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Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, Indian men’s hockey defender Amit Rohidas believes video analysis has played a massive role in their recent performances. He is currently training with the men’s core group at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) center in Bengaluru.
The Indians have been in tremendous form this year, winning six games, drawing three and losing one. In addition to remaining undefeated on the European tour, the Men in Blue also registered 2-2 (3-2) and 3-0 wins against 2016 Olympic champions Argentina in the FIH Pro League last month.
Rohidas feels technology has played a big part in their successful tours to Europe and Argentina. It helped the team get their homework done at a time when there weren’t many international matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Video analysis has been playing a massive part for us in terms of preparations before the Tokyo Olympics. It helped us on both tours. We analyzed our opponent’s style of play, their every movement in the attack as well as in defense, and we adapted to the situations accordingly,” said Rohidas.
“We didn’t have much on-field experience, but I can say we did our homework pretty well through the video analysis and it benefited us,” added Rohidas, who is just three matches shy of reaching the magical 100-figure mark for India.
Video analysis now helping players train for Tokyo Olympics
The Odisha native, who celebrated his 28th birthday a couple of days ago, admitted that the technology is also helping them train during the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics:
“At the camp also, with the help of video analysis, we are working on the areas where our team needs correcting or need to improve. So, yeah it's one of the major assets for us to cover our bases for the Tokyo Olympics,” he said.
As with competitors in most other sporting disciplines, the Indian men’s hockey team has also suffered for the majority of last year due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, a winning return to international action has helped them gain considerable momentum heading into Tokyo.
India need to improve on conversion rate: Rohidas
With the Tokyo Olympics knocking on the door, Rohidas also highlighted that the team needs to improve on its conversion rate and take some pressure off the defense.
“I think we need to improve on our conversion rate. We can be more clinical. We should try to convert those chances as quickly as we can. It will indirectly help the defence line. As I said, we are making the most of the video analysis to work on these areas,” concluded the defender.
