Pradhan Somanna, yet another jewel from the nursery of Hockey, Coorg, is the upcoming face of Indian Hockey.
Somanna’s tryst with Hockey happened on a day when he and his family went to see the Annual Family Hockey tournament in Hockey. He was hardly 12 years old then but he had made up his mind to take up the sport. He shortly joined the SAI teams, starting with the ‘C’ division and then eventually graduating off from the ‘A’ level, were the milestones in his clinical growth in the hockey arena.
He turning point in hockey career happened when he got selected as a contract player for Air India on a two-year contract. It is where he got god-send opportunity to hone his skills. His interaction with Dhanraj Pillay, coach of the Air India team, helped him fine-tune his skills in vital areas of the game like with-ball and off-ball running, trapping, stopping and make minor changes to the way he used to hold the stick.
Somanna’s path of growth is strewn with heavy dose self-doubt.
Somanna was very shy, hesitant and didn’t know how to conduct himself on field. He didn’t even know what positions he should reach out to when playing with big shots. He remained unsure of himself.
Riding high on the support of his coaches like Ashwath, Manohar Kattige, Prabhakar, AB Subbaiah and Pillay, the journey after Bhopal Nationals hasn’t been an easy one for Somanna. His performance there earned him a place in list of 90 probables, then to 46, followed by 32 but he couldn’t make it to final cut of 16 players.
It was only for this year’s fag end Australia tour he got a chance to break.
He was selected for the national team. Somanna felt that his time has come, to prove himself that he is capable of playing world class hockey.
His parental gospel also helped him stand high on motivation.
“Play hard and don’t let your confidence go down”. This is what his parents tell him at that time, and also the same refrain all the time.
Somanna is one of the young forwards of the team on whom the coach, Micheal Nobbs, has bet his money on. His performance in the recently concluded Asian Champions Trophy wouldn’t have disappointed Nobbs, to say the least.
This young, short player feels nothing in life is equivalent to playing a game against Pakistan.
“I have played so many domestic tournaments but playing against Pakistan is a completely different feeling,” Somanna shares his thoughts with www.stick2hockey.com
He further tells that losing to Pakistan is an agony-filled event.
“So many people have so many expectations from us. It’s impossible to face ourselves when we lose to Pakistan,” he adds.
And now that India has lost to Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy Finals, one can only imagine what Somanna must be going through. That is what top-notch world hockey is all about.
Copyright; www.stick2hockey.com