“ Gladiator?” asks Shako Bentinidis, and continues with out ready for a response. “He’s by no means interested by dropping, all the time going for the win. I need to give Indian wrestlers that champion character.”
The humorous, eccentric Georgian – who can rattle out dialogues from the Hollywood blockbuster and, in the identical breath, recite the non secular sayings of Sri Sri Ravishankar – will return to India as the lads’s freestyle coach. In his first stint as Bajrang Punia’s private coach, Shako remodeled him into an Olympic medallist.
On Tuesday, following an interview, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) gave him a much bigger duty: to educate the nationwide staff. “We go subsequent stage now,” he says.
Georgia to India by way of US
By no means earlier than has Indian wrestling had an all-foreign teaching employees. Japan’s Kosei Akaishi has been supplied the ladies’s staff function, Russia’s Gogi Koguashvili will oversee the Greco-Roman programme, and the USA’s Ian Butler would be the Excessive Efficiency Director. As soon as the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, the quartet is predicted to take over in Could.
Among the many 4, Shako is available in at a really important second. India has received six Olympic medals within the final 5 Olympics within the males’s freestyle wrestling. However there are sufficient indications of stagnation – and even decline. On the Paris Video games in 2024, just one male wrestler – Aman Sehrawat – certified. Sehrawat has since then been largely off the radar. Sujeet Kalkal, the just lately topped Asian champion within the 65kg class, has stuffed the void within the Paris to Los Angeles Olympics cycle.
Throughout this era, Shako took up teaching roles with an American College and private assignments in his hometown, Tbilisi. The US stint was tough, he says, due to homesickness and the American system. “It was good however United States, kill me, kill me. It’s psychological, a really troublesome nation. Each apply, you’re touring for hours, lengthy distances. And the system is just not properly, slightly bit,” he says.
When the India job got here calling, it was a no brainer even when it meant abandoning his household as soon as once more. “I’ve watched Indian wrestlers, supported them, seen what has occurred in India, the wins, the losses. And I feel I might help India,” he says. “100 per cent.”
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Shako has all the time been in awe of the endless, relentless stamina of Indian wrestlers. However he additionally has a peeve. One too many, really. (Instagram/Shako Bentinidis)
Bajrang certifies this declare. “I benefited immensely. Earlier than I started coaching beneath him, I banked extra on my stamina to tug by means of powerful matches. He taught me easy methods to stability assault with defence, and extra crucially, easy methods to time assaults. I used to be a significantly better wrestler technically, and I’ve little question that if he’s given the liberty, different Indian wrestlers will profit, too.”
‘Profitable character’
Shako has all the time been in awe of the endless, relentless stamina of Indian wrestlers. However he additionally has a peeve. One too many, really.
“Bodily, I don’t have any doubt,” he says. “However Indian wrestlers don’t have, you realize, the successful character. A champion’s character.”
Fairly than sparring with worldwide wrestlers overseas, Shako believes the Indians spend loads of time throughout the nation, coaching amongst themselves. “So whenever you go along with a great wrestler, a Russian or an American, an Indian wrestler is considering, ‘Oh, this can be a massive nation’,” Shako says. “I need them to see their expertise, develop a successful mindset, focus like a champion. You may have full energy, 200 per cent energy, however what’s the purpose in the event you don’t have a successful mentality? They should be like a Gladiator. By no means take into consideration dropping, all the time go for the win.”
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Indians, he hints, should get out of the consolation zones of their akharas. Journey overseas, to locations like Dagestan, like Bajrang and Aman did, and even to the US, which has a powerful freestyle tradition, and expose themselves to totally different types, however extra importantly, to do away with the inferiority advanced.
His ‘primary precedence’ might be to conduct worldwide camps. “The extra you prepare with Russian wrestlers, Georgians, People, you perceive them, you bear in mind, ‘Ah, I received that point in apply.’ You aren’t simply watching them on TV and considering they’re from a special planet. The primary time you play, you win some extent. The second time, you win a match. After which, you develop a mentality, a personality.”
‘Uthak-baithak and fitness center’
The challenges come from inside, too. Shako is intricately conscious of the Indian wrestling system with all its roadblocks and arbitrariness.
When he educated Bajrang on the Sports activities Authority of India’s Sonepat Centre, a wrestling hub, Shako was shocked on the lack of self-discipline in most athletes. “If there have been 100 wrestlers within the line, 15 would come with out footwear. The coach would ask, what occurred, they usually’d go, ‘I’ve this downside, I’ve that downside’,” he says. “However now, in my time… no, no. All people has to coach. In case you have a real downside, then you definitely go and relaxation. However solely with self-discipline will you get outcomes. After all, any individual can perhaps win an Asian medal however not the gold. With out self-discipline, no probability.”
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The coaching classes will be relentless, as Bajrang skilled. The largest change in Bajrang’s routine was changing all fitness center classes with approach and pace work on the mat. To construct energy, he’d carry his sparring companions. This emphasis on approach confirmed outcomes – Bajrang began beating virtually each wrestler he’d earlier misplaced to, and likewise received matches from tight conditions.
It’ll be extra of the identical going ahead, Shako says. “You replay methods. Not 10 occasions, 20 occasions, however apply it 200 occasions. In case you don’t perceive a way, how will you be taught it? In India, approach is troublesome. All people goes, uthak-baithak and fitness center… uthak-baithak and fitness center (squats and fitness center, squats and fitness center).”
Sujeet, ‘wonderful wrestler’
Maybe that’s why Shako gushes when he’s requested about Sujeet Kalkal, who wrestles in the identical weight class that Bajrang as soon as dominated.
Whereas most Indians, be it Sushil Kumar or Bajrang, have relied on stamina greater than approach and aimed to tire out their rivals, Sujeet does the alternative – he places into apply all of the technical drills – his father and coach Dayanand made him do what Shako professes, lots of of repetitions of every approach – learnt through the years.
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“Wonderful wrestler, wonderful,” Shako says of Sujeet. “With slightly little bit of tactical recommendation, with slightly bit extra energy, 10 per cent extra energy, he might be a harmful wrestler in Los Angeles in that class.”