When he is not watching his ward from behind his black glasses, Dr Klaus Bartonietz comes across as a cool and colourful character. The German biomechanics expert took over as Neeraj’s coach from compatriot and former world record holder Uwe Hohn during the youngster’s rehabilitation after an elbow surgery in 2018. Bartonietz’s contract has been extended till the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK from his home in Germany, Klaus talks of Chopra, his strengths, weaknesses, and the plan going forward. Excerpts:
Q\ How would you describe 2022 for you and Neeraj?
A\ It was a late start to the training year (December 2021), but we still got good results after only six months of training. In his first competition this season, Neeraj threw a personal best of 89.30m (he later threw 89.94m). He had stable competition results; he averaged 88.57m in the seven competitions, became world number four, won a medal (silver) at the World Championships and won the Diamond league final. However, not having the big powerful muscles to throw the javelin far caused problems. It became limiting and required a lot of attention.
Q\ How does working with Neeraj compare with your stints with other athletes?
A\ The performance level has increased internationally at the top in the past 10 to 20 years. The structure of the competition period changed dramatically in the past decade (from one main competition a year to two, three or even four in 2022). This affects how you train.
On working with Neeraj, he has deep and productive/creative reflections about his own training, and about the effects of different training methods. He is a hard but smart worker (he knows when enough is enough) and in the competition period he is mentally strong.
Q\ What is Neeraj’s most endearing quality?
A\ The thrower’s genetics... influence his trainability for strength/speed, his nervous system (to deal with competition stress), his recovery capacity and also his social competency. This is hard to quantify. It is amazing to see how a kid from a very “normal” rural place developed in his social environment such basic skills and abilities to become a world-class athlete. Another interesting and worthy of mention trait of his personality is the capacity to learn, physically and academically (for example, improvement in language). In any other social-training environment, with a strong focus on decathlon (like Germany, the US, France and others), my guess is that Neeraj would have become the “king of athletes”.
Q\ What makes you angry or irritable when it comes to Neeraj?
A\ What amuses me about Neeraj and other Indian athletes, as well as most support staff members, is the strong addiction to Indian food when we are abroad. There is nothing bad about it, it is just unusual for me. As far as putting on weight is concerned, losing it by hard work is a natural thing, and not a problem for a healthy athlete.
Q\ How did you keep track of what Neeraj did in the off season, given that he gained too much weight last time?
A\ Yes, I was keeping track. I tried to keep contact as much as possible, but he also needed enough privacy.
Q\ What are your plans for him in terms of training?
A\ Achieving general and specific strength, throwing power, sprints, jumps―at least all at the level of the past two years. Also, to bring more efficiency (a technical issue). I am sure, and Neeraj also knows, that his release speed was high enough to achieve over 90m, and the consistent 89m throws underline this. We will focus on using the aerodynamics more efficiently.
Q\ How do you ensure the 90m talk does not put pressure on him?
A\ It is just a number. Neeraj is cool enough to understand this. This is public/media hype.
Q\ In terms of his performances, what has satisfied you the most?
A\ For me, Neeraj becoming a stable 88m-89m thrower last year was very satisfying. This is a good base to achieve the >90m level.
Q\ How easy or difficult is it to convince Neeraj to do something new or different?
A\ Neeraj is always open to new ideas or exercises, but analyses them on how useful they are. A good example was the introduction of gymnastics. He has also started aqua-conditioning.
Q\ What has been the biggest learning experience of being Neeraj’s coach?
A\ For me, the biggest learning was how to deal with the irrational hype in the public/media about Neeraj’s results.