New Delhi: Contrary to the
popular opinion that Bajrang Punia's leg defence is a major shortcoming in his
game, Sujeet Maan, the new personal coach of the star grappler says the
wrestler looks vulnerable only because of his attacking style and all he needs
to do is to convert the moves into points.
Bajrang's leg defence has been
a major talking point in the last three years, especially in run up to the
Tokyo Games, where he won a bronze medal.
His coach Shako Bentinidis
also worked on the same but Bajrang, 28, never made the desired progress,
something which irked the national federation and eventually the Georgian was
removed from his support staff.
However, Maan, who started
working with Bajrang from January this year, says Bajrang's leg defence is not
as weak as it is thought of.
"A lot of people opine
that his leg defence is weak but that's not the case. It's a style. In cricket,
the aggressive batters go for their shots and in the process they run the risk
of losing their wicket. In Bajrang's case when he plays attacking game, he
appears vulnerable in his leg defence," Maan told PTI in an interview.
"It's not that we are not
working on his leg defence. We are trying that even if the rivals get hold of
his legs, he wriggles out of it with solid defence."
One of the main reasons for
his leg-defence struggle has been linked with his training and competition on
the soil (dangal) in his formative years. The wrestlers usually adopt a high
stance during 'dangals' but when it comes to competition on the mat, the strategy
does not work.
Many traditional wrestling
stars like Jassa Patti, one of the famous and most successful dangal wrestlers
in the country could not succeed on mat, struggling to win bouts even in
National championships.
Maan agrees that the training
and competition style in early years could be a reason for whatever issues he
has in his leg defence.
"On the mat you need to
compete more on low and middle stance while in the Dangal, the wrestler
maintains high stance. Habits are difficult to change, especially when it
becomes muscle memory."
Maan said he has been a part
of the national camp and has observed Bajrang's game whenever he was there. He
and Bajrang, recently, watched the wrestler's bouts from the 2019 World
Championship, 2018 Asian Games, the 2021 Asian Championship videos and he is
sure that going forward, adding more aggression to his style should help him.
"He needs to be
aggressive and attack more. Attack is the best defence. The change he needs to
make is he should attack but must not end up losing points or fail to score
despite taking the risk.
"If he is managing to
grab legs of his opponent, he must convert that move into points, that's what
we are working on," Maan who won four Asian Championship medals, including
a silver in 2004, said.
Talk about the 2024 Paris
Olympics and Maan quickly points that they "don't have much time on our
hands to prepare."
But why? "Asian
Championships is approaching and then there is one Ranking Series event. In
August we have CWG which will be followed by the Asian Games, so there is not
much time that we have. We have short-term targets before the Paris Games.
"This year our main
target is Asian Games and if we succeed it would mean that we are at
peak."
Has anything changed in
Bajrang's training style since Bentinidis left?
"I have devised a plan for him. When Bajrang is not competing, he is focussing on heavy training, including weights, long duration runs, power training and endurance training. When competition is near we are focussing on speed and bouts."(PTI)
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