Times of India: You should play to win, not to defend: Oltmans
By Manuja Veerappa
BENGALURU: There are two ways to look at the Indian hockey team’s performance at the Rio Olympics. One, they fared better than their 12th place finish in London in 2012. The other: they showed promise but in the end it panned out to be all bluff and bluster. High performance director and chief coach of the senior side Roelant Oltmans sees both facets in his team’s eighth-place finish.
“We analyse after every tournament. We look forward and see where we want to go.What we do is: identify the problem areas; try to bring in changes and do better in certain areas and circumstances,” said Oltmans on the eve of the selection trials of the team for the Asian Champions Trophy to be held in Malaysia next month.
Dwelling on the key areas they need to work on, the Dutchman pointed out, “We need to work on a few new ways of playing in the midfield and we also want to give some attention to positioning of the forwardline. We also need to improve in skill, execution and penalty corners.”
The 62-year-old said the team is improving and it is a long-term process. “We are really close to the top sides in the world. Look at the way we competed against teams like Germany, The Netherlands and Argentina. Those were very good games for us. Now the big step is to show we can perform consistently. Not just perform well but get the results too.”
Oltmans asserted that age will not be a factor to retain players in the team. “Seven in the gold-winning Argentina team were above 30. What matters is fitness, experience and the role they play. Age doesn’t matter. I test them not only physically but mentally too. Mentally they should be into the game at the top level. They are not here just to play, they have to be eager to win the next game.”
‘Women’s team lacks experience’
The Indian women’s hockey team is back at the camp in Bhopal, dejected but not defeated. The high of their maiden qualification for the Olympics was shadowed by the sacking of skipper Ritu Rani, who announced her retirement on Wednesday, and their 12th-place finish. But the young team is looking to put the Olympics behind and start afresh. High performance director Roelant Oltmans said the key drawbacks of women’s hockey is cultural difference and lack of experience.
“In India I can’t think of a women player who is still playing at 31. Most of them get married and settled down by that age. That is the problem of Indian women’s hockey. They lack experience and exposure and at the domestic level they hardly have any tournaments.”