One third of coaches are egoistic; stubborn: Antil

One third of coaches are highly egoistic, use outdated training methods, stubborn and some of them are even abusive, alleged two-time Paralympic gold medallist Sumit Antil.

Antil, who has broken his own world record in F64 javelin throw category in Bengaluru last week, was candid enough to give his own example as a victim to these abuses to prove his point.

“There are some coaches who are egoistic who are not willing to learn and act with time. The ratio, I would say, is 30 per cent to one third of the total coaches. The older coaches are more egoistic than the newer lot, “Antil told PTI in an exclusive interview from his hometown in Sonipat.

“I have seen others who are willing to adopt new things. Those who have become coaches after 2010-11 are willing to learn and adopt newer things and techniques.”

The Paralympic world record holder believes no athlete would leave his coach if he was doing his job and maintained a good behaviour.  “No athlete is a fool to leave his coach. He leaves because either he wants to reach the next level, which the coach is not able to provide or because of his bad behaviour.

“For example, Virender Sehwag’s coach (A N Sharma) understood him very well and that’s why Viru bhai went back to him again and again. When he played for India, he wasn’t training under his childhood coach and the coach understood that well, he wasn’t possessive,” he pointed out.

Sumit did not hesitate to bring up his own case to substantiate his allegations.

“In my case, I had left a coach, who still claims I am his product, way back in 2019. After all these years, if he still wants to claim me, it’s not fair. And this is wrong to say he is my product. No one is anyone’s product as there is no magic wand to make an athlete a world champion or an Olympic (Paralympic) medallist,” he said.

“An athlete has to go through various processes and stages. Why is that only one reaches the international level among 20 athletes trained by the same coach? What about the 19 other athletes? Does the coach take their responsibility as well? Then why claim credit for one? “ the world record holder wondered.

Antil cited the issue of lure for prize money as reason behind coaches claiming for success of athletes once they had trained.

“What is the issue here? The issue here is cash award. For an athlete who is winning medals for the nation these are small issues. I trained with one coach for 2 years, I gave him Rs 65 lakhs as ‘Guru Dakshina’. But after that if I felt his surroundings, his company and environment were not suitable or conducive for my growth as an international athlete then why couldn’t I leave him,” he asked.

Recalling the traumatic period he had to go through, Sumit said: “I never ever tolerated his nonsense. What happened to me happened with others as well. So if I thought about upgrading myself. I have no problem with who says what to me, but if it comes to my family then it cannot be taken anymore. He (my former coach) had talked nonsense about Neeraj Chopra’s parents and family as well. “Neeraj bhai never trained under him. Why was the need to abuse him and his family?”

When PTI tried to contact the coach Sumit had indicated, he refused to go into specifics, saying the allegations were not true.

“It’s not necessary that an athlete is always wrong. It’s possible that the athlete even before becoming a champion, had decided to leave the coach because of various factors. This was not just my issue,” Antil said. 

“It was an issue of Navdeep, Sandeep Chaudhary, Neeraj Chopra, Deepa Malik, these have been issues for all of them. Ask Deepa Malik what happened with her in 2016? When I went to SAI I told them I was not the first to tolerate these things but may be the first to raise the issue.

“My federation also knew who was right and who was wrong. Why did my federation rally behind me? I have a lot of evidence and if I escalate this, it will become a very big issue.”