Interview with Puneri Paltan Coach Ashok Shinde "We Tried to Reduce the Drawbacks of First Season"
Ashok Shinde – The Panther, who won many Gold medals for India. He was the first raider in 1990 when Kabaddi was introduced in Asian Games for the first time. An Arjuna award winner, Shinde is now associated with Puneri Paltan as a coach but continues to represent his Air India’s kabaddi team.
The master mind of all the moves of Puneri Paltan on ground Ashok Shinde spoke to SportsKeeda ahead of their opening match against Telugu Titans. He openly spoke to us about the preparations and strategy of Puneri Paltan for Star Sports Pro Kabaddi 2015.
Here are the Excerpts:
Q. Puneri Paltan was at the last spot during the first season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi. What changes you made to improve the team performance this season?
We have seen many matches of last year and found out lack of fitness, co-ordination and confidence in our team because we were losing. I tried to reduce those drawbacks. We did two fitness camps for players, now players are 100 percent fit. We also played 4-5 matches with local teams to improve the co-ordination of the team.
We also appointed a psychiatrist to improve the confidence in team. We also appointed one physio and a trainer. Our aim was to reduce all the drawbacks of last year. Now players are fully prepared, their fitness is improved and they are confident. We all are ready for this tournament.
Q. Puneri Paltan also has some young and new players in the team, which were not there during the last season. What you want to say about them and how is their performance?
We had 15 players during the first season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi, now we are 25. We also brought some experience boys in the team and some who didn’t get chance in first season. They also feel to show some good performance.
They know that we did not get chance before, now if we do something then we also get a chance to play further. We trained them and they are ready from their side for Star Sports Pro Kabaddi season 2.
Q. You have your first match on Monday 20th July against Telugu Titans. They will play today with Delhi. Did you created any strategy for that match?
We created strategy for them but today we got information of 2 Iranian players’ inclusion with their team. We will go there and watch the match today and create another one according to that. If there will play with 2-3 new players then we will create a new strategy.
Q. Telugu Titans has a star raider of first season Rahul Chaudhary. Is there is any special strategy to stop him?
Now he is playing with me in Air India. I know very well what he does.
Q. You’ve also got some foreign players in the team. Would you like to tell us more about them?
Yes, but they are new. We have two players from Kenya and 1 from Oman. They have very good fitness, If we look into their fitness, than there is no player in the league who can compete with them. They are lacking a bit of discipline, on which we are working on.
They need a little bit of time, because Kabaddi is just started in Kenya and Oman. They have fitness, if we work a bit on them they will raise as very good players.
Q. If you are in a situation, where you need to send one raider. Whom will you send?
You know my team players very well, I don’t have famous players all are equal. Still if you ask me than I have only experienced player Wazir Singh. If I have to bet than I will go with Wazir Singh. But I will see the team, because everyone knows what game Wazir is playing and I also have new players. We will decide during the match.
Q. How you form a strategy for every match?
We always prepare two strategies; if one doesn’t work we have to go for the second. When we create a strategy, we need two plans during a match. If there is strategy got failed we need the second one.