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Still, at a nascent stage in his footballing career, Ravi Kumar Punia suffered his first injury in 2014, when he tore the lateral meniscus of his right knee. A year later, he had a ligament tear in the same ankle and during his stint in the Calcutta Football League (CFL) in 2017, the Harayana-born defender ended up fracturing his shin bone.
Hoping he had left the plague of injuries behind him, Punia returned to football once again after an extended rehabilitation, but after subsequently tearing his anterior crucial ligaments in both knees the centre-back decided to pull the plug on his beloved professional footballing career. He still keeps a fond memory of his time at Rajasthan United FC, the club he helped get promoted to the I-League in 2021.
But it remains merely as a figment of his memory now rather than the pivotal point of his professional career that it promised to be. However, in some senses, it indeed diverted his attention to a different aspect of football - coaching. After his untimely retirement, Punia, who had completed his D and C licensing during the rehabilitation from his injuries, started his coaching career with the Dadra and Nagar Haveli women's team.
Undergoing the mental rigors of recovering from an injury himself probably bred an empathy that has helped him rise through the ranks as a coach. Punia is now deputized as the assistant coach of Indian Women's League outfit HOPS FC.
During an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda, the 31-year-old dived deep into maturing sports medicine and sports science in Indian football with the inception of the Indian Super League (ISL).
"Previously, there wasn't much awareness about injuries. But with the start of the Indian Super League and the introduction of high-profile foreign coaches and physios, we started learning a lot about injuries, diets, and recovery. When we suffered an injury, there was no practice of proper rehab. Neither we went for a proper warm-up, nor a proper cool-down. Because there was no one to advise us we used to take painkillers and ignored the injury even if it was for an insignificant match," the tactician revealed.
"For any athlete or player, injuries are very difficult to deal with. See you're already sidelined, you have to recover, you have to regain the fitness level of a normal human being first, then push for proper strength training to regain your full fitness, and then you have to compete with your teammates to return to the team and then the first XI. Hence, the players who can come back after injuries have to be mentally incredibly strong," he added.
Punia also highlighted that the implication of any significant injury on the pitch isn't just limited to the footballing aspect. We often seem to overlook that these footballers are also the sole breadwinners in their families and a career-threatening injury can strangle their subsistence.
"You also have to consider the family pressure and financial struggle that a player goes through once they suffer an injury. There's so much uncertainty surrounding you, so it becomes challenging to cope with all these factors," he stated.
Now on the other end of the touchline, the former defender has earned a lot of wisdom and dissects the importance of learned coaches in propagating awareness regarding injuries.
"What happens with coaches who have in-depth knowledge and awareness about injuries is that they can advise the players on every minute aspects like the amount of food or water one should intake or the multivitamins they need to take. That helps to prevent injuries even before they occur," Punia explained.
"Secondly, if you're injured, these experienced coaches have a separate routine for a proper recovery. As sports science is also developing, a good dietician and physio is important for every team and it helps the team remain fitter and perform better," he added.
"I couldn't leave football completely" - Ravi Kumar Punia talks about his transition into coaching
There's an evident pain in Ravi Kumar Punia's voice when he talks about the harrows of his professional career. In a family of volleyball lovers and professionals, he nurtured a love for a game that hadn't captured the imagination of Haryana at the time.
How difficult was it to bid farewell to his playing career? Well, as you might have guessed, his narration almost borrows pages from the diary of a forlorn lover.
"My entire family is heavily involved with volleyball but I decided to take up football because I love the game. And anytime you have to part ways with something or someone you love, it's very difficult. But it's not like a left it all of a sudden. I tried recovering from my injuries, even played in the Rajasthan league, but I got injured again. So mentally it was very difficult to accept the fate," he averred.
"My friends and family made me understand that rather than constantly going through this tenacious process, I should focus on something else. I was already working with the ESIC Ministry of Labour and Employment in Ahmedabad at the time. But I couldn't leave football completely and so I decided to switch my profession and start coaching," Punia continued.
While an inopportune curtain might have come down on his playing career, his decision to jump ship and initiate his coaching career comes at a time, that Punia himself believes is a fruitful period for the Indian coaches. Across clubs of all strata, there's a growing reliance on native tacticians, which was previously lacking.
"At present, I think Indian coaches are being preferred across the board. Look at most ISL clubs and they'll have at least one assistant Indian coach and some teams even have Indian head coaches. The same can be said about I-League as well. So I don't think it can anymore be said that there isn't enough focus on Indian coaches. The AIFF are now trying to equip the coaches with better knowledge and train them about the evolving techniques across the globe," the HOPS FC gaffer averred.
"Women's football is developing at a tremendous pace" - HOPS FC assistant coach Ravi Kumar Punia
The former Bharat FC centre-back's coaching career came to fruition when to took over the top job at the Dadra and Nagra Haveli women's team in 2021. Soon after, he tasted the euphoria of success when he led Haryana to Junior Girl's National Football Championship.
At HOPS FC, run by the HOPS Dharam Foundation, Punia found a club that aligned with his vision for football, and also a club that trusted his tactical acumen. In 2022, he led the Haryana-based outfit to a quarter-final finish in the Indian Women's League and now in the following season, he has returned as an assistant coach at the club.
"HOPS Dharam Foundation doesn't just simply operate as a football club, it gives all these girls from economically challenged backgrounds a shot at a better future. They support the players if there's an injury or otherwise as well," Punia said.
Shifting the focus of the conversation to the HOPS FC's performance in the IWL, Ravi Kumar Punia discussed their ongoing season, where they currently stand fifth in the standings.
"This season has been slightly up-and-down for us as players like Renu Rani, Rajni Bala, and Tannu, who play in the senior national team, got injured at the start of the season. But still, our team has been playing quite well, but the problem is, we haven't been able to finish our chances. We have shown that there's plenty of quality with our 5-1 victory over Kickstart FC or the 2-1 win against Sethu FC. Now we have a month break and hopefully, after that my players will be back to full fitness and we'll try to aim for the top-three spots," he elaborated.
Institutions quite like HOPS FC have been silently pushing the envelope for the development of women's football in the country. And Punia is incredibly hopeful for the future of the game.
"Being from Haryana, I have seen a lot of women's football over the years. I think five of your girls played in the U-17 FIFA Women's World Cup, then there are players from Haryana in the national team as well. But it's not just about my state, if you talk about Manipur, West Bengal, or Kerala, there's so much talent as well. So considering the development I have seen in women's football, I think our women's team will play in the World Cup before the men's team," he opined.
"You see girls like Manisha (Kalyan) and Jyoti (Chauhan) who are going abroad and playing. Imagine the kind of experience they'll be bringing along to the national team. As a coach, what I've seen in the IWL as well is that there isn't a huge difference between our Indian players and the foreigners playing in the league. So my personal opinion is, that women's football is developing at a tremendous pace," Punia stated.
Ravi Kumar Punia on his coaching inspirations
Only three years into his coaching still, Ravi Kumar Punia is a man hungry to devour all the footballing wisdom at his disposal. In Pushpendra Kundu, currently the head coach of Rajasthan United, Punia found a figure he could idolize and soak in his tactical juices.
“I used to work with Pushpendra Kundu at ESIC, and we played together during our office days. He has always guided me and even now, he looks at matches of my teams and commends me or advices me accordingly," he stated.
But among the foreign coaches who have plied their trade on Indian soil, who has Ravi taken a liking for? The answer is a bit of a surprise given the briefness of the said individual's stint.
"I personally love Mumbai City FC and I have great admiration for the work Petr Kratky is doing there. Be it his playing style, his combination, his decision-making, and his treatment of players, I follow everything. I had an opportunity to meet him earlier, but I would love to sit down with him and discuss a lot more," the Haryana-born replied.
Ravi Kumar Punia's injury-ridden is a testament to his ability to reinvent himself despite tripping on the obstacles that life has presented his way. But his capability to instill this resilience into HOPS FC and beyond will define his still-nascent coaching career in a climate he deems favorable for Indian coaches.
