I want to change the training system. It will be very slow, trickle by trickle. We should plan in Olympic cycles

Babovic Miodrag
| Photo Credit: K. Keerthivasan

Montenegro’s Babovic Miodrag is a man with a no-holds barred approach. The 65-year-old, foreign coach of the Indian (junior & senior) water polo teams, is determined to change the prevailing system in the country. At the same time after watching the talents and touring India including places such as Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Pune, he has realised that it would not be so easy to wring in changes.

“I want to change the training system. It will be very slow, trickle by trickle. We should plan in Olympic cycles. For that we should start from the u-12 kids,” said Babovic in an interview to The Hindu at the Velachery Complex here on Wednesday, on the sidelines of National sub-junior & junior aquatics championships in diving and water polo.

While watching the match between Kerala and Karnataka, he was aghast at the way the latter played and lost. “Karnataka has some very talented girls. They have the potential to win, but the team lost because there is no proper training or coach,” he lamented.

Need local leagues

Babovic said he will be picking 20 girls from the Nationals and will train them for the World aquatics women’s (u-20) water polo championships in Coimbra, Portugal from September 8 to 15.

Babovic said there should be an active local league every seven days so that kids become familiar with the sport. “We need leagues where u-12, u-14 & u-17 kids play regularly,” he said. According to the Montenegrin, India is a country with so much talent but with little knowledge of the sport. “India needs strong training with good coaches,” he said.

Certain states like Kerala, Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra have a decent club culture, but that is just not enough, he said. “Ahmedabad has a lot of good water polo players. It needs support from Swimming Federation of India,” he said.