How Olympic hurdler Jagmohan Singh made Indian hockey team the fittest in 1973 World Cup

Players remember him as hard taskmaster who introduced scientific training methods
CHANDIGARH: Former Indian hockey captain MP Ganesh vividly remembers how Olympic hurdler Jagmohan Singh used to visit their hostel at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, every morning at 5 am just to note down the heart rate of each player.
"Six months before the 1973 World Cup, it was an everyday routine.Jagmohan Singh would wake us all sharp at 5 in the morning to check our heart rate. He then used to plan a training schedule for all the individuals. His approach towards hockey made selectors' life quite easy," Ganesh told TOI about Jagmohan Singh, who represented India in 110m hurdles in the 1960 Rome Olympics. He was the national champion in this event from 1958 to 1960.
The former Olympian died of a heart attack at his residence in Patiala on Tuesday. He was 88.
At the 1968 Games in Mexico, the Indian hockey team finished third and won a bronze for the first time in an Olympics. In Munich 1972, India again finished with a bronze medal. The Indian team was criticised for not being able to steamroll the opposition. The team also faced criticism for its inability to compete with the physicality of European teams.
To fix this problem, Jagmohan Singh was appointed as the fitness and physical conditioning coach in 1973, six months before the World Cup in the Netherlands. Jagmohan had specialised in physical fitness and sports conditioning from the University of West Germany in Cologne in 1965 and he introduced scientific training methods in hockey.
"Back then, people used to say that the Indian team lacked physicality against the European teams. Jagmohan Singh was brought to improve our fitness, and he did take that team to another level. He brought athleticism to the team and told us about the importance of gym and weight training. He was a hard taskmaster but a kind-hearted man," recalls former hockey captain Ajit Pal Singh.
Jagmohan remained with the Indian hockey team till the Montreal Olympics in 1976.
"He used to take us to the Army Cantonment in Subathu (Himachal Pradesh) for high altitude training. He introduced us to strength training. I was lucky to lead that team for the World Cup in 1973. It was the fittest Indian hockey team to date. We were the only team who used to do a 45-minute warm-up before every match. In the semifinal, Pakistani players even taunted us that we were there just for the warm-up and will not be able to finish the match. But we did well and went on to beat them in the semis. Unfortunately, we lost in the finals to the host Netherlands in the penalty shootout," says Ganesh, who was the captain of the Indian hockey team during the 1973 World Cup.
For Ashok Kumar, a pivotal member of the 1973 team, Jagmohan Singh brought discipline to Indian hockey. "Before he was made the fitness and physical conditioning coach, we were disorganised. There was a lack of discipline too. He made us believe that fitness should be the top priority," he says.
"Initially, we were reluctant to follow his methods. Our mentality was that we are hockey players, and why is he telling us to do the athletics drills. The forward line used to do a 100m sprint 30 times in a day, and then there were 10 rounds of 400m. It was tough, but I must say that was the fittest team I ever played with," adds Kumar.
In the late 1950s, there used to be an intense rivalry between Milkha Singh and Jagmohan Singh for the 110m hurdles. Later on, Milkha started to focus on 100m, 200m, 400m sprints, and Jagmohan made the 110m hurdle race his own.
Shattered by the demise of his former teammate, Milkha Singh says: "I am devastated. We have shared so many great memories together, in the national camps and playing for India in the Olympics and Asian Games. He used to be my competitor in the 110m hurdle race."
TOI also tried to contact Jagmohan's fellow hurdle racer Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, but the grief-stricken Olympian refused to comment.