The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Indian team benefits from Ravi's contribution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Indian team benefits from Ravi's contribution

S. Thyagarajan

WELCOME ADDITION: Ravi Kanakamedala's appointment as the physio is a big boost to Indian hockey. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI : For long, the Indian Hockey Federation had received flak from several quarters for not paying adequate attention to injuries and turning a blind eye to the appointment of a professional physiotherapist.

The critics have been silenced with the engaging of a qualified physio who attended to the team's needs at the first camp in Hyderabad, and is now here for the final phase before the Champions Trophy.

Ravi Kanakamedala, a name not easily pronounceable, a gangling 28-year physiotherapist is performing what he "calls a Herculean task.''

What makes the Tenali-born, and a long time resident of Visakhapatnam, special in the sophisticated area of sports physiotherapy is his professional work in treating sports injuries at the famous Hobart Sports Clinic in Australia.

Trained under Australia's Olympic physio, Peter Eckhart, Ravi is specialising on sports injuries devoted to competitive hockey.

He has treated serious complications and succeeded in getting into shape such renowned Aussie hockey stars as Matthew Wells and Zin Wright.

He has been associated with the Tasmania State senior and junior teams for the last three years.

The HSC has specialists to treat injuries in several disciplines like athletics, rugby, hockey, cricket, tennis and squash.

Armed with the Bachelor's Degree in physiotherapy from the MGR Institute of Medical Research (Chennai), Ravi left in 1999 for his Masters at Auckland, where he came under the renowned Kiwi hockey team's physio, Wayne Hing. Then he moved over to the Tasmanian capital.

Surprised

A chance meeting with Indian expatriates at Perth last year stirred Ravi's imagination to work with the Indian hockey team. "I was honestly surprised when the call came from the IHF."

Ravi says that he is beginning to enjoy the job under conditions to which he is fairly well acclimatised. His immediate task is to set up a physio clinic. He is equipped with a foldable treatment table, ultra-sound machines and quite a few gadgets to get at the root of a problem. At the training centre here, he has installed two tubs (for hot and cold baths) for the players as part of the therapy.

"I am happy with where I am,'' Ravi says about his work with the National team so far. He has treated quite a few players since the start of the first camp. Lower back, hamstring and knees are the key areas that are vulnerable in hockey players because of the nature of play.

Bending forward to control the ball is a basic element of hockey, while frequent slap shots bring enormous pressure on hamstring muscles. The players are now under constant biomechanical analysis.

He is happy that the current trainees enjoy a fairly high level of fitness. "At the moment, the training is light,'' he explains.

Ravi, who speaks English with a crisp Australian accent, is also fluent in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. This makes him acceptable to every section in the squad.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport