Nobbs wants drag-flickers to be all-rounders

BANGALORE: Drag-flickers or sound field players? Until now, the choice would have been obvious for India’s penalty corner specialists but henceforth, the accent would be on both the roles, essayed with finesse.

In the past too coaches have called upon drag-flickers to look beyond their ability to rifle the ball in from the top of the circle but the results have been mixed, forcing the team to cover up for its blunders in the defence on more on one occasion.

Chief coach Michael Jack Nobbs saw the pitfalls of having too many players pigeonholed as mere drag-flickers when he said: “We would develop them as drag-flickers as well as all-rounders. Take Luke Doerner of Australia, for example. He started off as a great drag-flicker and is now a good player. Likewise, Holland’s Taeke Taekema wasn’t a good player when he started off, but he was a great drag-flicker.”

Nobbs also pointed to Santi Freixa, who has excelled as both a drag-flicker and a goal-getter for Spain in recent times and said India would have to look at investing its proponents with multiple roles.

“It is good to know there are around six such players in the camp,” said Nobbs, referring to Sandeep Singh, VR Raghunath, Diwakar Ram, Rupinderpal Singh and the others. “We would put in place a rotational system and we need 2-3 penalty corner and drag-flick specialists in a team. I don’t know who they are yet. I only know Sandeep, who is probably one of the best in the world. We need to get a few others too.”

With penalty corner coach Jugraj expected to land in a couple of days, Nobbs will discuss the talent at hand and the way forward.

However, he wasn’t in favour of a foreign expert, at least for now. “I have to discuss with Jugraj and see how to work out. I don’t have any foreign specialists in mind. I’d rather have people from here It is very important to keep things Indian at the moment.”

According to Nobbs, the strength of drag-flicker is speed and control. “You can flick too fast and lose control or you could lose speed. There is a certain range of speed that needs to be controlled.”

Nobbs will begin his assessment of India’s drag-flickers once Sports Authority of India procures the equipment for him. He had discussed the issue during the meeting with SAI recently.

“We need to find out how fast they flick. We haven’t gone to that assessment yet since the radar gun is yet to come. Only then will we know where to start from. A radar gun tells the speed a player is flicking at. If there is a problem with the action, then we can change that with bio-mechanics. That is the reason why bio-mechanics and physiology are important.”

Nobbs was all praise for Sandeep and his art. “I have watched Sandeep in Europe. He wins games. He is one of the best in the World. My aim will be to transform him into a better player. I need to get him into our Indian system now. If he has played in a system which does not suit him, then we have to make changes. I don’t want to pre-judge anyone at this point of time. And everyone will be given a chance.”

On Sandeep’s frailties as a defender, he said: “Everyone has good and bad points. We just have to make good points better and try and do our best with the bad ones.”