by Harmit Singh Kamboe

We need to go back to the schools
What the Indian Men's team has not been able to do in the past year and a half, the Indian U16 team did on the road to the main round of AFC's Asian U16 Championships.
In the 2008 Olympic qualifiers, India went down to Iraq 3-0, followed by a 1-1 draw at home. In the qualification for the 2007 Asian Cup, India went to down to Saudi Arabia, 3-0 at home and then 7-1 when playing away. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, India got knocked-out in the first round itself against Lebanon, 6-3 on aggregate.
But India's U16 youngsters earlier this month slayed many dragons of the recent past in their emphatic journey to the AFC U16 Championships. The boys came back from behind and drew with Iraq 2-2, whipped Lebanon 3-0 and then brushed aside hosts Saudi Arabia with another 3-0 score line. The Indian flag will fly again at Asia's premier U16 tournament for the first time since 2002, when the then India U17 had caused a stir with some strong performances. Along with the Nehru Cup win, this has to be one of the football highlights of this year. The India U19 team sadly couldn't follow their juniors into the Asian U19 Championship finals, but still had a good tournament away in Iran.
But once again we ask ourselves, where do we go from here? Achievement in sport is an ongoing business. The moment one rests on their laurels, decline will set in.
If there is ever a sign of better things to come, then the performance of the U16 team is that sign. The team was given an exposure trip to Germany in addition to domestic camps and chief coach Colin Toal is talking about keeping the team together for the better part of a year. The talent hunts that the Manchester United Soccer Schools and Arsenal FC are planning and executing are all steps in the right direction. But what India truly needs is put a proper system in place rather than the sporadic, one time efforts and successes.
The U16 team performance has reminded us that what India needs is a different approach to sports from the school level up. The reason for revisiting how we treat sports is not limited to sporting achievement alone.
Each time we ignore mass participation in sports we move one step closer to being an unhealthy nation. Unless we change our attitudes and diet, rising income levels in India may soon lead to even greater health challenges. By reaching out to our children and including them in team based sports, India will also build future consumers and participants in the sports economy and break down barriers between fellow Indians that exist at multiple levels of caste, religion, region etc.

We believe that if India is to make a sustained difference in football (or any sport for that matter), there need to be five things:

1. Train the Trainer - Before we train the children, the authorities need to train the trainer. The children do not need professional coaches or PhD's in sports sciences, they just need some one that knows the basics and can pass that on to them in fun and lively manner.
The trainers need to be provided basic material in both text and diagram format and this can be done in a 2/3 day session with a professional. Once, these trainers are armed with the knowledge they can set about imparting the basics to the children. It is the basics where most Indian sportspersons fail.
For coaches that will train teenagers instead of 8 to 10 year olds, there may have to be extra sessions on nutrition, diet, warming up, cooling down, gym exercises etc.
The key in training the trainers is that we need to have documentation and training in India's various regional languages. Unless that happens, India will not able to bring some kind of professionalism to its interiors.
It is also a misconception that children need to learn to just play one sport to excel at it. Young children should be taught not only football, but also field hockey, basketball and other such team sports to develop their positioning sense and give them an awareness of being able to see an opening and pass the ball or make a run. Children need to discover for themselves the sport that they really enjoy.

2. Mass Participation - Keeping in mind, the lack of open spaces, non existent public transit in much of India, the only cost effective option for mass participation for children in football is being able to work through schools.
Schools in India fall into two categories and both kind of schools need different approaches for football development:

A. Private Schools - These are schools where the schools are more focused on students doing well at studies, but these are also the schools where the students follow overseas leagues on TV. The authorities here can structure football camps, after school during the school term and suspend such camps when the exams are around the corner. The children of such schools are likely to pay for such camps and perhaps that is the angle that would interest the school authorities.

B. State Schools - At these schools, teacher attendance is a major issue. Authorities here will need to have PE teachers on their own payroll, or provide them to the school. It's the only way one can ensure that the kids will actually end up seeing a football coach of some kind.

3. Developing Skills versus Match Play - One of the keys for trainers has to be that their job is not to have the children to play matches. The real job of the trainers is to help the children practice and develop skills in a fun filled environment. Match play is something that can wait until the players have come to grips with the basics of football. The emphasis has to be on each child touching the ball hundreds of times so that they get something out of the training session.

4. Harnessing Talent Once Spotted - The trainers need to be coached in spotting talent. Good players dot only excel at making moves when they have the ball, but truly show their ability when they do not have the ball. There needs to be a graduated system in place going from school teams to district teams to state teams for children. The graduated system should ensure as that children move up the system, they get access to better coaches and facilities.

5. Clear Cut Responsibility - The million dollar question is who is this authority who should organize all of this? Whose responsibility is developing talent at the grass roots? Is it the AIFF, is it the state FA's, is it the Sports Authority of India? How much budget do they have for this purpose? How much was spent and what exactly did they achieve in return? What lessons have been learnt for the next year? Is there a long term plan in place and why is not being shared with the football fans?
Until we can answer these questions, India will only have pockets of excellence and we will continue to rely on the odd footballer or two that defies the odds and the system. The rest of footballers will continue to be mediocre, not lacking in courage or capacity for hard work, but no match for overseas footballers who have had the benefit of systematic and cutting edge training from a very young age.

With this kind of an approach, India will stand a much better chance of being able a healthy population and have an assembly line of good players that can better fulfil the sporting dreams of an emerging nation.