Shimla-the birthplace of the Durand Cup and the Indian Air Force ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Playing ball The Bridge course was actually a big curse. It is no fun to start running 10 km at 5 pm even before the sun has set and then to come back and play football for another 90 minutes. But Mr Pendred, our football coach (Football Blue from Oxford University, and also our English teacher ) was adamant, “you have got to build up endurance and stamina if you want to be a football player”. In one of these runs I was following NJ Nair of 38th NDA Course … after a kilometer, I looked down to avoid stepping on a frog (we ran along a stream next to paddy fields). By the time I looked up NJ was no longer there and I was seeing the back of Joseph George and still ahead...Pendred. As we reached back to the school football grounds, I once again saw NJ in front of me. I had known him for an academic genious, winning the best student trophy(a huge brass nilavilakku - a peacock lamp) year after year. But this latest trick of vanishing and reappearing fascinated me. On one of these bridge course runs, Pendred was in front, pushing himself hard with only him in front of me. As we neared the 36 July 2011 purple beret Maj (Retd) Viswanath Madhav Rajan is 40th NDA course and currently based in Bangalore football ground I told myself, can I kick in for a final push to first position? I saw myself overtaking and finishing first, my name on the Notice Board looked good. That was the beginning of my stints in the school football team. For years Malayalees believed that the football looked best when it was far up in the sky and anyone who could kick the ball the highest was a terrific footballer. Then came Pendred and completely changed our notions of good football..anyone kicking the ball high into the air would be sent on a punishment run of two rounds of the football field. A week of this new brand of football and the footballing kazhaks (cadets of the Sainik School Kazhakootam) started playing the ground level passing game, the Brazilians play minus of course their flair. It was a good start. Suresh Bhaskar’s sharp ground pass used to reach his uncle Harindran’s feet .. one tackle to befuddle a defender and in the next step, he used to send the ball curling towards the net. Col Somaiah, our Principal’s elder son became an exponent of precision ground passing in the “D”- a selfless act. We crushed the pretensions of Kaniyapuram high school in their own grounds when Gopalakrishna Pillay beat their goal keeper like the German, Klose. But we were put into our place in the hierarchy by the Kerala State Team. They crashed the ball into our nets from outside the D, beating G.R Mohan hands up and legs down. I took Pendred’s lessons to the Army...never lost a football match I captained whether playing for the Battalion, Brigade, Division or Northern Command. George Best from England, Platini from France and Johan Cruyff of Holland provided inspiration from across the seas. I took my football team to a morning 10 km run to build stamina and endurance, as my teacher Mr Pendred had instructed. We did push ups, sit ups, and rope to strengthen our upper torso, and I coached the team meticulously, in every art of footballing skills like dribbling, tackling, heading, passing, creating spaces, running into open spaces, defending fiercely, corner kicks, penalty kicks I made a chart that is displayed on the following page and stuck to it like glue .. resulting in victory after victory.
Period Activities Purpose First week Second Week Running upto 3 kilometers progressively Basic ball control, running with the ball , passing , kicking, heading Sprinting practice Third week Running up to 5 kilometers progressively Dribbling ,tackling, shooting at goal,heading,taking corners Fourth week Taking throws, goal keeper’s job, organize defence Sprinting practice Stamina run 5 kms Taking corners,converting corners, wall pass,back pass Passing into open space, running into open space Feeding forwards Sprinting practice Stamina run 5 kms Counter attack,long range shooting, leadership Scannning before passing & shooting Sprinting practice Free kicks, penalty shoots, bicycle kicks,feints,deceipts Stamina building, strengthening leg muscles , enlarging lung capacity Develop confidence with the ball To outrun the opposition Stamina building, strengthening leg muscles , enlarging lung capacity Taking the first steps towards attacking enemy defence Thwarting enemy attacks To outrun the opposition Dominate opposition Tactics for attack To outrun the opposition Total destruction of enemy Winning a tackle To outrun the opposition Dominate opposition purple beret July 2011 37
Page 1 and 2: www.purpleberet.com July 2011 Vol.
Page 3 and 4: start up Editorial The 2009 leaders
Page 5 and 6: the coveted trophy Durand is the th
Page 7 and 8: The beacon... Air Chief Marshal P V
Page 9 and 10: Lastly, we had to evolve a system t
Page 11 and 12: What are the future plans to take D
Page 13 and 14: The legacy A Purple Beret Story The
Page 15 and 16: me. They got a penalty award toward
Page 17 and 18: The IAF football team in 1948. Seat
Page 19 and 20: Winners Years Winners Runners-Up 19
Page 21 and 22: heroes The memorable Gorkha Brigade
Page 23 and 24: The Madras Regiment Football team
Page 25 and 26: the Gorkha Brigade team for many se
Page 27 and 28: has the Army XI entered the Durand
Page 29 and 30: Debrief Durand Football In 1947, wh
Page 31 and 32: Theories abound on this trend. L. I
Page 33 and 34: article pertains to sports infrastr
Page 35: football tournament in India (third
Page 39 and 40: though he felt a bit uncomfortable.
Page 41 and 42: Roll on Football on screen By Khurs
Page 44: RNI No.: DELENG/2010/33162 POSTAL N

Shimla-the birthplace of the Durand Cup and the Indian Air Force ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?