Misc. news about Indian hockey

[ssp]

Yes Sameer, reasonable showing apart from that collapse against NZL.

The whole year was like that. Some encouraging results followed by some rubbish (Azlan Shah Cup, Rio, Asia CT). The highlight was the CT silver and that great fight v. Australia in the final. So overall, it was steady progress rather than a giant leap. If we can sort out the defence and unearth a couple of creative midfielders (return of Dharamvir and Gurbaj and maybe Nilakanta Sharma stepping up) and dropping the dross in the current squad, 2017 & 2018 may bring some genuine success.

[Qualia11]

Now that Mr Batra has become FIH president, the HI President has to be taken over by someone else.

Hope that helps in bringing in the required changes in terms of selection policy and also give a free hand to the coach

[Moon]

http://indianexpress.com/article/sports ... s-4437910/

"Immediately after the Rio Olympics, Roelant Oltmans had a brief, yet significant, message for his players: the core group of players for 2018 World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Games will be shuffled when the team regroups in March 2017.
Their performance in junior World Cup and Hockey India League, the senior team coach told the players, will be an important criteria for inclusion."

"Oltmans dropped a hint that some players may announce their retirement after the HIL. “Most players have their future plans in place. I know it’s disappointment some times. But it’s also a relief. I know already players who have decided to retire after the Hockey India League. I won’t say names because I feel it’s their decision,” he said."

[Moon]

http://www.firstpost.com/sports/hockey- ... 66532.html

"Rajinder Singh Sr, who coached the junior team to the World Cup title in 2001 and also the 2003 Asia Cup title when India beat Pakistan in Kuala Lumpur, doesn’t believe there would be long-term benefits. “It will be forgotten in a week or so,” he says. “And the same system will be back. Nobody will spend time to use this win to create a lasting impact.” Rajinder, who was part of the 1980 Moscow Gold medal winning team and is also one of the very few to coach a school, Union Academy, to the Junior Nehru Cup title, believes neglect at the school and college level has virtually ended grass root level growth. “We as a nation always want to look from the top down but not the other way,” he explains. “In the last 25 years, has anybody prepared a blue-print on how to revive university hockey again? Yes, there is the Champions College tournament from the Nehru Hockey Society but where and who knows about the inter-university hockey that at one point was the only source of almost every Olympian who played for India.”

[ssp]

I know already players who have decided to retire after the Hockey India League. I won’t say names because I feel it’s their decision

I can only think of Sardar who is near retirement stage. All the others are relatively young (25-28 yrs old). It will be sad tosee Sardar go, because he has been a wonderful player for us for nearly a decade.

[prasen9]

Sardara is not the old Sardar but I think he still keeps his place on merit. As long as he does that and his fitness is there, he should play. It will indeed be sad if he retires before his time is up. Maybe some of the others will retire even if they are around 30?

[arjun2761]

Yes, Sardara has definitely been on the decline over the last couple of years. However, he is still playing at a high enough level to justify his place on the team currently.

[ssp]

33 players have been selected for the forthcoming Azlan Shah Cup

http://fieldhockey.com/index.php/commen ... be-ignored

Gurbaj, Raghunath and Devendar Walmiki are missing. Raghnath wanted a break so may feature in future, but the other 2 should have been selected. Gurbaj is arguably our best player, yet HI continue to play their silly games. Dharamvir misses out too. he looked a bit rusty in the HIL, but is surely a better bet than Uthappa.

Glad to see several of the U21 world champions making the squad, although, Armaan Qureshi has been ignored. I'm particularly pleased to see Gurinder, Dipsan and especially, Sumit get in. Also happy to see Danish Mujtaba dropped. Not sure why Jasjit Kular gets another chance, yet Gurjinder misses out.

[ssp]

Looks like Raghunath is not in Oltmans' plans:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 684350.cms

I have been a critic for a long time, but would say he scored some vital goals for us as well as defending gallantly on PCs and am glad about that. His on field play did improve but he was prone to crazy tackles, cards and suicidal dribbles when an easy, safe pass was on. In the HIL he just looked even slower than normal.

We certainly have several options in defence, but need to unearth some real quality in midfield and attack.

[jaydeep]

Good to see Oltmans is working on our players to improve their performance inside the striking circle.

Need to improve goal-scoring skills: Roelant Oltmans

"I'm very happy with our ball possession and the goal scoring opportunities we have created, but I can't say the same thing about the final conversion of chances. That is something that needs to be improved."

Oltmans believes the improvement is more mental than physical. "We are now specifically working on decision-making once we have a goal-scoring opportunity. I believe scoring depends on a lot on decision-making. They have to make the right decisions on when to take a shot at the goal; what is the position of the forward and which skill you need to use at that moment."

[jaydeep]

The in-depth interviews of Elena Norman, Hockey India's CEO, and David John, federation's high performance director about 'Hockey India' project.

Project Hockey: A long way to go for India despite success

If there proper understanding of modern hockey in the core hockey centres of the country?
David: No, the skill level is still very high, but the concentration in the academies is on developing skills and not necessarily a game sense or a game awareness or a different game strategy. And it's not on developing fitness either. That's my role.

And that comes later...
David: Well, I want that being developed from a young age. I don't want them coming at 18, and having to start at that stage. I want to start at 12 years of age, like they do in other countries. We are making efforts in bringing their fitness levels up when we should be spending that time and money on game awareness and tactics, strategies.
Elena: And this is where our coaching development programme that David is currently putting in place will help. I think all the coaches understand what is required now.

Does it need a lot of work?
David: No we just need to get on the same page. In all respect, they haven't caught up to the modern game. I don't want the Indian players to lag behind again simply because the game has changed significantly with the 4x15 minutes (four quarters of 15 minutes each) format. At the academy level we are still playing 2x35 (two halves, 35 minutes each).

What exactly is the shift from 2x35 to 4x15?
David: Speed. The game is so much faster. The reactions are so much faster. I sometimes call it chaos. There are so many substitutions happening. You are on the field for three minutes at a time generally and rotating continuously. It's demanding physically and mentally and that's the change.

But is it also less demanding in terms of skill?
David: I don't think so, because you now have to perform your skills under fatigue at top speed.

We don't have genuine players of skill who can take on defenders, get past them. We had those players in the 70s...
David: It's actually become a 3-dimensional game, so because the attack line is so good, the flat attack line, the players you are talking about now in other countries are using three dimensional skills - lifting the ball and carrying the ball. Akashdeep has that ability but he doesn't do it enough. And I see young Indian players do it at junior level. But I don't see them doing it under pressure in matches yet. And I am very conscious of not creating robotic players. I want the Indian flair to come.

But are you saying that dribbling cannot happen anymore?
David: Yes it can, but the tackling is so much better than it was. Yes, when we are trying to get the ball out of defence, players use very close skills to pass the ball. Sardar still has brilliant dribbling skills.

How many astroturfs do we have in India, 30 or 40?
Elena: We have got around 125 and there are 25 under construction. We are putting in international standard astroturfs. So we probably have the highest number of international certified turfs now in the world now.

What's the kind of statistics are you looking in a hockey player?
David: In the past, it's been team-based statistics - how many circle entries, how many shots you hit, the percentage of time spent in your position. I am more concerned about the individual, like how involved they are, how effective they were with their passing, attacking and tackling; what's their decision making like. Just like there has been a change in the fitness levels over the four years, we have to start selecting and talent identifying the best decision makers at an early age.

You think that's an inner skill because somebody like Sardar had it from a young age?
David: Yeah, it's very difficult. And I call that game awareness. So when we come to talent identification now, we look at three criteria - fitness, skill level and game sense. So we can have someone who is not as fit, not as fast but has extremely good game sense and we can put Sardara in that region now.

Of these things would you say skill is the easiest to work on?
David (laughs): No, fitness is easiest to work.

As far as diet is concerned, was it tough to get the Indian players eat the right way?
David: I actually think Indian food is pretty healthy. I have lost 9 kilos since I came here (laughs). So one thing I tried to do when I first came was to increase the size of the players by putting on the muscles which will increase your speed and to do that you need extra protein. So we use weight protein and SAI provide us with enough weight proteins for every camp. It's also very important for their recovery because of the training, sometimes three times a day and to prevent injury, they need that extra source.

You are running a huge project. So is the money enough? Is the government paying you enough money?
Elena: We have never been short of getting money for what we need, what we really need. So pretty much anything we will ask the ministry and SAI for that we really need for the team, they have never said no to us.

[ssp]

HI has selected this team for a European tour to play Belgium(2 tests) and Holland (2) and Austria (1)

Goalkeepers: Akash Anil Chikte, Suraj Karkera;
Defenders: Dipsan Tirkey, Kothajit Singh, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Varun Kumar;
Midfielders: SK Uthappa, Harjeet Singh Manpreet Singh (Captain), Chinglensana Singh (Vice-Captain) Sumit Nilakanta Sharma;
Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh,Armaan Qureshi.

Mandeep & Uthappa are the only real odd (undeserving) selections, which is way better than usual (!). Obviously the plan is to try out some new faces and see if any of these guys can step up. I suspect the results won't be much different if we sent our most experienced team -as shown by the poor showings at the Azlan Shah tournament and the HWL in London. Let's hope we can avoid defeat in at least 1 of the matches against Belgium & Holland.

Pleased to see Dipsan, Gurjant, Nilakanta, Varun and Armaan given a chance. Gurinder makes a welcome return and Sumit retains his place. Drag flicking options are Varun and Amit Rohidas.

[jaydeep]

As per the report, Raghunath looks set to announce his international retirement in next few days.

VR Raghunath to hang up his India boots

[suresh]

Retiring at 28? Seems a little too early. @SSP Have his skills dipped in the recent past?

[ssp]

He has slowed down a little (especially when he walks around when in possession), but it is odd to retire so young. I suspect he has been told by Oltmans or HI that he is no in their future plans and has decided to call it a day himself.

I have been a critic because of his habit of gifting away PCs and lack of mobility, but he has scored some vital goals for us and helped us win a bronze (HWL 2015) and silver(CT2016) as well as golds at Asian level. Compared to previous generations, he has been fairly successful, so well done to him.