Doctor Horst Wein needs no introduction. Considered a modern guru in both hockey and football, with assignments in five Olympic sports in 53 countries and an author of 34 books — including The Science of Hockey, which is considered a bible by coaches across the world.

The 60-year-old German had lived in his adopted home of Barcelona for the last 20 years and is currently with the Centre for Research and Studies (CEDIF) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. He has also trained coaches at football clubs like Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Sociedad and Motevideo. Dr Wein spoke to The Indian Express about the changes in hockey and the problems Indian hockey faces today.

After the Montreal Olympics, the playing surface was changed from grass to synthetic turf. Do you think that was a reason for the drop in performance of subcontinent teams?

* Grass hockey is history and you can’t reverse it. You can learn from history, you can’t live it again. The difference between India and other leading hockey nations is that the Indians have stuck to the traditional style of coaching and playing while the European nations have made progress through changes in all aspects.

You say India has failed to adapt to the changing times. What do you think is lacking?

* Indian players don’t go through a well-structured system of youth competitions as in countries like Germany or Spain. They only play 11-a-side games, which means the young players hardly get to understand what is actually happening on the ground. Hockey in India is too rigid. People here are still stuck in the old school of thinking and believe they can win simply because of their skills. But there also has to be proper planning and execution.

What changes do you suggest?

* In India, we don’t put the players through various stages of development; they are straightaway thrown into 70-minutes, 11-a-side games from the beginning. A 7-8-year-old is not capable of that. Children in Spain play three-a-side in their formative years on 1/3rd size of the regular turf. Then they switch to six-a-side, eight-a-side and then finally a full game. This helps them develop vision, make quick decisions and explore all options to win while reducing mistakes. The games grow in difficulty in tune with their intelligence and physical fitness levels. In India, I have not seen any mini-hockey.

What about the coaching system here?

* It is really poor and needs to be improved. Different coaches for various age groups should be employed to stimulate young players. It is impossible to be a specialist developing an 8-9 year old and at the same time be a top-performance coach with the senior team. With kids you should not look for results but aim at improving their perception, decision-making and hockey specific skills.

But there are other Asian countries — Korea and China — who have done well in recent times.

* They have done well because of good administrators. The people who make decisions there are serious about not only producing results but developing the sport. Unfortunately, I have had occasions to deal with the Indian administrators since the 1970s — and I am sorry to say that the people making decisions here do not really care about anything.