New Delhi: Germany to Nottingham to Liverpool to Wales to London to Greece – Ian Butler is globe-trotting with a schedule that involves delivering wrestling seminars with British MMA star Paul Daley, coaching age-group national teams, and building grassroots structures.
Indian wrestling’s newly-appointed High-Performance Director is yet to visit the country or speak to senior coaches, but has his plans in place for a systemic overhaul.
“Indian wrestlers are awesome, but they are not world beaters yet. I want to make them world beaters. I feel the Indian freestyle team has the potential to be in the top five in the world and women are good enough to be in top three. I won’t settle for anything less,” Butler told HT from Nottingham.
His enthusiasm is appreciable, but working in the complex Indian system has tested quite a few. Fellow American Andrew Cook left with a bitter aftertaste a little over a year into his contract while the likes of Woller Akos and Shako Bentinidis – the latter is back as the men’s team coach – have barely had anything encouraging to say about the wrestling federation.
“Every sporting system has its intricacies and I am willing to study them in detail. But from a distance, I feel a lot of work needs to be done at the grassroots level. That’s my speciality,” Butler said.
“I am keen on data, analytics and scientific intervention. I want to introduce a few things to the junior structure. Unfortunately, the nature of my job involves meddling with existing, age-old practices, and I am up for it.
“The US has a very strong school sports system, and of course the university system. That’s how they produce world champions. I plan to take some best practices from there and implement in India.”
Butler, 37, is also banking on his experience as a trained jiu-jitsu and MMA fighter to upskill Indian wrestlers. “But before that, I want to see where your strength and conditioning stands,” he said. Having observed Indian wrestlers from a distance for a few years, he reckons they need to be better equipped in technique and skills. Mental strength is another of his focus areas.
“Look, you guys reach a lot of semi-finals but not enough finals. And you don’t win enough finals either. At the elite level, there’s very little that separates the best from the rest, and Indian wrestlers sometimes miss that cutting edge,” he said.
“You need to be stronger, technically, physically and mentally. A wrestler draws confidence from his/her strength and conditioning. Then comes the technical skills and tactical acumen. And then comes the execution on the mat. If your fundamentals are not correct, no matter how good you are, you’ll struggle in big matches,” he said.
While India has traditionally done well in lighter weights in both men and women, the heavier classes have failed to produce any significant success. Butler feels that’s due to a combination of poor conditioning and a lack of skills.
“A lot of your heavier weight guys are slow on the mat, whereas if you look at USA or Iran, their heavyweights are as agile as the lightweights. Your legs give up too quickly. That’s down to skills, training, muscle fibre and technique,” he noted.
“Wrestling fundamentally is agnostic to weight divisions. Generally, I feel you guys need to scramble more. Also, the wrestlers need to take ownership of their bouts instead of always looking over their shoulders. They should be smart and equipped enough to make decisions on the mat,” he added.
Butler will be in India in for “3-4 weeks leading up to the Asian Games”. He’ll also have the flexibility to carry out his other assignments while co-ordinating high-performance programme with Indian coaches virtually. “Of course, ideally, I’d have wanted to spend as much time in India as possible, but I have a young family to take care of. I’ll fly down 3-4 weeks before every major event and I’ll also take some promising wrestlers to my facility, Silverback Wrestling Club, back home, for better exposure,” he said.
Butler also impressed upon the need to find the balance between efficiency and training. Most Indian wrestlers grow up training twice a day, six days a week, with a session each early morning and in the evening. Tell that to Butler, and his eyes pop out. “Seriously?” he exclaimed.
“There has to be a smarter way to train. Rest and recovery are as critical as training, and overtraining does more harm than good. Why can’t we have a movie night once in a while? Why can’t we, instead of starting our morning session at 4-5am, start at 10am, followed by lunch and some rest and sign off with a gym session in the evening? Wrestlers should get enough sleep…it’s as important as their diet,” he said.
“We’ll have to go about the course correction gradually, taking everyone on board. I don’t think short-term measures work if you want sustained success. I want to see India dominate international wrestling for 20-30 years, and not just think about their next Olympic medal. At the Asian Games level, I want a medal in each weight category. You guys have that potential,” Butler said.
