Chief coach Graham Reid is confident World No. 4 India can break hockey’s Olympic medal-drought in Tokyo
India players celebrate a goal during the FIH Pro League match against Belgium at Bhubaneswar last year
The Indian men’s hockey team have not been able to get too many international matches in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics due to the global pandemic situation, but chief coach Graham Reid is convinced their intense internal training sessions are a good enough indicator of overall improvement.
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Successful tours
“We have had two very successful tours and both were after being in a lockdown, where we did some high intensity training. In 2019-20, we beat Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands and then this year we’ve beaten [Olympic champions] Argentina. So, it does give the team confidence when you come from an environment where you have not been exposed to the outside world for long and you still go out and perform well. That’s the mentality we go into Tokyo with,” said Reid during a virtual media interaction on Friday.
Graham Reid
The Australian further pointed out World No. 4 India have beaten all the top teams in the world across the last few years. Grouped alongside India in Tokyo are defending champions Argentina, World No. 1 Australia, Spain, New Zealand and hosts Japan, while Pool B comprises Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Canada and South Africa. “If you look at the 12 teams at this Olympics, in the last three years, we have beaten all of them except Canada because we didn’t get a chance to play them. So, if we play according to plan in Tokyo, we are definitely aiming to jump onto that podium. But before that, we have to zoom into the little things like, the first trap, the first tackle, the first goal and that first match. The plan is to play in the Olympic final but we have to first get to the quarter-finals,” added Reid, a silver medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, who has also coached hockey powerhouse Australia.
Unique training method
Reid also provided a sneak peek into a key training drill that will enhance Team India’s goal-striking abilities in Tokyo. “Circle penetrations are a key aspect in training and we have a unique method to count the number of opportunities we create inside the opposition circle. For example, if a forward touches the ball inside the striking circle, it’s one point and if he has a shot on a goal or earns a penalty corner then that’s five points. So, the idea is to encourage our forwards to not look for that one point but to convert that one into a four or five-pointer. Penalty shootouts are another area of focus. Rarely does a training session go without shootout practice. And we are fortunate to not only have some good shootout-takers but also one of the world’s best shootout-stoppers in goalkeeper PR Sreejesh,” explained Reid.
Finally, coach Reid is hoping that his personal connect with each one of Team India’s players will help, both them and him, scale Mount Tokyo. “In the last 15 months, I’ve had a lot of time with my players. I’ve got a video with each player sharing his life story. Indians don’t realise how mentally resilient they are. I intend to bring that out in the next few weeks to highlight the strength and mentality it has taken these guys to reach where they are and where they intend to go. This will help them when the chips are down in Tokyo,” he concluded.
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