On a hot Sunday evening, March 31, 2013, during the ongoing Malaysian Hockey league, where Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) had convincingly defeated Nur Insafi club by a margin of 7 – 0, I had an opportunity to strike up a casual conversation with Mohammed Imran, captain of the current Pakistan hockey team, and now playing for the KLHC, who seemed to be in a good mood. Obviously, as his club team had just won!

Mind you, I am a complete stranger to this young man, as we were meeting for the first time. Here is how the conversation went.

“Mohammed, do you think that the silky skills of former Pakistani greats, Manzoor junior and Shabaz Ahmed, would be effectively applicable in today’s game?” I asked.

Mohammed promptly replied – even before I had completely finished asking the question – “No way; the game has changed and there is no place for those skills in today’s game.”

“Can you please elaborate on this point?”, I asked.

“See, the size of the field has increased, in fact doubled. Now we play between base line to base line, whereas in the earlier days, they used to play between 25 to 25″, he elaborated, while pointing towards the field, which was hardly more than 20 meters away from us and the league match between Club Sapura and Terengganu was in progress. Further, he added that the game had become very fast with the addition of the self pass and self goal.

Fair enough. I agree. Moreover, the players have also attained a higher level of fitness, which has lead to an extremely higher degree of individual work rate. No question about this.

I diverted the conversation from a Q & A one, into a one with leading questions.

I explained

- Yes there is a higher work rate

- Pace of the game has extremely increased

- Size of the field has increased

- Game has become more of a power play

But I strongly believe that there is a place for Manzoor Jr. and Shabaz Sr. and their “creative play making” skills in today’s game, as it will add more grace, creativity, excitement and finesse to the game.

I whispered this politely, as I did not want him to get annoyed with me, and walk away from a stranger whom he was meeting for the first time.

I looked at Mohammed’s face from the corner of my eye and could see the strange look on his face - sort of slightly fuming like a wounded tiger – and not being in a mood to carry on this conversation with a stranger. To keep him interested, I diverted his attention to his personal game by complimenting his playing style as a full back, as it was graceful and honestly I like it. I could see the change in his mood and he was being more receptive now.

After all, old Shivi has some tricks in his bag to keep the younger generation interested.

Thinking of the past, my mind flashed back to the final day of the Azlan Shah Cup, which had concluded exactly 2 weeks ago. This is a different story as while I was watching this Azlan Shah Cup qualification match for the 5 -6th spot position, I was day dreaming about the days when Pakistan and India used to meet for the gold medal match in the Olympics and World Cups. Now they are meeting for the wooden spoon match. How things change, if you don’t change with the times.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

I am not trying to contradict myself, but one has to know what to change, discard, and what to retain. Here is where India and Pakistan went wrong. First, they were too rigid and took a long time to adapt to the latest tactics. Later, they went way over board and tried to completely imitate the European style and tactics and got caught in the middle, like a man with his feet in two boats.

Coming back to the present. All of a sudden, there was a long range pass – 60 to 65 meters – to the right-winger of the Sapura team, from his sweeper who was floating near his own circle. The RW received the ball and attempted to dodge his marker (the left-half), and while doing so, the ball crossed the base line, resulting in a free hit for the opponents. I asked Mohammed, “Do you think Kaleemulla would have wasted a the golden opportunity like this?” He would have cleanly eliminated his marker in a confined space and passed the ball to his leading center-forward, Hasan Sarder, to deflect the ball in the left corner/roof of the net.

Then, after a couple of minutes, the same thing happened on the left side, just near where we were sitting. The Sapura left-winger received a pass facing the gallery, and since his back was towards the attacking goal, I quietly whispered that nothing would happen. All of a sudden, there was a turn-over. I further commented that had Samiullah received that pass, he would have received the ball while facing the attacking goal, with his back towards us, and in seconds, he would have eliminated the half back and either entered the opponent’s circle or crossed the ball to Hasan to deflect it in the goal, probably near the right corner post or roof. It seemed that I had made my point clearly and Mohammed was nodding his head in agreement. Thanks Mohammed, for being understanding! After all, I tamed a tiger.

Yes, Samiullah, Kalleemullan, Hasan Sardar, Manzoor junior, and for that matter even Shabaz senior, would not have come back in defense to do back-checking, as much as one should. And this would have been suicidal in today’s game. As in earlier days, the players managed their energy wisely. Where as the current players don’t have a choice and have an extremely demanding role.

Conclusion:

Yes, the game has changed immensely and also improved tremendously in most departments. A sad part is that, along the way, we have not been able to maintain and execute the “1 on 1 effective offensive and defensive skills”, as mentioned above. This surely has taken away a certain degree of charm from our game, in a way making it less attractive and entertaining for the spectators. On the other hand, a shinning example is the way football and basketball has maintained their traditional technical and tactical skills, while building upon the physical and mental aspects of the game. They have moved in the right direction and we haven’t!

With all due respect, the tragedy is that FIH, and especially its Rules committee which had and continue to have the most brilliant brains of our game, have made way too many changes too fast. Some are good and some not so much, and this has affected our game in a negative way. The governing body of any sport has an obligation to maintain the tradition of the game – its core values – while seeking an optimum balance between “soft skills and power/speed – fitness – aspects” of the game, prior to recommending any changes. Unfortunately for field hockey, the changes that have been made over the years, in my humble opinion, have not done so, and taken away the emphasis of “creative soft skills” from the game. This has left us in a dire situation, making us wonder, what has happened and why did it happen?

Isn’t it true that we were in danger of being eradicated from the Olympics Games? We had a close shave. It is not over yet.

Solution:

Please treat the causes, and not the symptoms, if we want to see our game become more spectator-friendly and entertaining. Develop the creative soft skills of the young players in the junior programs. Let’s develop very many players of Sardar Singh and Jamie Dwyer‘s caliber and not just a couple, which is the case now.

I was talking to a 1976 Montreal Olympic Games coach (a couple of days ago) who had watched some international games on TV. Here are his honest views, “I wouldn’t pay a dime to go and see a current international match. It is so boring”. So sad, but so true!

•  The paradox of our time in hockey is: we have more space on the field, but less game sense and soft skills to optimize its use

•  We have performance analysis technology at our disposal: But we have difficulties in teaching our players the simple art of receiving the ball on the run and eliminating the opponent cleanly

In the light of several horrific facial injuries at the Olympic Games and further two incidents during the South Africa v Australia pool game in the Investec Challenge, I, Shiv Jagday, FIH coach, have put together a video to help avoid these injuries in future.

Watch the video here:

Background:

Once upon a time the West came to the East to learn the art of playing hockey. Yes, it was when East conquered the world. Now the tables have turned. It is time for the East to learn from the West; not only this, but clearly understand, what needs to be adopted and what not. When one is not aware of this, usually what happens is, that the wrong things are picked, and one jumps out of the frying pan into the fire. Only a very few, who are wise, know the difference and make the right choices, like the Aussies.

First, what the East – India and Pakistan – can learn from the West – Germany and Holland?

1. Technical and Tactical Skills:

- Space awareness: How to create and exploit space, individually and as a team.

- How to make the ball run faster, even than the fastest man on the earth, Usain Bolt. Asians run with the ball; Europeans run without the ball and make the ball run.

- Circulating the ball in the back and connecting it with the midfield players and the forwards, with ease and grace, on the run.

- Mastering the set plays, especially offensive & defensive Penalty corners.

- Goalkeeping

2. Planning and organization:

- Long term planning; with short term, mid term goals and performance indicators.

- Preparation and organization: Plan your work and work your plan.

- Beginning with a end in mind: Having a creative vision.

- Rock solid coach education, athlete centered coaching and administration structure in place.

- Uniformity in style of play and coaching, at all levels of the program.

3. Performance Enhancement team – PET:

Having a team of expert scientists behind the team; leaving nothing to chance and making the optimum use of all the available sport sciences – Psychology, Physiology, Nutrition and Periodization – to maximize team performance.

4. Innovation: Thinking out of the box

Just look the way Germans and the Dutch invent new skills and tactics and are way ahead of their competition. They sure invent and employ the new skills and tactics effectively and successfully, while the rest of the world just wonders what hit them! Further, as the opponents try to learn the new invention, they jump even further ahead, keeping their competitors circling in circles. For example, circulating the ball in the back. Germany won the 1982 Kuala Lumpur Junior World Cup while employing this tactic, whereas it took Asians a long time to figure out the importance of this strategy.

By the way, they have still not mastered it to the extent it needs to be, to be effective. Winners are innovators.

5. Team work:

There is hardly a nation where there are no differences, inner bickering and fighting among themselves. This is bound to happen as this is human nature. The beauty is to leave one’s differences behind and work as a team, with a common goal in mind, from top to the bottom as we are inter-dependant. One has to admire this quality of the Europeans, as they work as a team, on and off the field.

In this respect, India and Pakistan have quite some way to go. Yes, when they ruled the world they had one strong leader – Ashwini Kumar for India in the 60’s and Brigadier Atif for Pakistan in the 70’s and early 80’s respectively. Isn’t it true that “United we stand, divided we fall”?

6. Self awareness:

Self awareness is to know, what you are aware of –  your strengths, and what you are not – your weakness. On top of this, it is important to learn how to optimize one’s strengths and cover one’s weakness, and have a plan to improve upon one’s weaknesses systematically. And keep continuing improving upon one’s strengths.

For example, in the 2010 Delhi World Cup final match, Australia surprised Germany by putting a forward on the German deep defender, while taking the 16’s. It was a bold decision by Coach Charlesworth! This affected Germany’s performance, and was one of the key strategic ploys for Australia to win a World Cup after 28 years. During the recently concluded 2012 London Olympics Games, in the semifinals, this tactic of Australia did not affect the Germans. In fact it backfired in a way. Germans had done their home work. They not only escaped this full court press net, but made successful transitions to launch attacks.

On a slightly surprising note, why did the Australian coaching staff did not change this particular strategy at half time, when it was obvious that it was not working to the degree as they had anticipated? Food for thought.

 

We play football from the heart and the Europeans play football from their head

 - Brazilian soccer superstar, Pele

Now, what the West – Germany, Holland, England and Spain – can learn from the East?

Mainly technical skills, which facilitate creativity and flair

1. Individual ball control and elimination skills in a tight and pressurized game situation.

2. Silky skills, body feints, deception and dexterity. They have almost vanished and have been replaced by semi brute force and power.

3. Tackling: Germany has sharply deviated from indoor style, flat footed tackling and embraced the upright style of tackling, which Asians were masters and famous for. Now the Asian deep defenders have adopted the flat footed style tackling. No wonder they are easily eliminated during the run of play. Germany is very smart in taking their opponents deliberately for a walk in the wrong direction (in the woods) and leaving them feeling lost, while knowing and taking the right path, and enjoying the journey.

4. Scoring soft, classic goals with grace, the way Romario and Messi from soccer score and Hasan Sardar and Balbir Singh from Railways, used to score. They had a variety of 1 on 1 dodges and skills in a tight and crowded game situation, in order to score. Nowadays, one main skill employed, is the hard and wild backhand sweep hit. Though nothing being wrong with it, as lots of goals are scored, it is very dangerous. There is a time and place to employ each and every skill. Isn’t variety the spice of life?

5. Mastery of individual position, while being versatile enough to play other positions too. In this regard, there aren’t many current players who come to mind, and stand out. Yes, I agree, the game – strategies and tactics – have also changed a lot.

6. There is a specific Role and Responsibility and a style/technique to play each and every position on the field, as the old Asian masters used to display. Now players are jack of all trades and master of none. Let’s put it this way, can we think of very many lasting memories or moves or classic goals being scored, during the 2012 London games? Players who were hard to forget, as they demonstrated, pure skill, footwork, change of pace/direction and imagination? We can still witness this in soccer and basketball.

With all due respect, the current Asian players’ game and performance is not even close to the outstanding game of the players and teams of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, when they consistently ruled the world and were highly ranked. Lately, the individual skills, game sense and performance, has vastly declined. With the exception of Sardar Singh of India, and a few others, who comes close to the playing to the standard of the old timers? Believe it or not, this is a naked fact!

Key reasons for this decline, to name a few, are:

- Lack of solid system and structure in place.

- No organized junior development programs.

- Top level coaches not working with the juniors.

- Lack of coach education.

- Trying to imitate the Europeans, especially their bad habits.

Asians have become like a man trying to sail with his feet in 2 boats, and we know, where it ends as. In other words, they have forgotten how to play their own style of play effectively, and also don’t know how to play the European style of play effectively.

Conclusion:

With the power balance heavily tilted towards the west, one not-so-good thing has happened. The soft silky Asian skills, which added flair and delicate creativity to the game, have gone out of fashion. In fact it has almost died, replaced with semi brute force.

The way some of the top European players play, in certain game situations, reminds me of a mad bull in a China shop – Bulldozing his way, without even a tinge of grace, art or courtesy. This is not good for hockey, as it has made our game a physical and rough one.

Please refer to the photos 1 – 4; they reveal, what I am trying to convey.

Photo’s 1 and 2 depict Christopher Zeller of Germany on top of the Aussie circle, and being tackled and chased from the left by Kieran Govers of Australia, in the 2012 London Olympic Games semifinal match. Christopher could have easily adjusted the ball and his body position, while bringing the ball in front of him, to create more quality options. Furthermore, he could have drawn the ball to his right, and entered the circle to take a shot on goal. Instead, he decided to bulldoze to his left, and get into a pushing and shuffling contest. Not a wise move. Please refer to photo 2 and 4, which says it all. Is this hockey at its best or a wrestling match? And that also displayed by a two time Olympic gold medallist- Chrissie the great!

There is something seriously wrong with our game, and this should not be taken lightly.

Since the East have not been able to perform well enough to stay in the top 4 of world rankings, their style of play has also been completely discarded. Yes, their former style of play would not have won them medals in this modern era without making massive tactical adjustments and improvements, but at the same time, their individual skills and flair can still be employed in various game situations to add a unique and beautiful angle to the game. And this is what is needed the most at this stage of our game.

Winning is important, and Germany would still have won, without employing the bullying tactics in certain game situations, as mentioned above. Just the way Spain won the 2010 soccer World Cup final against Netherlands and than the 2012 Euro Cup, demonstrating class and skills of the highest level.

Don’t we enjoy the beautiful game of soccer, as played by Spain, Germany and Brazil? These 2 Europeans teams – Spain and Germany, are a shinning example. So is the German hockey team, winning back to back Olympic gold medals! A great achievement indeed!

It is good to be important (by winning) but it is equally important to be good!

I miss the graceful and skilful plays of German players like Eckhard Schmidt-Opper and Heiner Dopp, to name a few, of the mid 80’s, who were a beauty to watch, as they imitated the great Asian players of that era. In my opinion, Maximilan Muller, their gold medal winning captain, has that grace and class!

Haven’t we thrown the baby out with the bath water? In other words, while discarding the Asian style of play, haven’t we also discarded their brilliant individual skills, which were a beauty to watch? Isn’t it time Europeans blended the silky Asian skills, with the state of the art European tactics and make our game even more attractive and spectator friendly?

And the East should study and employ, the strong points of the West. Of course, the East and West can blend the best of each other and improve the standard of the game, as has been done by the west while practising Yoga, and improving their spiritual lifestyle.

History has a habit – good or bad – of repeating itself. We often pay more attention, when bad history has repeated itself. Questioning ourselves, how did it happen again? Why did we not learn from our past mistakes?

What can we do now, to prevent them from happening again?

The simple answer is to educate our players and coaches, about how to tackle from the left. Below is a list of 5 serious injuries.

Women’s final match Holland vs. Argentina:

Injury # 1: Argentina’s Right half, Mariela Scarone got hit very badly, while tackling the Dutch Left winger, Ellen Hogg, from the left. The stick missed her left eye by inches.

Women’s semi final match; Holland vs. New Zealand:

Injury # 2: New Zealand’s powerful Center forward Kathy Glyn, got hit on the left side of her head, while fishing for the ball between the legs of the Dutch forward Carlen Heuvel, who was in the process of taking a shot on the goal. The scene was like some one smashing your head with a sledge hammer.

Men’s classifications match South Africa vs. India:

Injury # 3: South Africa’s right winger Norris Jones, was in the process of crossing the ball in the 3rd minute of the game, when India’s Left half Manpreet Singh tackled him from the left and got badly hurt on the left side of his head.

Women’s Pool match Great Britain vs. Japan:

Injury # 4: Great Britain’s captain Kate Walsh fractured her jaw, while tackling the Japanese Right winger from the left, who was in the process of crossing the ball. To her credit – like the above named players – played bravely with a bracelet for the remaining of the tournament and a bronze medal in the process.

Men’s Pool match Korea vs. India:

Injury # 5: Korea’s defender Jong Bok Cha got hurt on the face, while tackling India’s forward Tushar Khandkar, who was in the process of taking a shot on the goal.

All these  injuries could have been easily avoided, if the players knew – and were taught by their respective coaches – how to tackle from the left safely. Ignorance is no excuse in law and the game of hockey, especially, when it is being played at the pinnacle of all hockey tournaments – Olympic Games. At the same time it is very sad, indeed.

Purpose of this article:

• Educate our coaches and athletes … How to and Why?
• Develop awareness
• Recognize potentially dangerous situations instantly
• Avoid injuries, at all costs

No win situation:

When a opponent is in the process of hitting the ball, and the tackler is forced to make a tackle, from the left, or for that matter from different awkward angles and positions, one should approach with caution, from the left. And be clear about what are one’s objectives, which should be in this order, depending upon a specific game scenario.

• Safety first
• Delay and distract the opponent – buy time, so team mates can settle and cover
• If one gets the ball … excellent

The chances of the tackler getting the ball are minimal, except for the very few tacklers, who are shrewd and cunning and can easily steal the ball, just as they can pull the tooth from a lion’s mouth.  Usually the tackler is in a ‘no win’ situation.

What should the tackler aim for?

The whole aim of the tackler should be to put pressure and force on the player with the ball so as to rush him into making a bad pass or shot on goal in certain game scenarios. So the pass may be intercepted and a counter attack is launched. If the tackler steals the ball it is an added bonus. Another strategy for the tackler can be, to delay the player with the ball as much as possible, so the teammates can settle and cover all angles.

Please remember this Golden rule:

The tackler should never ever be caught in a position where he is vulnerable to injury. This occurs when he is caught in a no man’s land — neither too near nor too far from the swing range — of the hitter.  It is a dangerous zone.

Netherlands vs. India, 1988 Seoul Olympic Games

Indian forward is smartly tackling from the left.  He is out of the danger zone and is floating in the safe zone.

German forward Christopher Zeller is creeping into the danger zone to put pressure with caution, on Dutch defender Sander de Wijn. Please observe how alert and sharp Christopher is.

How to tackle from the left:

Step 1: Hold the stick in the left hand only.

Step 2: Never get caught in a no man’s land — danger zone — when the opponent is in the process of hitting the ball and has taken the back swing.

Argentina’s Right half, Mariela Scarone, is caught in the no man’s land, while tackling the Dutch left winger, Ellen Hogg, who is in the process of crossing the ball, while taking a back swing.

The above pic depicts the moment when Mariela Scarone was being hit on the face, just inches below her left eye, by the follow through of the swing.

The above pic depicts the moment when Kathy Glyn and captain Kayler Sharland, are caught in the no man’s land, while Dutch forward Carlen Heuvel, is taking a shot on the goal. And both are hit with one swing.

Step 3: Try to hop into the no man’s land — danger zone — when the hitter is in the process of receiving, controlling or dribbling the ball.

Netherlands vs. Great Britain, 1996 Olympic Qualifier, Spain

Dutch defender is in process of controlling the ball; GB forward, Rob Thompson, has jumped into the Danger zone to exert pressure. Please observe Rob’s body position. If the Dutch player decides to hit the ball quickly, Rob can hop into the neutral zone and protect himself.

Step 4: As soon as one sees that the opponent is going to hit the ball, hop into the neutral zone or step back into the safe zone.

Step 5: Put pressure. Employing cat and mouse tactics depending upon the situation.

Step 6: Never Ever stay in the danger zone when the hitter has taken the back swing to hit the ball.

Step 7: The most important thing to do is, hop closer and bring your body very close to the back of the hitter. The whole body — including legs and arms — must be behind the hitter’s back. One’s head and face covered and protected behind the hitter’s head.

Argentina’s Rosario Luchetti is demonstrating a safe way to tackle, while being in the neutral zone, and protecting herself – especially her head and face, being so close to USA captain Rachel Dawson. It appears that she was also able to steal the ball from US captain, Rachel Dawson, with her reverse stick.

Step 8: Just try to peep quickly – from the corner of your eye and see if you can tap the ball away, with the reverse stick, being held in the left hand, while the hitter has taken the back swing. Be aware and super quick

Step 9: If this is not possible, just pressure him to take a quick miss hit.

Step 10: The other option after step 4 is to back peddle out of the no man’s land, staying away from the range of hitters swing, while floating in the safe zone. Some times this is may not be an option, at all.

As we know, it is not easy to tackle from the left, on the other hand it is also, not worth risking one’s personal safety. Wise players don’t take unnecessary risks. Period!

Sports injury:

Sports and injuries are inseparable, though some injuries can be totally avoided by playing smart and taking necessary precautionary measures. In some circumstances they are unavoidable, but the degree of damage can be controlled or minimized by being cautious and playing safe. The most important thing our coaches and players need to know is: how to tackle from the left, and avoid injury at all costs.

Responsibility:

Both coaches and athletes are jointly responsible. From a coaches point of view, we must educate our players, How to Tackle tactfully from the left, in this potentially dangerous situation. From the athlete’s angle, they should be smart enough to recognize the dangerous situation instantly and have the knowledge to make the right decision, and avoid injury at all cost, under hugely difficult and pressure cooker game situations

Conclusion:

If the coaches can bring home this point of safety, our moral obligation to the players has been taken care of, to a certain degree. We should never let the 5 incidents mentioned above, ever happen again.

On a lighter note in the earlier decades, the forwards used to be scared of the deep defenders – as they were hard hitters of the ball and did not hesitate to intimidate them and scare the shit out of them. It looks like now it is pay back time and it is the other way around, as revealed by the above 5 incidents.

One of the scariest moments happened in the 1990 World Cup, Lahore, in the match between Canada and Ireland – it is hard to forget.

Nick Sandhu, the Canadian deep defender had the ball under control, in his circle in front of the goal, and was in the process of hitting it, to clear it.

Irish forward Jimmy Kirkwood, dived low from the left to tackle.  Jimmy got badly hit by Nick’s follow through swing.  Jimmy’s cheekbone was fractured and needed 15 stitches.  The scene was full of blood. This and the above 5
injuries need not to happen.

Photo18: The moment Nick’s follow through swing hit Jimmy’s face

]]> http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/08/22/analysis-how-to-tackle-from-the-left-tactfully-and-not-be-injured/feed/ 2 266521 http://www.sportskeeda.com/2011/12/28/dissecting-2011-hockey-champions-trophy/ http://www.sportskeeda.com/2011/12/28/dissecting-2011-hockey-champions-trophy/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:25:56 +0000 CoachShiv http://www.sportskeeda.com/?p=94247

There is no question that the game of hockey has changed and improved tremendously in the past two decades – especially in the following areas:

• Circulating the ball in the back
• Total team possession- passing and receiving on the run
• Intelligent off-the-ball running, to create quality goal scoring opportunities
• Execution of set plays

At the same time, there is a concern that the game has not improved as much as it should have, in some key areas such as:

• Defending as a team, when all the members of the defending team are not available in their own half
• Defensive strategies and tactics – Stance, Shadowing, Delaying, Channeling, etc
• Tackling – Awareness of one’s positional play, while employing the right tackle at the optimum time
• Defensive Anticipation – Reading the play and the opponent’s mind, and anticipating plays before they happen
• Possession skills of the defenders under pressure, and clearance in the D

Before we analyze the results of the 2011 Champions Trophy, let’s look at a few statistics that emerged out of the tournament.

I. Goals Scored per Match – 5.17

• Good for the spectators and the forwards, but does not speak well for the defence

II. Most Goals Conceded – South Korea (26)

• This is a reflection of their indoor style tackling, with their heels glued to the ground

III. Total Goals Scored – 124

• This is the highest goals scored since the 2007 Champions Trophy. Have the forwards improved or the defenders have gone weaker in this interim?

IV. Total Field Goals Scored – 89

• Spain scored the highest number of field goals (15), due to the outstanding work of their forwards, who have excellent 1-on-1 skills.
• It was good to see the two best offensive and goal-thirsty teams – Australia and Spain – play in the final.

WHAT DOES NOT WORK WELL:

Indoor style tackling in an outdoor hockey game does not work well. This stance forces the defenders to glue their heals on the turf, while diminishing their mobility. Instead, if they tackle while being on their toes, this allows them to react and cover in a dynamic game situation. More importantly, it propels the defensive situation into a quick offensive counter, leaving virtually very little time for the opponents to cover.

An example of the above was demonstrated in the Australia vs. Netherlands semi-final match in the Champions Trophy.

During the second half of the semi-final, the Dutch left winger received a ball near the opponent’s left side 23 m line. He was challenged by the Australian defender Matthew Swann (2011 FIH Young Male Player of the Year). Matthew applied the poke-and-lunge tackle, while faking to commit, but not doing so. This enticed the Dutch forward to attempt to dodge Matthew, which was what Matthew wanted any way.

This resulted in Matthew stealing the ball, who then passed it first time to his right-half, while still on his toes. The right-half made a 40 m aerial pass to the right side, just before the 23 meters line. This tricked Taeke Taekema, the Dutch deep defender and penalty corner specialist to take the bait – miss-trapping the aerial ball.

Jamie Dwyer pounced on the loose ball like a fox, with ample time and space to exploit and enter the Dutch D. He made no mistake in scoring his team’s 4th goal, thus taking the game even further out of the Dutch reach.

This goal also increased Jamie’s tally of field goals to 7, giving him the honor of scoring the highest number of field goals in the Champions Trophy. At an awards ceremony during the Champions Trophy tournament, Jamie was also announced as the FIH Male Player of the Year. A well deserved honor, indeed.

WHAT WORKS WELL:

New Zealand vs. South Korea in 2011 Champions Trophy

What works well are goals that don’t involve so much of brute force, as much as they involve grace, class, creativity and fine touches.

Take the example of the first field goal scored by New Zealand in their pool match against South Korea in the 2011 Champions Trophy. Please refer to the sequence of photographs above.

The play maker for this goal was Steen Edwards # 31 of New Zealand , who received a pass on the run from his left half and brought it to his right side with a soft one touch, leaving his Korean marker (captain Cha Bok) bewildered. Steen ran with the ball at an optimum speed, scanned his passing options, and made a well connected pass to his teammate Shea Mcaleese # 25.

While Steen was surveying the field for options, Shea took a double lead off the ball, near the opponents D, in order to receive the pass from Steen on his open stick. Shea touched it softly, to bring it at an optimum spot, and score from a quick short back swing and follow through, while keeping his upper body low. The goal was scored at such a lightning speed, yet so gently and softly that the Koreans did not know what hit them.

These are the type of goals which leave ever lasting memories. We need more goals like these to excite the fans.

WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED UPON:

International hockey is one of the most video recorded sports in the world. Every top national team has video analysts, whose job is to provide detailed information on every aspect of the opponent’s game to the coaching staff. Following are some questions for introspection and reflection:

• What type of information do the video analysts presently provide their coaching staff?
• What actionable items are the coaching staff looking for from the video analysts?
• Are the coaching staff seeing things the way they should be seen, or the way they would like to see?
• In a dynamic game situation, how are the coaching staff correcting and optimizing their team’s performance?

Analyzing the various inputs streamed by the video analysts to optimize their team’s performance, is something that can be improved upon.

For a case study, let’s analyze the Champions Trophy pool match between Australia and Pakistan, where Australia hammered 6 goals against Pakistan, 5 of which were field goals. A progressive analysis of the way the Australians scored their 6 goals is given below, with minimal change of tactics from the Pakistani side in preventing simple, recurring errors:

Goal # 1 (Field Goal)

• Jamie Dwyer received a pass from his left-in and entered the D from the left side of the field, just near the goal line, and scored a goal from a narrow angle. According to the commentators, he meant to cross the ball, but the ball inadvertently got deflected from the pads of the experienced goalkeeper Salman Akbar into the goal. It was an easy, albeit lucky goal.
• Analysis: Salman was caught standing upright, from where it is hard to react quickly. Instead, Salman should have been on his toes, with his upper body low, thus optimally suited to make a save. A simple stance correction on the goalkeeper’s part could have prevented this goal.

Goal # 2 (Field Goal)

• Right full-back Mohammed Imran, the captain of the Pakistan team, intercepted the ball near the left side of the D top and started running with it, employing penetrating dodges, while being chased by the Australian forwards. He executed a push pass to his forward in between the 23 meters and the center line. Matthew Swann # 20 of Australia intercepted the ball and passed it first time to his teammate floating in the D, resulting in a field goal.

• Analysis: At the elite Champions Trophy level, players should know when, where and how to run with the ball in their deep defensive zone, which is a high-risk red zone. Imran should have run slowly at a 45 degree negative angle towards his left, where he has ample space. Instead, Imran is making life harder for himself by running towards the Australians. His left-half should also have gone wide to the left sideline, thus creating more width and space to receive an outlet pass from the D.

Goal # 3 (Penalty Corner)

• Very well converted by Luke Doerner of Australia.

Goal # 4 (Field Goal)

• Jason Wilson of Australia crosses the ball from the left side of the field, near the side and baseline. Finding himself unmarked, Jamie Dwyer, who was in the striking circle (near the baseline and left side post), converted the cross into a goal. This gives rise to two questions – How can a player of Jamie’s caliber – 5-times FIH Player of the Year - be left alone and unmarked in the D (see photograph below)? Secondly, how can a goalkeeper of Salman Akbar’s caliber allow a goal to be scored from such a narrow angle?

• Analysis: Bring clarity in defensive marking responsibilities. Players should know who marks whom, when and where, so that no opposing team striker is left dangerously alone in the circle. Additionally, decide on when to use man-to-man defense, when to use zonal defense, and when to use a combination of the two. This requires long hours of quality training with simulated game situations.

Goal # 5 (Field Goal)

• Mohammed Imran, the captain of the Pakistani team, is again seen running with the ball on the top left side of the D, eventually resulting in a turnover, which leads to a goal for the opponents.

• Analysis: As the photographs above show, Imran did have enough space to clear the ball. Instead of advancing towards the Australian forward, Imran should have run slowly at a angle towards the left side, and simultaneously, the left-half should have also gone wide to receive a pass, creating space for a clearance pass from the D. Goals 2 and 5, came about due to the same mistake committed by the Pakistani defense. While all players do make mistakes, what separates good from great players is the ability to learn from past mistakes and not repeat them.

Goal # 6 (Field Goal)

• Pakistani defender Rizwan Muhammad tackles the ball on the top right side of the D, and starts running with the ball while trying to dodge the Australian forwards. The pressure put forth by the Australian forwards resulted in a turnover, and eventually a field goal.

• Analysis: Learn to avoid a head-on clash with big and strong built players like the Dutch, Germans and Australians. Pick and choose your battles wisely.

Pakistan’s Lone Goal

• Mohammed Imran scored a well placed penalty corner goal, thus reducing the final score to 6-1. If Imran was the reason for Pakistan conceding 2 goals, he should also be given credit for the goal he scored, even though the net gain of his labors (-2 +1) did not work in Pakistan’s favor.

CONCLUSION

When one is competing in a prestigious tournament like the Champions Trophy, the playing standard and decision making ability have to be of the highest caliber. There is zero margin for error. Teams like Australia, Netherlands and Germany will simply pounce on any rookie mistakes that their opponents make. One cannot afford to make school boy mistakes at this level.

Australia has won the last 4 Champions Trophy titles (2008, 09, 10, 11). Australia has won the 2010 World Cup. Australia has won the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Can the mighty Australians be conquered in the 2012 London Olympics?

London is a lucky city for Charlesworth as a player – he was the captain of the Australian team that won its first ever World Cup in 1986. Will London prove lucky to Charlesworth the coach? How about the home team Great Britain, which won the silver medal the one time the World Cup was held in London (1986). Only time will tell which team will win the London 2012 Olympic hockey gold.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Sincere thanks to Live FIH.tv for covering the Champions trophy – the action photographs in this article are courtesy of this site. If you have any questions about this article, please contact Shiv at coachshiv@aol.com.

Field hockey is the second most popular participatory team sport in the world, with only the beautiful game – football – ahead of it, as number one. In terms of popularity, football is way ahead of hockey all over the world. If you compare technique and flow, football has the following advantages over hockey:

• Simplicity of the game
• Exhibition of superb individual skills, footwork and body feints
• Beautiful positive passes connected on the run
• Flair, dexterity and flow of the game
• Lasting memories of majority of the field goals scored

Did field hockey at one time posses the above qualities? Of course, it did. In every decade, and in every part of the world, hockey had teams and players who demonstrated the above qualities. These days these qualities are exhibited to a lesser degree; far lesser. Let’s take some examples from the decade of the 1980s.

• Germanyplayed with flair and had outstanding players like Stefan Blocher, Heiner Dopp and play maker Ekkhard Schmidt
• Australia- what a team they were, with flair and individual skills! They still are that way, three decades later
• Same is true with Netherlands and England, with a number of skillful players and play makers
• Pakistan, and to an extent India were great with individual skills in 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 game situations

RULE CHANGES IN HOCKEY AND FOOTBALL

There is one key difference in the way the sports of hockey and football have been administered – the number and frequency of rule changes.

How many major rule changes have been made in football in the last 5 decades? Only one, with the offside limit set to two players instead of three.

In contrast, in hockey, we have made around 15 rule changes since the 1960s. Some of these rules have affected the game in a positive way. For example, the self-pass, which is a European invention, and has made plays from a free hit quicker, while negating the deliberate delaying tactics, employed by the opponents during the game restart situations.

However, some other rules have backfired. For example, removing the obstruction rule and the no-offside rule has affected the game more in a negative way than in a positive way – not only for the teams from the Indian subcontinent, but also for the European teams that came up with the rules. Please refer to the articles on this topic, by the author.

The Hockey 9s the Aussie way

The latest set of proposed rule changes come fromAustralia; let’s analyze the positive and negative impact of these proposed changes.

The idea of having a minimum of 2 players staying in the attacking half, at all times is a positive step in the right direction. The attacking team will avoid attacking, with all its players, as they will keep back a defender or two in their own defensive zone to cover the 2 opponent players, who will be floating like a bee to sting them any time, on counter attacks. This will result in the defensive zone near the goal being attacked, less crowded.

This reminds me of the 80s and 90s, when the coaches kept 1 or 2 strikers floating up in the opponent’s zone, for counter attack with a long ball. This also forced the opponent teams, to have their defenders in the defense to mark the offensive floating forwards. Wise coaches managed and mitigated the risk, wisely.

Thumbs up for the Penalty Corner change in the Hockey 9s; as imaginative technical and tactical skills will be at display, to score a goal, which the fans always love to see. It will give a fair opportunity to all teams to show their skills, and reduces the disproportionate dependence on one specialized skill – drag flick – for the outcome of the game. I can bet you the innovative and cunning Germans and the Dutch will once again come with creative plays to optimize the effectiveness of this rule change, in their favor.

In a way I feel that we are lowering the bar, to make the things easier for the players. The art of forwards being deceptive and creative in a very confined space, in order to neatly eliminate the defender and take a magnificent try with a soft deceptive push/hit, reverse stick flick or a parabola scoop over the rushing goal keeper, is not in vogue any more. We need to introduce and develop these artistic skills in the repertoire of the current forwards. By the way, aren’t most of the field goals these days scored, by a backhand reverse stick hit? There is nothing wrong in it. All I wonder is how can a goal keeper, with so much protective gear, allow these goals to be scored from the D top or from a very narrow angle? There is something very wrong in this. May be Ian Taylor, the 1988 Seoul Olympic games, gold medal winning goal keeper from Great Britain, can help us answer this question. Making the goal wider is an O.K. move, as it would increase the probability of goals being scored, as long as the forwards stay cool and calm, in front of the cage. Didn’t we read in the newspapers that the Indian forwards, hit the side boards several times, during the Lanco international super series inPerth,Australia? How more easier can one make the things?

I am in favor of keeping 11 players on the field at all times, except when a player has been sent off the field by the umpire with a yellow or red card.

I understand the intent behind this rule change – create more open space, allow more time for the players, and make the game faster.

However, just like the introduction of the no-offside rule resulted in teams packing their deep defensive half, so may not be the case, if we reduce the number of players from 11 to 9. As the weaker teams and in some cases, even the stronger teams may not employ the tactics of  safety first – packed defense, and hit long balls, to their 2 floating forwards, which may look more or less like a back and forth  tennis rally. I have not been able to see any match or highlights from the recently concluded Lanco international super series inPerth,Australia, or talked to any coach or player, so this is a calculated guess.

Most probably with acres of free space in the midfield, there may not be less opportunity for players to show their 1-on-1 dodges, body feints, dexterity and play making moves, which they don’t employ any way these days. If we make things easier for our players and provide less opportunity for them to be imaginative and creative, they sure will take a short cut and make the sport of hockey less attractive, especially when compared with football.

Yes, with fewer players on the field, and with 2 players always staying in the opponent’s offensive zone, lots of open space will be created. But this will encourage the players to run with the ball over open areas of the field, more like horses in the wild, rather than race horses gracefully galloping on a track. There will be fewer opportunities to slow down the game, control the pace, face the challenges and score a goal. Unless a brave coach comes along and goes against the current trend, and incorporates the best from the past, to make the game a balanced one.

TREAT THE CAUSE, NOT THE SYMPTOMS

In a way, we are bending the rules to accommodate the players, with short-term quick fixes. This is similar to how we changed the no-obstruction rule and no-offside rules, as players were having difficulty receiving the ball, with an open body, when being marked tightly.

What is needed are creative and imaginative players, who use not just speed and force, but also silky skills, dexterity and tactical shrewdness to outwit the opponents. What hockey fans love to see are body feints, footwork, change of pace/direction, and play making passes, which strands the opponents bewildered.

We all may have seen this classic photograph from the 1982 soccer world cup, where 6 Belgian players are facing the one and only one Maradona. The face impression of the Belgium players says it all. This is the type of fear, which Manzoor Hussain Jr. and Shahbaz Ahmed, fromPakistan, created in the minds of the opponents, due to their individual skills and creativity.

Learn from the best of the past:

Football had and have players like Maradona, Pele, Ronaldinho, Romario,  Messi and Xavi Hernandez, to name a few, who demonstrate a balanced package of speed, strength and skill. Hockey also had its stars like Manzoor Hussain Jr. and Shahbaz Ahmed fromPakistan, Richard Charlesworth and Peter Haselhurst fromAustralia, among others. These greats demonstrated their crowd-pleasing skills, while playing 11 a side matches rather than 9 a side.

The winningest hockey coach on this planet, Ric Charlesworth, is a respected name, and a key proponent of the Hockey 9s. According to Charlesworth, “Hockey is already obviously a very fast paced sport with lots of excitement and intensity. The Hockey 9s rules will increase the pace of the game and result in a more attacking style, which is obviously going to make for great viewing and undoubtly help us gain a few fans along the way. These rules are made for India and Pakistan, in my view. They have fluency, speed, terrific skills and play an attacking style of hockey.“

However, I would like the readers to reflect on the following questions:

• Which hockey players are faster, stronger and fitter – Asians or players from Europe/Oceania?
• Which players are better at creating space, with and without the ball – Asians or players from Europe/Oceania?
• Which players have better team tactics – Asians or players from Europe/Oceania?

The fair answer to all the above questions is that the Europeans and players from Oceania are better at all of the above, than the Asian countries likeIndiaandPakistan(withSouth Koreabeing an exception as the Koreans are super fit).

While Asian –IndiaandPakistan- players run with the ball, Europe/Oceania players make the ball run, go for decoy runs to create space and position themselves optimally to receive the ball, while dragging their opponents in vulnerable positions, and strike at will.

Results don’t lie usually:

The results from the inaugural Hockey 9s 4-nation men’s Lanco competition will bear me out – the top two positions went to Australia and New Zealand, the bottom two positions went to Pakistan and India.

It is no secret that Charlesworth likes Asian – Indiaand Pakistan– style of play, but the rule of reducing the number of players on the field will create even more space and time, which will result in creating more problems for the sub continent teams to cope with them. Their plate is already full. Hasn’t Charlesworth commented from his heart rather than from his head, for a change? When he says, “These rules are made for India and Pakistan, in my view”

CONCLUSION

The game is evolving day by day. Coaches are devising innovative new strategies and tactics, and modifying or discarding the old ones, to be more effective.

When it comes to changing of rules, we need to make sure that we look at the big picture and the small picture and its impact in the long run. For the budding players in their development stages of Learn to train, Train to Train and Train to compete – age group 10 to18 – we need to focus on developing …

• Superb ball control, passing and receiving skills under pressure
• Superb play making and creative skills in build up and offense
• Game sense and intelligent decision making abilities, via mini hockey games

This way, we have players with high a level of skills and the ability to read the game, be imaginative and creative on the field, rather than being mechanical players. This is where the theory of developing “All round players versus, specialized players” comes into play. We don’t want Jack of all trades and master of none; we want Jack of one trade – position – and master of it. Can a world class brain surgeon be a world class heart specialist? You be the judge! As we know that there are entirely two different strategies to develop either one of these doctors/players … All round players versus specialist. Let’s invest in developing imaginative and creative hockey players, rather than changing the rules so very frequently, to make the game challenges easier for our hard working players.

In conclusion, I like almost all the Hockey 9s rule changes that have come out ofAustralia, except for the proposed reduction of players on the field. I hope the FIH rule board flashes a green light, after the 2012 London Olympics.

To change, and to change for the better, are two different things
- Old German proverb

• It helps translate the coach’s coaching philosophy, game plan and style of hockey to the athletes
• It enables the team to play in its peak performance zone during competition
• It guides both the individual athletes and the team, as a whole, to reach its full potential

There are two basic requirements for coach-athlete communication to be effective:
• A healthy coach-athlete relationship, that is based upon respect, loyalty, trust and mutual understanding
• Active participation of both parties in the communication, which essentially is a two-way process

Clear and effective communication does take time to develop. However, once this is achieved, the outcome is a positive environment, where teams flourish and grow, while also having fun.

TYPES OF COMMUNICATIONS:
There are fundamentally two types of primary communication:
• Verbal Communication: where we use words to communicate and express our views.
• Non-verbal Communication: where we communicate via our body language, either consciously or unconsciously
According to Jan Hargave and Associates: “Our words make up only 7% of what we communicate to others. The remaining 93% is non-verbal information. Our bodies do not lie.”

EYE CONTACT:
Eye contact is an important part of non-verbal communication. To maintain eye contact with one’s student athletes, coach can request them to do three things, in the following order:
• Can I have your attention please?
• Please come closer, in a semi circle?
• Now, I like to have your eye contact … here we go

Eye contact demonstrates that the student athletes are paying attention to the coach, listening, and trying to understand the message being conveyed. Eye contact also gives instant feedback – coach can judge whether he is being successful in conveying his message or not. And do the adjustments, accordingly. Since face is the index of the mind, one can also judge if the athlete is attentive and interested or not.
It is a good practice to organize the athletes in a semi-circle in front of the coach, this way each individual athlete can have eye contact with the coach at any given time. Please also, make sure that the athletes are not facing the sun, as this will distract them.
EXAMPLES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION:

In the above left photograph, please note the body language of these U-14 student athletes, who are organized in a semi-circle. It is fair to say that most of them are listening attentively to their coach. The photograph on the right is of the U – 16 student athletes, listening to their coach.

SHINING EXAMPLE:
Another example of effective communication is from the 1985 Junior Men’s World Cup which was held in Vancouver, Canada. It was admirable to see how organized and disciplined the Pakistani juniors were. During the half-time of their matches, the athletes lined up in order of their playing positions, starting from the Goalkeeper, Right Back, Left Back, leading up all the way to the Left Winger. This way, the Pakistani coach Asid Malik, knew exactly where each athlete was, and gave appropriate half-time feedback and coaching tips, accordingly. The Pakistan junior national team won the bronze medal, in this tournament.
AN EXAMPLE OF INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION:

When the student athletes are not paying attention, there is a breakdown in communication, Please see the photograph below to illustrate this point:

Photograph courtesy Press Trust of India
Coach Jose Brasa is giving instructions to the Indian team at a practice session during the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the photograph reveals the following points about the players’ attention levels:
• Extreme Left: This player is in his own world, and not listening or showing respect
• Second from Left: Captain Rajpal’s body language and posture is positive and powerful
• Third from Left: Sarvanjeet is in his own world of dreams.
• Fourth from Left: Is defender Dhananjay Mahadik more interested in facing the camera, than listening to his coach?
• Fifth from Left: Bharat Chikara is the most attentive student athlete, listening to and making eye contact with the coach

CONCLUSION:
The other day, I was flipping through the pages of the book, “The power of eye contact”, by Michael Ellsberg. Its first chapter is titled – What Bill Clinton knows about Eye contact. The author gives examples of President Clinton’s communication style, with quotes. No wonder, the former U.S. president was and is such an effective communicator and one – we coaches – can learn so much from this charismatic leader.

Why India lost 0 – 8 to Australia in the Commonwealth games final?

Shiv Jagday FIH Coach

INTRODUCTION

In front of a capacity crowd at Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium, a live international television audience, and with the Prime Minister of India viewing, India lost 0-8 to Australia in the 2010 Commonwealth Games final.

The 8 goal drubbing equaled the worst ever defeat in the history of Indian hockey. Several questions come to mind.

• Was Australia so disproportionally superior to India?
• If so, in which departments of the game?
• How can one explain the goal glut for the final of a tournament – 8 unanswered goals, 4 in each half?

This article seeks to explain the technical, tactical, physical, emotional and psychological reasons for India’s massive defeat.

GOAL SUMMARY

First let’s take a look at the distribution of the 8 goals that were inflicted upon India by the Australian team … Cause and effect theory.

Let’s examine the reasons for India’s lopsided defeat, by dividing the article into 3 sections:

• Tactical Blunders that led to India’s Defeat
• Areas for Improvement by India
• Where India Played Well

TACTICAL BLUNDERS THAT LED TO INDIA’S DEFEAT

One has to be selective of when to play open hockey and when to play a compact one. An open play strategy worked very well in the match against Pakistan, who also plays a similar style of hockey.

However, against a dominant and in-form Australia, winners of the 2010 Champions Trophy and the 2010 World Cup, one just cannot afford to play an open game for full 70 minutes duration.

Rather, one should pick the moments of attack in a methodical, planned way, similar to how England and Germany played Australia, during the 2010 Hero Honda World Cup. England was the only team which defeated Australia in the Delhi World Cup, while Germany lost a very close final 1-2 to Australia.

While a loss is a loss, losing by a score of 1-2 looks much more respectable than a 0-8 drubbing.

Suggested strategy: Pick the moments of attack in a well organized and systematic way.

The game of hockey is not a 100 meters sprint; one has to control the pace of the game, slowing down, when and where required.

India played the final at such a high pace, that they got physically and mentally fatigued by the middle of the first half itself. This resulted in turnovers, caused by poor pass selection and decision making. Further, desperate tackles and clumsy footwork, were also penalized.

The tragedy was compounded by the fact that no mid-course correction was applied, and India kept on going in top gear, and kept on committing rookie mistakes and turnovers.

Suggested strategy: Control the pace of the game, during the various phases of the game, especially when one sees the things going out of control.

A team, which plays an open fast game, while being unable to control the pace and maintain the possession of the ball, will sure loose the ball frequently. This is what happened to India and this made them vulnerable to fast counters attacks.

Yes, India did look dangerous in the first 10-15 minutes of the game, but lost control thereafter. Several turnovers resulted, due to poor passing or dribbling skills. These turnovers resulted in not only losing ball possession, but also in panicked running as the team struggled to regain possession.

India conceded 2 goals in the last 7 minutes of the first half, and 2 goals in the last 4 minutes of the second half. That’s four preventable goals, had India learnt to maintain possession of the ball as the clock was winding down.

Suggested strategy: Maintain the possession of the ball, with pre planned strategies.

One of the key tactics of the Indian team was to cross the center line – while approaching the opponents 23 – and hit a hard diagonal/square hit into the striking circle. This was done many times, without building up an attack, and astutely analyzing the current game situation at the time of the hit. On top of this there were hardly any variations to sprinkle an element of surprise.

To make matters worse, there was not much off-the-ball running by the Indian strikers to ward off their defenders. As a result, the alert Australian deep defenders could anticipate these blind hit-and-hope hits, and instantly convert them into Australian counter-attacks.

Suggested strategy: Build the attack + gain momentum + attack with optimum players in support + vary the type of attack to sprinkle the element of surprise.

Knowing the different types of markings, and understanding, which one to employ when and where, has never been a strong point of Indian hockey over the past few decades.

During the final, India gave so much space and time to the Australia’s back 4 players, including several others, that they could make short or long passes at will, to their leading forwards to launch attacks.

This defensive flaw of loose marking was first exposed during the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where Australia whipped India 6-1. This was a shocking new record for goals scored against India, and took the fear factor out of India’s opponents.

What made this final quite ironic was that Ric Charlesworth, current coach of the Australian team, played against Ajitpal Singh and Ashok Kumar, during the historical1976 Olympics pool match. Ajitpal Singh and Ashok Kumar, the current men in power of Indian hockey, were sitting beside Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in the stands and passively watching the rout … not an ideal situation to be in.

Suggested strategy: Understand the various types of marking and employ them effectively.

With 20 seconds to go for the final whistle, while being down 0-7, India should have played safe. And control the damage. Instead, India employed a half-hearted, disorganized, full- court press on the Australian team, when they were taking a sideline free hit, near their goal line on the left side of the field.

Was this is a wise decision, at such a late stage of the game, with the score reading 0-7, and that also, against a world champion team Australia? You be the judge!

What eventually transpired was that Australia easily escaped the full court press and scored their 8th goal. Losing 0-7 would have looked better than losing 0-8.

Suggested strategy: Know the types of Presses and employ them accordingly, during the various phases of the game.

Food for thought: What strategic changes did the coaching staff make in the game plan, during the half-time, when the score was 0 – 4? What sideline instructions were being imparted by the coaching staff in the last few minutes of the first half, when the score was 0-2, and during the last few minutes of the second half, when the score was 0-6? How could these soft goals being conceded at the end of each half, have been avoided?

AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT BY INDIA

The following fact needs to be drilled into the players’ heads – the ball travels faster than the player. Almost everyone in the Indian team, with the exception of the goalkeeper, runs with the ball way too much, and that too in a way that reduces their optimum passing options.

On a practical note, when one is running with the ball at full speed, with the head down, one cannot analyze the game situations effectively to make optimal passes.

Coaching tip: Employ change of pace, direction and dexterity, while running with the ball. The coaching staff should show the video clips of Railways Balbir Singh and Harbinder Singh playing in their hay days, in the 60’s. I understand that both were so fast and could run 100 meters with the ball, under 11 seconds!

They never ran like a mad bull on the field, with the ball. They employed the strategies of speed, change of pace, direction and dexterity, to make the opponents bite the dust.

The Indian players dribble way too much, and in the process hang on to the ball more than needed. When I watch the old films of the great Dhyan Chand, he played first time with the ball, passing and receiving, using the technique of give-and-go, and dodging opponents effortlessly, when the timing was right.

Unfortunately, the Wizard’s son Ashok Kumar, who represented India, in the 1970s, and Mohammad Shaheed in the 1980s, were often guilty of over-dribbling the ball, and this trend has kept infecting each succeeding generation of Indian hockey players.

In the Commonwealth Games final, Jamie Dwyer exhibited optimal dribbling skills based on his position on the field, in the 2nd and 31st minutes of the first half. On both these occasions, Jamie, while playing as a Left-in received a pass from his left half and left full-back from a side line free hit and the 16’s free hit, respectively. He floated away gracefully, from his markers, while executing a play making pass to his teammates to, launch a dangerous attack.

Watching Jamie in full flow reminded me of how triple-Olympic-gold-medalist Udham Singh used to dribble and carry the ball in the 1950s and 1960s. Both Udham and Jamie are short in height, but tall in hockey intelligence and creativity.

Coaching tip: Each position on the field has a different strategic style of moves; current India players are unaware of this. Please get educated.

Individually, and as a team, the majority of the Indian players lack in-depth tactical knowledge and game sense. They cannot read the opponent’s offensive and defensive strategies during the run of play. As a result, they are unable to foresee problematic game situations in advance, nor counter them in real time when they happen on the field.

Knowledge is power, and the Indian players don’t understand what works, what does not work, and why? In-depth tactical knowledge was where “Charlie’s Devils” were way ahead of India in the final.

Coaching tip: Teach the younger generation of Indian players this game sense, and their role and responsibility – offensively and defensively – via small sided games.

a. Tackling

The Indian team needs to understand the various types of tackles, and knowing which one to employ, when and where, in a given game situation. Further, knowing when to delay, where to channel and commit at the optimum time, will be an added bonus. Due to lack of this understanding, India gave away soft goals and penalty corners.

I like to take the example of Sadara, who is one of the finest players in the universe. When Australia scored their 3rd goal, on a counter attack, Sardara faced a 1 on 1 situation near the circle against an Australian forward. Due to his not so strong defensive strategic positioning, resulted in the forward being able to dodge on his strong side, further, holding the stick with 2 hands, while tackling from left, did not allow Sardara to optimize his reach. Later, with a minute to go in the half time, he was caught on the wrong foot, while tackling Jamie, which resulted in a PC and the 4^th goal.

b. Possession Skills under Pressure

Whenever Australia put pressure on any Indian player, with the ball, it resulted in a panicked play or a poor passing decision, leading to a turnover and an Australian counter attack.

c. Dodging

Inability to cleanly dodge an opponent, and more importantly, knowing when to dodge and when to pass, was one of the drawbacks of the Indian team, leading to several inefficient plays.

d. Aerial Hockey

India could have employed more aerial strategies, when Australia was employing a full-court press on the deep defense?

e. In-to-In hockey

How did Australia score their 1st goal? The Australian left-in dribbled the ball towards his left, drawing the Indian defense to the left side. He quickly brought the ball to his strong right side and passed it to his right-in, who then passed the ball to his leading forward in the striking circle to score a goal with a backhand shot. This tactic is also called ‘changing the point of attack’. I didn’t see India employing this play in their attack.

Coaching tip: Develop these skills in the young and upcoming hockey players

In the final, India got 2 penalty corners and Australia effectively got 3 (2 were repeat PCs for Australia, making their total tally of 5 PCs).

Australia scored 3 goals from their 3 (effective) penalty corners making it a 100% conversion rate. India scored 0 goals from their PCs, resulting in a 0% conversion rate.

Of the two PCs awarded to India, the ball was not stopped cleanly for the first PC, and Sandeep executed a feeble push on the second PC, which immediately led to an Australian counter attack. Two golden opportunities were thus wasted.

An unforced turnover by left full-back Dhananjay Mahadik in the 15th minute of the first half, when the score was 0-0, helped Australia score their 1^st goal.

An equally devastating unforced error occurred in the 14th minute of the second half, when Gurbaj Singh, pushed the ball after the umpire blew his whistle, resulting in a penalty corner and eventually their first goal of the second half.

Was this due to fatigue, loss of focus or plain foolish plays that India started making schoolboy mistakes by the 15th minute of each half?

Coaching tip: Employ simulation approach, during the training camps.

A couple of years ago, I was talking to the German goalkeeper, member of the 2004 Athens Olympics team. He mentioned that during their Olympic preparation camps, they had country-specific practices, on how they would play Australia, how they would play Spain, and so on. As a result, they knew what to expect and how to counter it effectively during the Olympic competition. This simulation approach helped them improve their performance and effectiveness’.

WHERE INDIA PLAYED WELL

In the 12-year history of Commonwealth Games men’s hockey, India entered the final for the first time, and ended with a silver medal. This was quite an honor and achievement, and made up for the disappointing World Cup finish earlier in the year.

It is a beauty to watch Sardara Singh play, with so much confidence, poise and grace. He sure is a creative player, and makes things happen on the field. Of course, no one is perfect, and Sardara too needs fine tuning on his tackling skills and correct use of footwork.

The day India will have 5-6 players of Sardara’s capability and intelligence; they stand a good chance of finishing consistently in the top 4 of world hockey rankings.

In the Commonwealth Games final, India exhibited peak performance in the first 10-15 minutes of the game. The Indian players had the desire to excel and win, they exhibited confidence, showed no fear of the world champions Australia, demonstrated an ethic of hard work, with a high quality of passing and receiving skills.

Unfortunately, the duration of a hockey game is 70 minutes. India could not sustain this peak performance of play after 15 minutes into the final.

It has taken India a long time, more than 20 years to understand the value of moving the ball in the backfield. This is the tactic of ‘Positive Indirect Hockey’, European in origin.

German coach Gerald Rach first introduced this tactic to the Indian team, just a few weeks before the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. And Spanish coach Jose Brasa has further refined it over the past couple of years.

While, there is still a long way for India to go, to employ this tactic as effectively as the Germans do. No question, this is a step in the right direction.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, India made Australia look much better than they were, due to the various tactical mistakes outlined in this article. Note, however, that the purpose of this article is not to criticize the Indian hockey coaching staff, but to introspect and see what needs to be changed and improved.

India was a role model for the world of hockey, up till the mid 70’s, when their world supremacy started vanishing after winning the 1975 world cup. Leading countries had studied the Indian – Asian – hockey and taken the best of it and translated it in to their style of play to become more effective, efficient, respected and feared hockey playing nations of the world.

The Indian hockey has been caught in the middle, entirely forgetting about their past hockey winning culture, style of play, strategies and strengths, while trying to imitate the European teams and their style of play. There has to be an optimum balance – wining formula – the way Australia has managed to create!

Success on the field is the result of Long term planning, preparation and execution. The lessons learned by India from the 2010 Commonwealth Games hockey final, can go a long way to achieve higher goals, in the future.

While Football has been named ‘The Beautiful Game’ by the legend Pele, hockey, which can be both beautiful and entertaining, has become mechanical and boring to a certain degree. This is not a nice thing to say about hockey, but one has to be honest and sincere if we wish to improve the quality of the game.

I had a good fortune to witness the Hockey world Cup live in Delhi in February/March of this year, and the Football World Cup live in June/July of this year, albeit on television. When we talk about these 2 World Cups, it is hard to not think of doing a comparative analysis, which is presented below.

History

In the early 1980’s, I was talking to Richard Aggiss, the coach of the highly successful Australian Men’s National Hockey team, where he mentioned that basketball was 20 years ahead of hockey and Football was 10 years ahead of hockey. In my opinion, this observation by Aggiss is still very much true today. I know, a lot you will be rolling your eyes, on this comment of mine.

In the early part of this millennium, during an FIH seminar at the 2002 Kuala Lumpur men’s Hockey World Cup, I heard the Hockey gurus claiming that Hockey was far ahead of Football, and that top European football club coaches watched hockey matches to pick tactics for their club teams.

Synthetic Turf has brought lots of changes into the game

Yes, hockey has come a long way, from the grassy fields to the artificial turfs. We have advanced tremendously in some departments of the game, but we have also dipped rock bottom in some other departments of the game, which has resulted in our game becoming not so spectator friendly … Natural flair and creativity has been replaced by a set of mechanical plays, of course there is an exception, as couple of teams don’t fall in this category.

The FIH has been trying very hard to make hockey a popular spectator sport. Here are my views on what we can learn from the Football World Cup.

Things I Liked About The Football World Cup

a. Play Build Up Let’s take the example of the young German side, which went all the way to the World Cup semi-finals, where they lost to eventual winners Spain.

FIFA 2010

It was a beauty to see them move the ball in the back 4, involving RH, RF, LF, and LH. Further, the left inner, right inner and the center half , took sharp angular leads, to receive the ball and build the attack in triangles, from the right or left side, involving the respective wingers and the half-backs.

This was the way hockey was played – more or less – till the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but no more now. Play build up has vanished, with almost all the teams simply bypassing the midfield. This is because hockey abolished the offside rule, resulting in the over-crowding of the defense in the front of the goal.

The football officials did not copy the hockey officials, and kept the offside rule. Thank God. Football players do not overcrowd their defensive area in front of their goals, except in the case of free kicks taken around the penalty box, and long corners.

b. The Beauty of Through Passes

The next sequence after the inner’s and half-backs have completed the build up, is through passes to the leading forwards. Hockey coaches and players don’t emphasize play build up, and bypass the midfield completely with long shots into the circle and goal, looking for a deflection.

c. 1-on-1, 2-on-1, Give-and-Go

Play build up and through passes (a. and b. above) result in 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 situations near the opponents goal. Star players like Romario, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho capitalized on these situations to cleanly eliminate the defenders and score goals. These players were integral to the Brazil teams of 1994 and 2002 that won the World Cup. It is fair to say that Brazil did not have forwards of this class, in the 2010 world cup and it would be very unfair to name Kaka in this class.

Things I Did Not Like About The Football World Cup

a. Faking Injuries to Claim Fouls

This was quite apparent during the Football World Cup and we need not go into any further details. While faking of injuries was hardly done during the Hockey World Cup, our umpires have done a good job!

b. Rough Play and Bad Temper

The number of yellow cards shown to the players in the bad tempered World Cup Football final speaks volumes about this.

The Dutch received a total of 8 yellow cards, with one player – John Hetinga – receiving two yellow cards and being sent off the field for the rest of the final after the second yellow card.

Spain received 5 yellow cards in the final. The total of 13 yellow cards by both teams set a new record for the number of cards received in any World Cup Football final. This was simply disgraceful. We in hockey are far more classy and graceful, although we also do have some bad apples

Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff, who is ranked alongside Pele and Maradona, described his national team’s performance in the 2010 Football World Cup final thus: “It was lamentable, sad, they played dirty and deserved to be down to nine players very early. There were two Dutch tackles so ugly and dirty that they even hurt me.”

What a classy man, no wonder Teun de Nooijer has Cruyff, as his mentor! don’t they both have shirt # 14?

By the way, football, as played in the World Cup final, was no longer The Beautiful Game.

CONCLUSION

Both football and hockey are quite similar, in terms of number of players on the team, systems and tactics. European hockey coaches have successfully employed advanced soccer tactics to defeat formerly invincible teams like India and Pakistan. In the process, we – FIH rules board – have made significant changes in our rules, which has adversely affected the beauty and spectator appeal of hockey, with the exception of the self pass, whic has facilitated the more skillful and imaginative teams.

Your feedback is certainly appreciated.

Feel free to contact me via email coachshiv@aol.com

Please visit my web site. www.coachshiv.com

Whenever any individual player, or the hockey team as a whole, steps away from these laws, it diminishes their effectiveness. Of course, there are times during the run of play when there can be exceptions to these laws.

These laws also govern the game of football (soccer) and basketball. In my opinion, these sports employ some, if not all the laws, to a higher degree and effectiveness than field hockey.

The 7 laws for playing effective hockey are given below:

(1) Ball Travels Faster than the Player

This is a simple law and does not need much explanation. Ironically, one sees this law under-employed, misused or even abused during the heat or run of the game. Ignoring this law can hurt even the most skillful of teams, when they do not abide by it.

(2) Play One-Touch Hockey

In other words, play a first-time passing game. This requires the players, and the team as a whole, to be on their toes and keep moving. By the same token, it makes things harder for the opposing team to keep up with this constant, fluid movement. Yes, there will come opportunities to run with the ball a few yards, and end up with a shot on a goal. Go for it when the timing is optimum.

Cross-sport Example: The Brazilians are the masters of one-touch football; their winning record in world football provides clear validation of this law.

(3) The Passer is Free 9 Times out of 10

Go ahead and observe this law during your next game or practice. You will be pleasantly surprised to see how true this law is. It is indeed surprising that teams don’t take maximum advantage of this law, and end up getting into trouble time and time again.

(4) Attack from the Right, Score from the Left

This is a powerful concept, and is employed diligently by the top-tier teams. Many key field goals, in matches of critical importance, have been initiated from a pass by the right-in, floating in and making space for the leading centre-forward.

There is always room for some flexibility in this law. Teams that have a strong left-in prefer to attack from the left. For example Pakistan with left-in Shahbaz Ahmed in the 1994 Sydney World Cup, and Teun de Nooijer of Netherlands in recent times.

Cross-sport Example: In the 1962 and 1990 Men’s World Cup Football finals, the winning goals in both finals came through usage of the above law. Same was the case in the 2007 Women’s World Cup football final in China, where Germany scored the winning field goal against Brazil using this law, and went on to become the first team to repeat as Women’s World Cup football champions.

(5) Play in Triangles, Utilising Width and Depth of the Field

The concept here is to divide the whole team into mini zones, viz. Right-side triangle, Left-side triangle, Midfield triangle, etc., and use these zones to carry out offensive or defensive strategies during the run of play.

A useful tip here while building an attack is to use Right-side and Left-side triangles in the ratio of 60:40. Also, as was the case for Law #4, there is scope for flexibility in this law too.

Looking at the big picture, the usage of triangle zones makes effective use of the width and depth of the whole field, in order to create and exploit space.

(6) Keep Switching Focus from Left to Right, and Vice Versa

When the ball moves from the Left (left-in) to the Right (right-in or right-out), opponents are caught shifting from one side of the field to the other. In case they are not nimble enough to recover or react to the ball movement, they can be caught in the middle, thus leaving wide open gaps to be exploited.

This concept is employed to a high degree by the top teams in the world, by moving the ball from side to side via the back field, which in many cases comprise four defensive players.

(7) Use Centre-Half and Sweeper Back as Base-Axle of Team

Before the No-Offside rule was introduced in hockey in 1996, the centre-half was the key player of the team. The Midfield triangle of centre-half, right-in and left-in used to be the base around which the whole team rotated and functioned.

Now, without an off-side rule in effect, the Sweeper Back plays a key role in the team, in conjunction with a 4-person defensive backfield comprising Right Half, Right Fullback, Left Fullback and Left Half.

CONCLUSION

As coaches, we tend to think a lot. A zillion thoughts dance in our mind, flitting in and out. We need to let go the majority of these thoughts, but capture some key ones.

It is always beneficial to jot down thoughts on a piece of paper or in a notebook. Writing down thoughts allows for future reference, which will be especially important if they pertain to the above laws of the game

A useful tip here is to note down the thoughts/ideas that come to your mind while bathing – where one is in a most serene state of mind. As an example, the legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus got some of his most creative golfing thoughts while in the shower. Of course, the question does arise as to how one can jot down thoughts while bathing? This is a dilemma which one needs to solve creatively and gracefully. Cheers!

Field Hockey player

1. INTRODUCTION

Study after study has indicated that the most influential coach in the development of a young athlete and his career is his first coach. The first coach is the one who will lay a solid foundation for the athlete.

As the athlete grows, it is up to both of them – coach and athlete – to decide what they would like to climb … a mountain or a hill. It is this first coach that has the power to sow the seeds of greatness in the athlete, to inspire them to challenge themselves beyond the ordinary.

It is sad to note that most young athletes are offered unskilled coaches in their earliest years. Unfortunately, an inexperienced coach does more harm than good to the long term development of the young athlete.

It is much easier to learn a new skill correctly the first time, than to correct the a poorly learned technique later.

2. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

2.1 Are world class athletes born or are they developed?

The stark truth is that world class athletes are developed and not born. In fact, when someone says, “He is a born champion”, nothing could be further than the truth.

What we overlook or don’t remember are the years of systematic training and daily quality coaching, which had been invested in developing this champion athlete, from the beginning.

2.2 How long does it take to develop a world class athlete in any given sport?

According to Dr Istvan Balyi of Canada, “Scientific research has concluded that it takes eight to ten years of training for a talented athlete to reach elite levels, This is known in the scientific literature as the 10-year or 10,000-hour rule. It translates into slightly more than three hours of deliberate practice daily for 10 years. Such a long-term commitment to training is required to produce elite athletes in any sport.

2.3 Does it matter that at what age the athlete starts training?

Yes, the age of first training matters; it will decide to what level will the athlete will ultimately reach and play. From my experience:

• Ages 5 – 8: An athlete should be first introduced to the game. Nurture a love for the game, make it a fun experience. As the athlete grows older, so does his/her devotion to the game.
• Ages 10 – 12: These are the critical years where athletes develop correct technique, good habits, execute basic skills and learn to play the game smartly. This is when the player’s foundation for the style of play is laid.
• Ages 13 – 14: This foundation is made stronger and is polished and refined as the athlete grows older. One point to keep in mind is that Field Hockey is a late specialization sport, compared to an early specialization sport like Gymnastics. The complex skills of field hockey need to be learned and mastered to a certain degree, before the maturation stage (age 14 for boys, age 12 for girls).

2.4 Should the young athlete play field hockey only, or play multiple sports; if multiple sports, until what age?

Young athletes should play other sports too. This is a must.

• Ages 5 – 12: I would strongly recommend the budding athlete playing football (soccer), basketball and tennis, as these sports are complementary to field hockey. The knowledge gained from these sports can easily be translated to field hockey.
• Ages 13 – 14: This is the optimum age when a child should start focussing single-mindedly on field hockey.

3. CASE STUDY

Please allow me to share the example of Ronnie Jagday, my son, who represented Canada in hockey in the Olympic Games, World Cup and the Pan Am games.

The following is a brief sketch of his development, first as an athlete, and later as a hockey player.

4. QUOTABLE QUOTES

Famous violinist Leopold Auer was asked by his student how many hours should he practice the violin:If you practice with your fingers, no amount is enough. If you practice with your head, two hours a day is plenty.

Author’s Note: When I see some athletes warming up or practicing without being mentally present, and simply going through the motions, and on top of this, hear them talking of things other than hockey, I politely advise them to focus with their heart, mind and soul. Otherwise, they are not doing justice to themselves and their teammates.

Michael Jordan, when asked about the optimum hours of basketball practice: You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then you will become very good at shooting the wrong way. However, if you get the fundamentals down, the level of everything you do will rise.

Author’s Note: If a young athlete in his mid-teens does individual training for 30-45 minutes in the morning, and for 2 hours, 5 times a week, he can become the Michael Jordan of field hockey, assuming all the other areas of the game preparation are covered.