NEW DELHI: The Glasgow Commonwealth Games had a positive impact on the Indian women’s hockey team despite a fifth-place finish.
Under coach Neil Hawgood, the team followed rigorous fitness regime and put in extra efforts on field to ensure a better performance in the Incheon Asian Games starting September 19.
The camp, which has been in continuation before April’s Champions Challenge and the CWG, trained its focus for the Asian Games from Aug 5 in Patiala and was shifted to the Capital last week.
Hawgood said the girls were introduced to tougher training to improve concentration and worked on organizing players on field.
“Post Glasgow, we have been working on areas like goal scoring abilities, little bit on defensive area as we conceded too many soft goals. We have been trying to organize better so everyone focuses on their job rather than the ball and hopefully that will make the difference,” the coach told TOI on Wednesday.
“Hopefully, fitness will lift a lot of them,” he added, continuing, “We have been working on fitness as we realized that we were low on that front in Glasgow. We have undergone 2-3 weeks of real hard work. The girls are quite tired but we have flattened them with a lot of running after hard training session and hopefully that will improve their concentration because that’s (lack of concentration on field) what’s costing us.”
Goalkeeping and conceiving soft goals during high-intensity matches was another area that the team worked on. The keepers and coach underwent a 10-day camp in Malaysia in June under David Bell, who has been the head coach of the Australian women’s team and goalkeeping coach for the men’s team.
“The experience in Malaysia was good. There has been a big improvement in the variations our goalkeeping coach brings during training. Our keepers have never been exposed to world class information and this was the first time. I am sure it will come handy in tight matches,” Hawgood said.
Hawgood also pointed that Glasgow was successful in terms of penalty conversions, an area that’s generally considered a weak area in the Indian women’s team. “Our team converted nearly 40% penalties in Glasgow. Drag flicker Jaspreet is back and that has given us more variety in our corners,” he said.
“The experience in Glasgow was positive as compared to the Champions challenge. We went into the Champions Challenge not having played many international tournaments whereas we had 15 matches under our belt before Glasgow,” he pointed.
Talking about the expectations from the Incheon Games, the Australian said the team will be looking to make the finals. “If we don’t finish in Top-4, we will be in trouble. My expectation is to make the final if we don’t then I will be disappointed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ritu Rani, who was on Wednesday named the captain of a 16-member squad for the Asian Games, is targeting the yellow metal to give India a direct qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“We have our penalty corner specialist Jaspreet who has worked very hard and we will be banking on her for corners. In Incheon, topping the pool will be our immediate target. We want to qualify for Rio and the team finishing first will get that opportunity,” Ritu said.
The squad: Savita (GK); Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Deepika (VC), Sunita Lakra, Namita Toppo, Jaspreet Kaur, Sushila Chanu, Monika; Midfielders: Ritu Rani (C), Lilima Minz, Amandeep Kaur, Chanchan Devi Thokchom; Forwards: Rani Rampal, Poonam Rani, Vandana Katariya, Navjot Kaur.