BHUBANESWAR: Barring one or two athletes, the cafeteria was almost empty. Radhakrishnan Nair was sitting quietly on one of the tables, looking solemn and grave on a warm Friday morning. Every now and then he was stealing a glance or two out of the window. He looked a bit tired yet was attending calls whenever required. It had been quite a journey for the chief coach of the athletics national team.
Nair has been part of the coaching establishment for over three decades in various capacities – from a coach to deputy chief to chief. In the last 34 years of marriage, he said he could visit say 30 to 40 days a year initially and later, when he became the coach he hardly could visit the family. “Sometimes I didn’t even know where my children were studying but they are all well settled now,” he said with a heavy heart as he bid adieu to his most passionate vocation – coaching.
Since he became the chief national coach in December 2020 he could visit some 25-30 days a year. Those were the sacrifices he was happy to make for the sake of the sport. “If you calculate the number of years since my marriage in 1998, it would be around five-six years in total I would have been at home,” he said. His wife took care of everything. “This is my last international competition at home,” Nair said as his eyes seemed to give away his sadness within.
The World Athletics Continental Tour Silver 2026 here on Saturday would be his last international competition at home. His career as chief national coach will end in September just before the Asian Games. Technically, the date is on September 30. After exchanging pleasantries, he reluctantly agreed to speak about his career, the high points of his life and what could be his lasting legacy in Indian athletics. And coaching topped them all. He was not talking about Olympic medals of Neeraj Chopra as his lasting legacy but about his coaching programme that led to the introduction of thousands of coaches into the athletics firmament. “There is a dearth of coaches in India, and this will be a small contribution,” he said.
In a freewheeling interview, he spoke about how he could help in changing the coaching landscape of the country. The decision to give up the post was not easy but the pressure of being a national coach was slowly taking a toll on his health. He would love to stay connected with the thing he loves most – coaching. He said the Athletics Federation of India has been a great support and they would want him to continue with his coaching programme. Excerpts:
How do you see athletics then (when you started coaching in the nineties) and now? What is the thing that you can say is your lasting legacy?
Athletics is developing in the country. Recent results show it is looking up. But it is not my credit alone. It is planning, execution of those plans in a proper way with the support of the government. Support is very essential because without money you can't do anything.
And to develop athletics, we need to develop our coaches. We have very few coaches even now. Among them, there are very few competent coaches. A lot of structure has been created by the government like Khelo India but when you look at the number of coaches in athletics, there are hardly 130 or 140 coaches.
When we discussed development globally, the first thing we did was to contact World Athletics, and they have fully supported and cooperated. We started the WA Level One coaches’ education program in 2018. The credit has to go to the Athletics Federation of India. Before this, Level Two of WA coaches’ education never used to be conducted in the member nations. It used to be conducted centrally in area federation like Jakarta (Asian area). With the effort of AFI, we could bring these Level 2 courses to India. This helped Indian coaches. When the area development centre is conducting a Level 2 coaching course in a year that is a specialized coach like throws, jumps, middle and long distance running, coaches from India hardly could participate. One or two could appear.
I remember by 2019 we had only eight Level 2 coaches including me. Once we started a coaches education course with the support of WA and the government because it needs funding to bring lecturers from abroad, we produced about 400 Level 2 coaches and over 1900 Level One coaches. Yet, the number is very small when compared with requirements.
On the need of more coaches…
I started a coaches education course to develop coaches at district level. This is very important because every district needs at least five to six coaches who can just attract children to athletics. Who can scout and train. We will require say in about 700 districts about 3500-4000 coaches.
We call it a pre Level 1 AFI coaching that is totally online, six days. Anyone can participate. There is no prerequisite qualification required. Anyone interested in coaching, whether it is a parent or a veteran athlete or a physical education teacher, for anyone who is passionate about coaching. That we started in 2020 during Covid year. Response was very good. As of now, we have produced more than three thousand coaches but we need more.
On how coaching has changed over the years
The biggest problem earlier was over training and early specialisation. Even now it is prevalent but we are trying to reduce as much as possible. You must have seen so many champions in U20 and U18, but they have not graduated to the senior level the way they should have. We had conducted a survey and research on this. We found 130 youth medallists were there from in the World Youth Championship and Asian Youth Championship but out of that you can find only Neeraj Chopra and Dutee Chand graduate to the senior level with the same performance. It is a very low percentage.
The biggest challenge was to stop this early specialization and overtraining. That was only a little bit of success. I don't say it is fully successful, but it is being done and reflects in nationals results. Early specialization has been a menace too, especially in states like Kerala where athletics is very popular. As they grow older, either they are getting injured or they are burnt out. It is like when a child grows no one trains them to crawl and stand. They do it when they are ready. Coaching is like that. So as a coach you should make sure that athletes are able to do that type of training. I had been to the US for a high-level coaching programme where I met an NCAA coach. He was training 26 athletes and I was surprised. I asked him how it was possible. He said ‘I start working from seven to twelve, then again, and from three to seven and I am not allowed to train an athlete more than 12 hours a week’.
Means twelve hours in a week for children at 18. Whereas, in our system, coaches will ask athletes to train 24 hours a week — two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening for six days. If you just look into the results of all world class athletes, they have performed their best at the age of 25-26 including the likes of Usain Bolt. It is said that 10,000 hours of core training makes an athlete reach their full potential. What our coaches do is that they finish that 10,000 hours by the age of eighteen.
On the pitfall of early specialisation
There was a foreign coach who came about 10-15 years ago in the hammer throw. I forgot his name. He said, let me work for six months. After working for six months, he said, ‘I can't work with your children because these athletes are following the wrong technique.
At the age of twelve or thirteen, you cannot identify anyone. So to identify, they should be 16. The training programme has got stages. One is multi-sport and should be at the age of twelve to fifteen. The child should play everything, jump, throw, run. No specialized training plan for them. Training should not exceed more than six to seven hours a week.
On evolution of coaches
Coaches have to develop to the standard of athletes. That is the most important thing which is required here. It is not far, we have the ability to win medals in two digits at the Olympics. As a chief coach, coaches' training was the main contribution I can say.
On decentralisation in coaching
It is one of the biggest steps. Even I was a little skeptical in the beginning. But it has shown results. There are events we never used to concentrate on. High jump is an example. We never had national coaching. Now, we are jumping 2.31m. Similarly, pole vault. There were one or two who used to cross 5m. Now, it has gone to 5.5m. Decentralization has had an impact. Athletes can train wherever they want with whoever they want to. But the federation is monitoring them closely.
Earlier, we were able to monitor only limited athletes, about 150 or 200 but with decentralization we are able to monitor about two thousand odd athletes, not only elite but also developing athletics. They are training closer home. We should not forget about the society they live in. We don’t need to keep them away from their society, family, etc. Decentralization was the biggest step ever.
On overall experience
I am very satisfied and happy. I am thankful to the federation as well as the government. They gave me a really good platform to work and there was no interference by the federation in coaches’ education or in my coaching. I was allowed to perform independently. Of course, it was very tiring. Mostly, I have worked about eighteen to twenty hours daily since becoming the chief coach. Sometimes it is more about managing and executing the plans. It is very tedious too. You have to make a proposal to the government, get the sanctions and then execute.
What will you miss most?
I don't miss anything. The athletes. The atmosphere. Mixing with the 100s of athletes, interacting with them, knowing their attitude... That I will miss. But you can't work and stick around for so long. You should give way to others who are also very good. Let them become chief coach and get the experience.