New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) India legendary goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who retired from international hockey after the Paris Olympics earlier this year, is plying his trade on the other side of the field – as junior men’s hockey team coach – and enjoying great success in the new role. However, the 36-year-old initially found it difficult to adapt to the different settings and calm the player inside him.
Just after clinching his second consecutive Olympic bronze medal in Paris, Sreejesh took charge of the junior men’s team with the prestigious Sultan of Johor Cup being his first coaching assignment. Under his guidance, the Indian team bagged a bronze medal after beating New Zealand in a thrilling shootout. The veteran player bettered the colour of the medal in the next assignment – Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2024 – earlier this month as Sreejesh’s boys defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the final to clinch their fifth title.
“See, it’s a great experience for me. As a coach, first tournament we finished on the podium. That was fantastic for me. That tournament was fantastic because we learned about everything. The first thing is that with one goal difference, we missed a spot in the finals. Second thing is we drew a match and we won a shootout. We got two cards at a time. I think we lost a match. And I think that was a fantastic tournament to learn,” Sreejesh told IANS.
“So, from there, we jumped into the Junior Asia Cup, which was really important for us because it’s a qualifier round for the Junior World Cup. But being a host, you are already qualified for the Junior World Cup. But I personally felt like that is not the way to get into a tournament. You should get into a tournament in the right way like a champion walking into the tournament. So, that’s what I mentioned to my players. You are not here to take the, you know, being like a host or a quota, you should walk into the Junior World Cup like a champion. And that is what they’ve done throughout the tournament. They played really good tournament,” he added.
Sreejesh also shared his challenges as a coach where he has to control the game dynamics from the outside, a position which he is not very familiar with.
“And for me, personally, that was a great experience because playing a match is totally different than standing on the sideline and ask the players to play the game. Because being a player, you trust yourself, you know, and even if the defenders are forwards making a mistake, so you always feel like, okay, you are good enough to manage or cover their mistake.
“So, here you are helpless. You are training them and you are expecting them to perform really well if something goes wrong also. You just need to hold the frustration back and you just need to ask them to, you know, play better games. So, two different extreme level of experience. But I enjoyed it. I mean, like, you know, my experience with the team from last decades are helping me to manage these pressure situations in a better way,” said the veteran player.
Elaborating on how he was convinced for the coaching role, Sreejesh explained he made himself very clear about the decision and was prepared mentally.
“I think I realised it. See, I told myself that Sreejesh, you are no longer a player. You are a coach now and you do have restrictions, you do have limitations. So, I realised this first, then only I stepped into these shoes. So, automatically, that is what happens when you realise it, you are ready to accept it. And whatever things happen apart from that, you just ignore it,” he expressed.
“And that is what happened with me. Sometimes I feel like, come on Sree, then I wrote, I do have a book with me every time during a game. Then I wrote in my book, Sreejesh, you are not a player anymore. You are a coach. Understand, that’s it. Then automatically you realise, okay, come on.
“Then you started to cheer up, then you started to look into the technical part of the game rather than the emotion or the, you know, the hard part of the game,” Sreejesh added.
When asked about his learnings from the new role, Sreejesh said taking care of all players in the squad and bringing the best out of them is quite a difficult task than playing as a player.
“The best part is that you just, you are not individual. You know, when you are playing, it’s always feeling like you just need to focus on your game. But when you are a coach, your team is your major importance. All the 40 players come under you or the coaching staff comes under you. They are your responsibility. So, that’s two extreme things. And I always believe that the result is your responsibility. So, the responsibility comes in a different way. Because as a player, the responsibility comes like, okay, I want to do my best to take my team into the podium. But here, it’s like, I want them to do their best to take the team into the podium. So, I believe that it’s two different ways. And being there in the goalpost for such a long time, helped me a lot to take up this other part in a better way,” he explained.
Sreejesh bid adieu to the Indian hockey team with lasting memories and a plethora of achievements including two coveted Olympic bronze medals but the veteran wanted a more than a third-place finish in the quadrennial extravaganza in the French capital.
“I was not really happy with that. Because I always felt that we deserved to be in the finals, for sure. Or maybe to win the tournament. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen. But when you are in Olympic Games, coming back, coming home with a medal is more important than coming back home with an empty hand. So, as an individual, when you ask me this question, I say, okay, that was pretty disappointing for me. But when it comes to a player who played his last match in an Olympic Games, in a decisive match, like winning a bronze medal or losing a bronze medal, then I’m more than happy. Because at the end of the world, people always talk about Sreejesh sitting on the goal post with their bronze medal saying goodbye to this game. That is going to be the last picture or that’s going to be the first picture that comes into their mind when they think about me,” Sreejesh concluded.
–IANS
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