Champions Trophy this year has been high scoring which made the matches more interesting. The teams on display played clinically efficient hockey. Their level of individual skills, understanding, positioning, opportunism and ability to score field goals as well as penalty corner conversion has been encouraging. Also the ability of the teams to stage a comeback even after being 3-4 goals down has been remarkable.

One of the main reasons to make the game interesting from spectators point of view is the introduction of the new rule – ‘self start” permitting a player to tap the ball and start the game without waiting for and passing to any other player has speeded up the game and opened up more options. The flow of the game has improved. There is more continuity with very little time to recover resulting in more number of goals.

I see this rule to be a disadvantage to the Indian team. With game becoming faster with very little breathing time the demand on stamina and physical fitness has increased manifold. Moves and counter moves have gained speed with very little time to organize defence. With this change in rule, tactics employed by teams will also undergo change.

Introduction of referral system to third umpire is a good decision. Though it takes a toll on time and brings discontinuity but increases the satisfaction level amongst the teams.

To avoid unnecessary wastage of time and to increase the actual playtime one change that needs to be brought out is to stop the ‘watch’ once the whistle for a penalty corner is blown; on the lines of a penalty stroke. It is seen that too much time is wasted in executing a penalty corner for various reasons specially by the defending team. The average time wasted may be 30-40 seconds for each penalty corner. Multiply this by the number of penalty corners awarded in a match and you get the answer to total time wasted – that works out to quite a bit.

To re-emphasize,

A few things that stood out during the tournament.

– Physical fitness level of the teams was very high. Most of the teams played with same speed and gusto from the first to the last minute.

– Individual skills level was very high where by the players were able to create opportunities where none existed.

– Confidence in self and fellow players was evident.

– Reading of the game by the players to be at the right place was noteworthy.

– Field goal scoring and penalty corner conversion ability was good.

– ‘Self start’ change in rule has increased options for players who can now tap and change direction of play at will.

– Counter attacks have become faster with very little time for defence to react.

– Overall the game has become faster and interesting leading to more number of goals.

– A lead of 3-4 goals should not dishearten a team. Comeback is possible any time.

– No team remained undefeated. The gap in standard of teams was such that any team could have won the championship.

PS. An interesting observation from the initial matches has been that the teams with higher percentage of possession in opponent’s half lost their matches. Inference drawn could be that by keeping possession of the ball for longer period in opponents half they gave more time to the opposing team to reorganize.

The Indian hockey team should draw their own lessons from the above made observations to rework their tactics & strategy.

Lessons for India

– There is no short cut to physical fitness. Demand on physical fitness is increasing with change in rules specially the tap start rule.

– Individual skills have to be of very high caliber. Skills without physical fitness and physical fitness without skills means nothing.

– As counter attacks will be fast with very little time to reorganize, there must be a balance between offense and defense at all times.

– Swifter counter attacks would lead to more penalty corners. Therefore drills for taking / defending penalty corners to be perfect.

– Tap & start rule to be practiced to gain maximum advantage. With emphasis on exploiting this rule to quickly restart the game; emphasis on slow build up from own half may reduce.