The Hindu: Indian hockey chief coach gives a thumbs up to new HIL rule

Indian hockey’s chief coach Roelant Oltmans gave a thumbs up to the new goal-scoring rule to be introduced in next year’s Hockey India League, but felt if the system is used at the international level, world champion Australia will definitely have an edge over others.

Oltmans was full of praise for the new system, but jokingly said he was relieved that the new rule will not be in place at the Rio Olympics.

“The nice thing about hockey is that it’s always searching for new ideas, new developments. For many years people have been saying that penalty corners have too much of an influence on the final results of the game, so I think it’s a good idea to test new things in this kind of major events and see how it works out,” Oltmans told.

“The dragflickers have to score, it’s very simple. I think it’s a good idea to look into it, to see if people are trying to score more field goals. The only thing is that it might help the Australians a little bit more in future because they are the masters in field goals,” he said.

“The good thing is that until Rio Olympics we will not play with this rule apart from the HIL,” he added.

According to the new rules to be introduced in the fourth edition of HIL, which has been approved by FIH Competitions and Rules Committee, two goal points will be awarded for every field goal to encourage skillful and tactical hockey. To curb rough tackles and maintain discipline among players, two goal points will be awarded to every penalty-stroke goal scored other than resulting from penalty corner.

Also, to ensure spirited and fair play among all players, a side will enjoy the advantage of being awarded two goals for every goal scored from a penalty stroke, which results in a penalty corner due to a deliberate foul. The rest of the system remains the same.

Oltmans, who is also India’s High Performance Director, clarified that contrary to reports, he was only looking to rope in one more support staff.

“During games I am always in a very nice position, I am very low so I can see the legs but if someone is in the stands he will see it differently. And that’s also one of his tasks to give me right information during games to get better results,” the Dutchman said.