New Delhi, 9 Jan 2014: The Indian Chief coach Terry Walsh, a former Aussie Olympian, is from a generation who had Indian hockey in high esteem and as youngsters yearned to achieve those magic dribbling skills.
On Thursday, the 60-year old tactician, an attacking player is his hey days, reminisced about the style of Indian hockey.
“We have to promote a style of hockey that is brand India. Our players understand it and love it. My memory of Indian hockey is very, very powerful. The artistry, the competence and the elegance… its fantastic. We have to bring that to the fore. We have that style and skills and we should make sure we get results,’’ he said at the Pre-event press conference.
But he has his feet firmly on the ground. He has no dreams to bring back that pure style. “For quite a long time, India had tried a mixture of both that old style and some modern traits. We should have a judicious mix which can fetch us results,’’ he added. “Everyone is expecting results. We understand that and we continue to build blocks for our development,’’ he promised.
“We have to make sure that we don’t bring a completely foreign style,’’ he stressed. The Montreal Olympics silver medalist said that he has been focusing on four areas to improve the Indian hockey team; Phsyiological, psychological, tactical and playing basic sills under pressure.
He has no high expectations. His only expectation from this tournament is to measure the improvements. “If we aim for the top-four here or if we finish in top-4 does not mean that we will be in the semifinals of the World Cup. Such expectations are not realistic. If we finish 9th here, my expectation for the Senior World Cup would be to finish in the top-8,’’ he said. Humble beginnings always provide strong foundations.
“We have got a training methodology in place which permits us to work in these four areas. We will also be looking at the level of performance of players and evaluate where they are both as individuals and collectively as a team.”
Walsh has introduced many new things after taking over a couple of months back and his first big tournament will be the World League final where he would assess the team’s strength.
India’s vice-captain and goalkeeper P R Sreejesh is in no mood to think too far ahead and said their present focus is on Friday’s game.
“The first match of every tournament is very important. We just need to concentrate on the match and give confidence to the junior players,” he said.
“There won’t be much pressure because we have got a strong mid-field. We also have got experienced fullbacks. We just have to guide the young forwardline.”
Walsh will be evaluating the team on the improvement that they have shown in the League and how well the team handled the pressure during the tournament. This tournament will help us see if the boys will be applying the techniques that they have learnt over the training sessions with them”.
“The training protocols used internationally are highest rate in top nations and which are completely different from ours. We are trying to bring many of those things in our system especially the physiological part. I know this cannot be done overnight but the team has already started implementing it.”
Meanwhile, India’s opponents in the first match on Friday will be England, who had a good practice session today.. “The team is all geared up for match against India,’’ said chief Coach Bobby Crutchley.
“All the training work is done for the league and team is prepared for Friday’s game with India. No one is injured and the team is ready with their final preparation. We need to focus and use our strength well. Penalty corner is very important as India usually produces good penalty corners. Tomorrow we are expecting huge crowds in India’s support and we will enjoy that moment as that will also boost us to play better”.
England Captain Barry Middleton said: “Everybody is fit. We will play our natural game with full strength. India is a great team with very good and talented players. We will play with our full squad tomorrow. We aim and have good chance to play in semi finals and finals. We will play our best to achieve the goal”.
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