INDIAN TEAM AT JUNIOR WORLD CUP HOCKEY TOURNAMENT
Poor performance phase of Indian hockey continues both at senior and junior level. Even off the field differences between various factions – at the cost of World Cup Hockey Championship being taken away, is a cause for worry.
Indian Junior team’s performance in the pool stage of Junior World Cup was dismal with only Holland being a team of repute in the pool. Our draw with New Zealand proved costly. Thus we had to go through the ignominy of fighting for places 9th and below. In the minor placing matches we did score convincing wins – too little too late. We ultimately finished 9th.
The point at issue now is that should we look for excuses or remedy. Blaming poor umpiring, match fixing, off day or bad luck may not help. What will be of use for future will be thread bare analysis of drawbacks noticed and sincere effort to remove them. With no live coverage of the matches and very little coverage in the newspapers (what a shame) it is difficult to pinpoint the weaknesses. I am sure the coaches and the support staff would have made notes, not for keeping them as record but for implementation.
Even without seeing the matches live one can imagine what the weakness would have been and the team repeating the same in future. What are these?
At Individual Level
Lack of Skills. Basic skill of stopping / receiving and accurate passing at the right speed is one major weakness. We need to understand the importance and the penalty the team has to pay for every mistake made. The causal attitude of taking the mistakes in stride “chalta hai” has to go. It has to be drilled in each player’s mind that a ball not stopped or mispassed is a goal missed or a goal scored against.
Lack of Confidence. Poor individual skills in self lead to lack of self confidence in self and poor skills in team-mates leads to lack of confidence in fellow players, a very dangerous and harmful combination.
Lack of comprehension. The inability to read the game properly in advance leads to late reaction and always leaves you a step behind your opponents, a luxury a team can ill afford on astroturf. A player has to be on his toes both physically and mentally. One cannot be out of the game, even when sitting on the bench. The bench is the ideal place to learn hockey. You can study and analyse the game better when not directly under pressure. As you could go in as a substitute any time you must be involved in the game analyzing strong and weak points of opposing team’s players that can be exploited.
At team level.
Lack of control in midfield
Midfield is the backbone of any team. Its coordination with forwards and support to the deep defence are crucial. Players with good ball control and understanding of the game are a must for manning the mid-field. Poor midfield play would starve the forwards and put extra pressure on deep defence. Under pressure chances of committing mistakes multiply.
Letting in Soft Goals
The team has always been let down by conceding soft goals at crucial times, specially so in the last ten minutes. One of the reasons could be fatigue. Another main reason is poor marking of players. A goal can only be scored by a player by getting the ball directly to him or by making use of open space. Therefore there is a requirement to mark the individual players as well as cover the open space. We tend to lay more emphasis on marking the open spaces rather than the players. It should be the other way round. Ultimately it is the player that matters when it comes to scoring.
Inability to implement Strategy and Tactics
Firstly we believe very little in strategy. If we do have one, the tactics employed to put that strategy in use are rarely implemented by the players. Once the game starts every player seems to be on his own. Our build up to our plans has to be deliberated with confidence. Our over anxiety and haste leads to avoidable mistakes.
It is time we list our weaknesses and remove them on by one. But are we sincere in our approach?
Note: HJS Chimniis a world cup goldmedallist, organizer of a well known tournament and a social activist.
3 Comments
Mr. Chimi has given good suggestions. Coaches should listen to such people. How long can we keep losing?
I have no comments on what the writer wrote. I can’t also. I have no doubts on the credientials either. The writer has an extremely respected and experienced in various categories.
However, it is written by himself that he didn’t watch the matches.
Advisory Commentary on matches that a person has not watched sounds like, ‘I know the mistakes they would have committed.’
That sentiment, which is very well present in the whole article, gives a feeling that the writer is biased.
May be, just may be, the coach has tried new things and some worked, others might not have, but no one ‘saw’ it, so it’s difficult to judge.
This is what I feel.
Mr. shashank G, I’m 100% agree with you.writer is a very inteligent and having deep hockey knowladge, but at the same time we may call him full of biased views. if we go through his viws than Indian team was having -0 level, b’cause he has pointed that Indians were poor in all the fields.No sir, if u go through the results, NZ land played semis so how can u say no team was of repute other than Holland. pls go through the blogs written by so many people saw the matches, its full of praise for indian boys. I don’t say that 9th place is a good achievement but this is also criticised by people that Holland coach fielded theire 5 bench player against NZ and played 2-2 draw to deprive India for quali. where as they beat NZ 4-1 convincingly in semis.sir, when India use to win gold even that time also it was close fight with Holland, Germany etc.. so sir pls be positive.