Manpreet Singh is also set to feature in his fourth final as a kabaddi coach when he leads Haryana Steelers against the Patna Pirates in the Pro Kabaddi League’s season 11 final. Sportstar caught up with the kabaddi maverick to dive deeper into his roots in the game and to understand what keeps him going.
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE
TRANSCRIPT:
-> On the importance of coaches in his career
I have had the privilege of growing under some remarkable coaches. I have given my full life to kabaddi. I was in 4th or 5th class when I first entered this ecosystem and I have learnt the tricks of the trade as a player under some very distinguished coaches. Some were NIS coaches, others were former India players who had Asian Games gold medals to their names.
When I came up to the senior nationals levels, my coach was E Prasad Rao who is now the technical director of the Pro Kabaddi League. So when I chose coaching as my field, the little nuances and the big picture techniques have all been moulded after what Prasad sir taught me.
-> On getting carded frequently for his emotional moments in on the bench
For me, I am completely involved in a game, it sometimes feels like I am playing in the game I am coaching myself. I am fully immersed in that game for 40 minutes. That’s why the emotions are hard to hide.
Referees are bound by the rules they don’t have to understand our emotions. I may get loud and boisterous sometimes, but I’ve never crossed the line. I’ve never abused a player or the officials. I always stay within the boundaries kabaddi has drawn for us and do what I need to do. One thing people need to realise is that in a kabaddi arena, especially in the PKL, you have to really scream to be heard clearly and god has gifted me with a very loud voice. Forget my players, even the opponent can hear what I am saying.
Sometimes, that itself could come off as aggression. Maybe that’s why I get carded as much as I do.
-> How did you take up the sport of kabaddi?
My grandfather’s name is Sardar Karnail Singh. He was not just the all-powerful patriarch of my family but was a very revered figure in the community. One of the elders. He did not want me to play kabaddi. I remember a master I had in school. He took me on his cycle to go participate in a kabaddi tournament, from my house in Ambala to Delhi. When my grandfather found out, he forcibly brought me back and did not let me compete.
I didn’t get the privilege of playing this game easily. I had to fight a lot and face a lot of obstacles to earn the right to play it. My family did not support me at all early on. From class 5 to class 8 particularly, my family didn’t even know I’d play. I am a sardar. I had long hair. If I played kabaddi, I’d invariably get mud caught in my hair and it was a telltale sign for my family that I had played. I lived in a huge joint family so it was hard to get away with it.
-> Why was there resistance to you taking up kabaddi?
My father had five brothers and I was the youngest of the 19 kids in the house. Nine boys and the rest were girls. For the family, there was responsibility on my shoulders. If it was only my father, I would still be able to convince him but my uncles and aunts all thought, if their kids had to partake in duties in the house and work on the fields, why should I be excused? I wanted to play but they all stopped me. They were worried I’d injure myself and add to the family’s load too.
To be fair to them, this happened as well. When I was in class six, I used to be a defender. I was a corner defender. Someone kicked me once under my chin and I broke a few teeth and that was it for my family. It had to be a matter of stealth from there but my hair would give me away. A friend of mine suggested that if the hair was the problem, I should just go ahead and cut it. I followed his advice and all hell broke loose. I got a thrashing of a lifetime for that and for about 15-20 days, my family didn’t give me proper food. That time passed with a lot of difficulty. But nasha tha mera kabaddi ka.
Someone in the community then happened to tell grandfather in passing that he shouldn’t be stopping me from playing, I am actually decent. So one day, he came to watch me play secretly at a local tournament. I did well that day and my grandfather eventually sent for me. When I saw him sitting there in the gathering, I thought, ‘That’s it. There ends my dream.’ My entire body began shaking in fear. I didn’t get a beating though. He took out 100 rupees from his wallet, a big amount at the time, and handed it to me. I cannot tell you how happy that made me. He asked me once more about what I want to do in life and I said with conviction that all I wanted was to keep playing kabaddi. He then found a good coach in Patiala, Sardar Sher Singh and left me in his care saying, ‘Let him play.’ I never turned back from there.
Dadaji was a Hitler. If he said okay, then no one else needed to say yes or could stop me. His words were the law.
My grandfather at one point told me that if I managed to play for India, what would I want in return. At the time, we only knew that the peak of it was representing India. I didn’t know what nationals, district championships and all those were. Ours was a simple ambition. So when he asked me this… what I would want from him if I managed to break into the Indian set up, I had just one thing in mind. In the late 90’s, there was a massive craze for the Bullet. I was around 17-18 years old then. I asked him to get me that motorcycle. He readily agreed. From there, all I could think about, whether I was awake or asleep, was that Bullet. I worked really hard towards that. God answered my prayer quite quickly and in under two years, I made it to the Indian side and my grandfather as promised bought me the motorcycle.
Till date, I have that bike with me, and it’s in great condition. Only I am allowed to ride that bike, I don’t let anyone near it.
I have won and have been honoured with plenty of bikes since then. Patiala University once gifted me a Bullet too. I think I’ve won about 10-12 Bullets in my career. The others have all been gifted away to friends, relatives, nephews, nieces. But that one from my grandfather is still there.
-> Who were your coaches through your career? Did you ever have an experience of being on the wrong side of favouritism by a coach?
My first coach was Charan Singh PT master, Sardar Anand Singh ji. In college it was Madan Lal ji. He has produced some remarkable players in circle and national kabaddi. Rao sir was the most influential one since there.
I have learnt everything I know about coaching, and am the coach I am today because of E Prasad Rao sir. I was under him at least for 12-odd years. I played quite well under him usually. But I’ve never heard ‘Manpreet, bohot acche.’ He was always strict. Even if I took 20 points in a game, he’d say ‘You can do much better.’ I try to be like him, learn his best attributes. I am not even worth the dust under his shoes. I have a long way to go before I can even put myself in the same sentence as him. But the effort is to match up. The way he made my career, I hope to do the same for other players.
I’ve been lucky in my life to have the favour of the coaches and perform well for my sides. In Punjab too, I used to shoulder raiding responsibilities almost singlehandedly. In the All India University Games, Punjab has only won gold once in its history and it was the one I won for the state. I won the last gold for Punjab in the nationals. It’s been 20-22 years since that victory and another title has not come yet.
In E Prasad Rao’s batch, close to 11 of them were Arjuna Awardees and I am a Dhyan Chand Awardee. We ended up becoming international players of a very high caliber.
Rahul Chaudhari’s story is also an interesting one and I have a role to play there. He came to give wrestling trials. I pulled strings to help him make his way to the SAI. At one point, he didn’t have the knickers to wear for kabaddi. I lent him my kits. Sandeep, Rahul and all. We have all worked together as an ecosystem to encourage the next rung of kabaddi players to grow.
-> How hard is it to balance the discipline of professionalism and that sense of being family when you’re a coach?
It is difficult, facing the cameras. When I was a player, this camera never existed for us. I have 12 international golds but we never got that kind of attention. It was just a small snipping in the newspaper at the most and that was that. Today, the sport has become very different and it’s very hard for a coach to balance the pressures of it all. It’s become very fast. If you want to drive a Ferrari, you need a driver who can actually handle the speed of the car. For today’s kabaddi, you need someone who can handle the pressure of the cameras, of increased expectations.
Sport allows you to learn on the job. When I first took on coaching with the Gujarat franchise, it was very hard. At that time just balancing personal life with work was very difficult. Eventually, my family also understood and helped me stay true to my love for this game and passion to stay involved. I learnt slowly to do interviews better, get comfortable in front of a camera.
-> Coaches are often villainised and held accountable for everything, good and bad. Is that a hard life?
The life of a coach is quite solitary
Coaches need to have a bonding with the players that based on winning their hearts and their trust. Once you have their trust, it gets easy to do things. Imagine if you have a star player in your mix for example, a Rahul Chaudhari, Pardeep Narwal or any of the other biggies, they’ve come in with plenty of tournaments under their belt. If your bonding isn’t good with them and they have to sit out for a game or two, media will make a hue and cry of it. You won’t be able to win games.
Star players come with pressure on the coach and increased scrutiny of the game. Kabaddi has a lot of skills in between. Every player has a favourite skill – someone likes bonuses or a particular type of touch. A player might have a combination of a few of them, but not every single one. Issue is, having a set number of skills makes one predictable and coaches now are seeing everything. So when a coach wants to sit the player out because they feel the opponent has come prepared for them, it doesn’t go well and the coach becomes the villain. Bonding well with players is important for players to understand that there is nothing personal in team decisions.
I don’t think players can learn new skills every now and then. Some core talents can be absorbed very early in your induction and built on. It’s not as easy as saying kabaddi kabaddi and coming.
So much of this game is won and lost on the strategy board. Coaches spend nights without sleep in figuring out their plans.
-> We hear you enjoy taking long walks every day mandatorily?
I love taking long walks. If I don’t do 15-20 km of running, jogging or walking a day, I am not able to eat peacefully. It also gives me a chance to think about the game with a calm mind.
Sometimes, if you see the way Haryana plays, there are moments where the side just collapses. That happens when they don’t follow my plan. When they do, we don’t lose. I don’t have any big names in my team besides Shadloui. Today, each of them has a name and the expectations on their shoulders has increased. For their efficacy to remain, the plans need to be innovative around them .
-> Do you see a little of yourself in Mohammadreza Shadloui? Also a flamboyant and out-there personality much like you?
I met Shadloui after the final last year against PALTAN. We spoke for about 10-15 minutes. He told me he was happy to see our team come to the final with a young crop of players and we exchanged pleasantries. At that time itself, I wondered how it would be to have him on our side.
When we had the off season camp in Bellary, SHadloui came over there for 10-15 days. He then had an issue at home and had to leave. He came on a very positive note. Everytime I want to build a relationship with a player, I try to find out everything about them. Their family, interests, their favourite food, movies. Kabaddi is sprinkled in between, to understand their skill comfort, what kind of training they like – do they like aggressive coaching to spur them on or do they need cool, calm instructions.
The kabaddi that we want to see today, he is a very superior product of it. Back in the day, I was a lot like him, I was perhaps a bit more aggressive. I used to bring in a lot of style in my game. Be it hairstyles, the clothes I wore or what I pulled off on the mat.
John Abraham, MS Dhoni came later, in 1999 to 2004 I had long hair and played kabaddi. When I played local tournaments in Mumbai, people would call me Bobby. I can see all that energy and spunk in Shadloui. Whether the match is headed to a victory or defeat, his energy never diminishes.
-> Any superstitions being followed this season by you?
I’ve spent 7 seasons in PKL. I made two finals and an eliminator finish with Gujarat. It is my third year with Haryana. I’ve made two finals with Haryana. Imagine, a young boy who has come in and done this and taken teams to four finals in seven years, he must have something in him right. The only challenge has been that I haven’t gone further and actually won the title.
So someone told my wife that the more gold I wear, the more golden trophies I’ll get. So I took all the gold I could find in my house and wore it to ensure that side is also sorted. It’s something my family is convinced about and I wanted to keep my family happy.
-> How do you define your coaching philosophy?
Coaching in kabaddi needs to be about motivation.
I am not strict. In a match, it might look like that. I am a very happy and amiable boy. I have never even slapped someone in my life.
The role of a coach is pivotal in kabaddi. The first thing I do is to ensure my support staff – manager, masseur, physio, trainer – are all in my corner. Because more than with me, these are the people who are spending most face time with them. So if there’s something I need to be worried about with regard to my players, I ensure there are people who can give me a heads up.
During training, I am hitler. No compromises. Once the kit comes on, 100-200% effort needs to come for kabaddi. Out of the court, I am your buddy. You can talk to me about your family, your girlfriends. Anything. They are not slaves, they are players and that respect and line is difficult to maintain.
If there are rules being flouted or discipline not being maintained, I make them train to the point where they won’t want to flout rules again, sometimes not even have their next meal. No compromises on training.
