Aman Sehrawat one of the best wrestlers in the world: Coach Lalit Kumar

Dronacharya Award-winning trainer says he is confident that India will produce more champions

Wrestling coach Lalit Kumar has trained many champions for the nation over the years. His latest success is Aman Sehrawat, who was the only male wrestler representing India at the Paris Olympics and won the bronze medal in the 57 kg freestyle category.

Kumar was in 2023 awarded the Dronacharya Award, India's national award for excellence in coaching. He has trained medal-winning wrestlers Sushil Kumar, Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia. Kumar spoke to Shashwat Nishant at Chhatrasal Stadium, the stadium in Delhi that is the training ground for emerging wrestlers. Edited excerpts:

You started training Aman, who is 21, when he was 10 year old. How do you feel that another of your students has won an Olympic medal?

 

You feel great when any of your students does well and wins an Olympic medal. It shows that our hard work and dedication each day are giving us the results we want to achieve. For us, the best return on our hard work is when our athletes go on to achieve greatness.

Are there specific things you want children to learn in terms of building character?

When a child comes to me, we become his first family from that point on. Aman has been with us for more than 10 years now, and in that time he has only visited his home a total of 20-25 times.

Aman's work ethic has often been described the most rigorous among wrestlers

Aman has always been a hard working kid, ever since he was 10 years old. We even take the athletes' phones during their training sessions to avoid distractions. But Aman never had a problem with discipline. He wasn’t very open with the other kids, so he used to talk less as well.

With Aman winning an Olympic bronze, do you think he could become one of the top wrestlers in his category?

In my opinion, he is already one of the best at the moment. He is the second-highest-ranked wrestler in the world and will definitely bring more medals as he matures.

Mental health is essential for athletes. How do you ensure that they are in the right state of mind before a tournament?

You rightly pointed out that mental health is a very important part of an athlete's life. This is why we have at least one or two 10-minute sessions with the children for their psychological well being. We also give them examples of athletes from other nations who carry themselves well.

Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ravi Dahiya encouraged Aman. How much does that help young wrestlers like Aman?

When an aspiring wrestler trains with a world or Olympic-level athlete, his mindset and way of thinking change. When Aman was a junior athlete, we used to train him along with Ravi and tell him that he needs to be like him.

Like Aman, are there any more upcoming wrestlers who win medals?

There are many upcoming athletes who will be fighting for medals. Our girls have won a team title for the first time in the U-17 World Championship with five gold medals. As long as the competition in India keeps improving, we’ll have a lot of good athletes coming up.

How can young people enrol in the academy?
 

This is a Delhi government-owned academy, and we do have trials for children starting from the age of 10 years. We test the basic motor skills of the child and then select some of them.