Need to experiment and take risks

INNOVATION RESULTS when originality is mixed with creativity using imagination, with an eye beyond the obvious. It involves experimenting and taking risk. Innovation, in sports, polished and tested becomes `Brahmastra', an invincible weapon in any encounter. Used as an offensive it lends inspired mobility, crucial confidence and consequently an incisive, penetrating edge. In defence, It provides the much-needed courage to counter and blunt the onslaught of the adversary.

In today's sports when fitness levels are high, when there are no secrets in training methods and when teams face one another so often, the only weapon that can surprise an opponent is an innovative move to catch the adversary unawares. And the weapon once used no more remains innovative. So, one has to innovate all the time to come up with something new every time. The opponent is to be kept on tenterhooks.

The Sidek brothers of Malaysia innovated a `serve' in badminton and the whole badminton world was flabbergasted. No one could tackle their serve. What did they do? They held the shuttle upside down while serving and gave it a slicy cut while hitting, making the fight totally unpredictable. Of course, it is a different matter that the serve was banned. Whether the ban was fair, is another question altogether. What is important is - they innovated.

Bubka, the Russian pole vaulter, used to innovate every time he participated in an international meet and broke the world record, a record thirty four times. That's innovation unsurpassed, unsurpassable.

Every sport has seen innovations during its progress. Twenty years back volleyball players didn't go sliding on their knees. Today the serve has become a powerful weapon and players from nowhere come and smash catching the opponent unawares. The `block' has undergone changes and the `smash' from the back has become common. Dodge smash catches the defenders off guard.

There was a time when a back pass in football was considered an act of timidity. Today it is a strategic weapon. And innovations in kicking make it possible to weave intricate curves, accurate and precise as if the kicking foot has a built-in computer. We have all seen Maradona sending the ball sailing on a long distance curve to be headed precisely into the goal by a waiting team-mate.

Innovations in cricket are unlimited especially after the advent of one-day cricket. To start with setting the field keeping the bowler and the batsman in mind is the biggest test for the captain's innovative ingenuity. Then, to get quick runs `pinch hitter' was an innovation. Opening with a spinner is another and generally in one-day cricket bowling speeds have come down as a matter of strategy. The yorker is bowled a lot more now.

The one sport where only innovations can survive is chess. There is no end to innovations. Every time one has to open in a new way. Set patterns and conventions don't pay. The opponent knows all your previous moves, your whole game. So every time one has to come up with something totally new. One can repeat only at one's own peril.

A billiards champion surpasses Euclid in practical geometry with precise angle calculations every time manipulating position for pot or cannon through myriad of balls. And the Postman's Knock is the real test that sees him through.

Variations, minor or radical are part of innovations and for effecting them deep study, prolonged practice and training are a must. For example, when a player is ready to basket the ball, all hands are up in the air to obstruct it. So instead of jumping and basketing, why not throw the ball under band in a `scoop curve'? Very difficult, as it involves longer distance and great precision. But players are doing it now. Basketball has seen innovation also in passes and basketing from long distances.

Shock innovations like half smash in badminton, smash serve in volleyball, a hypnotising serve in table tennis or scoop curve in basketball have to be developed and mastered with prolonged practice. Then there are innovations that are necessary while facing a particular team or opponent. Depending upon the strong points of the opponent, counter strategies have to be worked out to blunt their attack, block their advances and neutralise their strength. For example if a player is good at the net in badminton, keep him at the baseline or if he is a good smasher, all returns to be kept low, never allowing him to come under the shuttle.

Then there are on the spot innovations one has to resort to in a split second like with a mere turn of the hockey stick the ball is sent to totally unexpected players. And a penalty corner specialist is a great innovator coming up with newer strategies to dodge; strategies that are difficult to read, strategies that take the opponents unawares. Even in making an onslaught or thwarting opponents bid, it is the tactical approach that wins over mere technical play.

While preparing for World Cup in football and hockey, coaches and trainers strain every nerve and the brain cells to put behind traditional and conservative thinking and come up with newer methods in these games. Such preparations are like proxy war and army exercises where counter attacks and newer - thrusts have to be fine-tuned. And to keep the innovations a secret, even during training sessions spectators are not allowed.

Combination of brain and brawn is a must. Innovations are put to severe test by counter innovations. Old concepts are demolished and new ones evolved to add to the stockpile. One, who outwits, wins.

Like innumerable melodies coming out of combination and permutations of the `seven swaras', in sports, innovations can flow from suitable mixing of the basics of strength, stamina, speed, skill, strategy, and psychology. And the one who mixes well sings the winning tune.

J. R. JYOTI

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