Women’s hockey team gets ready to kick some butt
Abhimanyu Mathur
The Indian women’s hockey team is in Delhi to prepare for the upcoming World Hockey League Semifinals in South Africa. While the team, which leaves today, has been sweating it out in their training camp every day, they had a little ‘extra-curricular’ break this week, when the focus shifted briefly from hockey to contact sports like kickboxing and boxing.
On Tuesday, the team visited a kickboxing gym in Greater Kailash as part of Hockey India’s efforts to mix some fun with their intense training. The girls put on their boxing gloves and tried some ‘jabs’ of a different kind under the surveillance of their trainers.
During an hour-long session, they were taught some basic punching and kicking techniques as well as light exercises to improve footwork. Rahul, a trainer at the gym, told us, “We focused on functional training. The coach told us that even in hockey, they have to ‘jab’ with their sticks if they want to pass or shoot. So we worked on improving their punches and jabs and building on other skills, which come in handy in both boxing and hockey.”
The team’s chief coach Sjoerd Marijne was quite pleased with the girls’ workout. He said, “An important goal here was to have fun. We’re always on the hockey pitch, training. Sometimes it’s good to get away from that for a while and that’s what we did today. The girls had a lot of fun. They had really good instructors and I’m happy with that.” According to the girls, the biggest help they got was with respect to footwork.
Rani Rampal, the team captain, said, “In hockey, we have to be quick on our feet, particularly when defending. Footwork is just as important in boxing too and the trainers helped us get better with that.” In fact, the players were positive that apart from the fun they had in the session, it might also help them improve their game. Sushila Chanu said, “It was great fun but quite useful too. I’m sure what we learned about footwork will come in handy on the field too.”
But it wasn’t only their tryst with boxing that the girls had during their stay in the capital. The following morning, they were paid a surprise visit in their training camp by Olympic medalist Mary Kom. In a brief interaction, the accomplished boxer spoke to the team about the importance of never being afraid of any opponent and always being proud of one’s background. “I always had the aim of achieving financial stability for my family through boxing. It is very important for one to be proud of their background and to showcase it in front of the world,” she told the team.