarayan. Madhav's POV on this is that the game can get a lot out of this and he explained- Kabaddi has only two disciplines, Raiding and Defending. Now coming to the current scheme of things every team goes into a tournament with one coach, one manager or an assistant coach, one physio, and nowadays a fitness trainer. In events like the Pro Kabaddi League, we have a Head Coach, Assistant Coach, Team Manager, and so on. Now given the game is evolving, one head coach not necessarily be strong in both raiding and defending, he for sure will be experienced enough to coach the players and run the team well but there can be more leveraged from multiple coaches in the game. Tejnarayan suggests that teams have a Head Coach - who is the head of all coaches and the main person-in-charge of the team, under him comes a Raiding Coach and a Defending Coach. The Raiding Coach will work with the raiders in the team and help them with their skills, similarly, the defending coach will work with the team's defenders to nurture their skills. Both these coaches will report to the Head Coach who will finally take key/strategic decisions in the game/practice etc. He also went on to speak about appointing these coaches will mean that the players in the team get the best of expertise from the best of both worlds - Raiding and Defending. He feels this will surely improve the player's game and teams can be stronger by this model. 

Mr. Tej Narayan Madhav further explained how the Indian Kabaddi team can implement this model in the coming future. He added that - currently the head coach of a senior state team will almost always be an expert player from the early days who would have done wonders for the country or state. More often than not that particular coach would either been a raider or a defender, sometimes an all-rounder. Now in the multiple coach model, a team can appoint a pure Raider who has achieved something in the past, as a raiding coach and the same goes to a defender, where these two can assist their players and also report to a Head coach who is mainly good at man-management. By doing this the Head Coach can focus purely on how he wants to run the team, plan on different strategies, guide the players in the right path by taking inputs from the raiding and defending coach to help a player and team. This model will also ensure the players in the team get an idea of both worlds well, for instance, a raiding coach can explain how the opposition raider will be thinking and help his team's defensive unit to tackle that, similarly, the defense coach throws light on how the corners or covers of a team might approach raiders, so this ensures the team is fully prepared for any kind of challenge.

Tejnarayan feels the multiple coach model will be great use for Kabaddi and hopes this can be implemented from the grassroots level itself. Starting from the state selection tournaments to Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals, the state can implement this and see how it works. This will also ensure more employment for coaches and grow the coaching ecosystem very well in the country. He also mentioned how much variety the teams will have by going with this model,  Mr. Madhav added ''you will have 3 experts guiding the teams and this for sure will take Kabaddi to new heights. This can be a game-changing model if done right. Once the model seems to work at the state level, then this can be executed in the international stage for the Indian Kabaddi team''.

Madhav further spoke on how the selection needs to be done for the different coaching positions- The raiding and defending coach will need to have some track record in their expertise of skill either Raiding or Defending. The head coach can be someone who has achieved heights in the game and has vast experience in coaching and also a very good man manager. By this, the team and players will have different ideas and plans coming in which will help the players in the game and also gain vast knowledge in the sport which they can use it going forward. 

Kabaddi being the 2nd most popular sport in the country, this kind of change is what will take the game forward, or not. Though all thoughts will have both sides to it this seems like something very interesting that can be tried out in phases before taking it to higher levels. We would like to thank Mr. Tejnarayan for sharing his Pont of View and talking about this with Kabaddi Adda.

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