Vickram Kanth getting ready with multi-coaching stints

New Delhi, 05 August 2020: Former star Vickram Kanth is a learner. The trait in him often comes to dominate his persona. Even as he continues to actively pursue at the domestic level, he enjoys watching youngsters with an eye on their game.

“Whenever I find an opportunity to guide young players I do it. I enjoy playing mentor, correcting young players and teach them the right technique we learnt in the due course of our international career. The intention is to ensure these youngsters don’t repeat the same mistakes we did which was corrected only when we moved into the national program,” opines former defender Vickram Kanth.

He always wanted to learn coaching in a proper way instead of just making use of his experience alone. He took Hockey India Coaching Education Pathway, launched March last year, seriously.

“Coaching was always on my mind, even after my International career ended, I enjoyed spending time with young players. But when Hockey India launched the program, I felt it was something I wanted to do. As the name (Hockey India Coaching Education Pathway) suggests, it provided me a pathway into getting involved in the Coaching setup, go through the right process and understand the nuances of Coaching. It was new to me and I enjoyed it,“ says the Bengaluru-star, who has multi level courses conducted by HI and FIH.

“When I attended Level Basic and Level 1, I understood coaching is completely a different proposition. We were taught to think like coaches rather than a player especially when you are coaching a team. That was the first step for me. How to identify a player was another aspect that intrigued me while I pursued this basic level,” recounted Kanth, who made his senior debut in 2007 at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup where India won the Bronze Medal.

He had previously been part of the Junior India Team that came fourth at the 2005 Junior World Cup in Rotterdam and gold winning Junior Asia Cup (2004).

“Moving on to Hockey India Level 2 Coaching Course, the course was more technical. It involved the intricacies of physical fitness, video analyses and Coaching a young team like U-12, U-14 while the FIH Level 1 & 2 covered deeper sessions of fitness, game analyses, injury prevention, rehab and so on and mainly focused on Coaching U-21 age group and above. With Hockey India making these FIH courses accessible for us in India is a big opportunity,” he added.

Having successfully completed FIH Level 1 & Level 2, Vickram Kanth wants to put the lessons he learnt to test by coaching a Junior state team.

“To begin with, I am looking forward to coaching the junior state team for the nationals. I still enjoy playing competitive hockey and representing Indian Oil Corporation Ltd in domestic championships but having undertaken the Hockey India Coaching Education Pathway, it has certainly created a new path for me to consider in the future,” he said.