Coach’s prescription: Stick to home remedies

However, when the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) appointed him as the chief coach after the team’s World Cup fiasco earlier this year, it was seen as a soft-appointee. After all, the public spat between the previous coach Cedric D’Souza and IHF had heavily hit the latter’s credibility.

However, in an interview with The Indian Express, Rajinder said that he was not afraid to speak his mind, if “it will do good for Indian hockey”.

As further proof, he went on to discuss a range of issues, from the team he inherited to the changes he’s been trying to make in the past few months.

“My belief in the Indian style hockey is firm and this is what I am going to emphasise during my stint,” said Rajinder. In recent years, the influence of the European style over the Asian has permeated through even in India, denting the confidence of even Indian coaches but Rajinder is confident that India’s future lies in the traditional style while also making improvements in fitness and strategy.

“Our natural style is to play attacking hockey and, by deviating from it, the players have only lost their self-confidence in the last three years,” says the chief coach.

The morale in the team has been low after their performance at the World Cup and in June, the federation organised a 20-day training for the probables under the elite NSG commando at Manesar for fitness and psychological training.

“In my first tournament with the team, where we lost in the final to Australia, I noticed that the players were playing without any feeling.” During the four-nation tournament held in May-June, India twice beat Korea, with their World Cup team, but lost 0-6 to Australia in the final.

“These were two contrasting situations for the team but the boys were hardly reacting. Therefore, the purpose of the NSG training was to help them come out with their problems and develop a killer instinct.”

The Indian team has a hectic schedule over the next few months. They will be playing next month in the four-nation tournament in Holland, against heavyweights Germany, the World Cup winners, Korea and the host nation. It will be followed by the Champions Trophy and the Asian Games at Busan.

The Indians have qualified for the Champions Trophy after a gap of seven years and the chief coach has set a more realistic target of “improving our standing in the world after the 10th place in the World Cup”. The question remains of how Rajinder plans to utilise ace striker Dhanraj Pillay, whose star appeal is known to daunt coaches.

Not surprisingly, Rajinder’s answer was more or less the same. “Pillay will have to gel with the rest of the team. His individual brilliance will be of no use if it cannot help the team,” he said, matter-of-factly. Similarly, on the issue of introducing a National coaching policy for Indian hockey, his answer is blunt: “Unless I do not bring results in the coming tournaments, I cannot ask the federation to come out with such ideal notions.”

All the top teams in the world have a uniform coaching system unlike India, where youngsters have to go through different coaching style and it creates confusion for the players.

In fact, Rajinder makes a strong point about the skill level of the present players. “Skills have deteriorated today and the present lot will have to practise more and show more commitment.” The chief coach also points out that the players will gain nothing if they blindly follow the European style of play, “because it does not suit us naturally”.

“Coaches who force it (European style) only create a negative mindset. They were taught to run with the ball to the rival ‘D’ and instead of using our strength of dodging, players were told to delay and backpass the ball to wait for another opening. I want to see the players take risks and go for scoring”.

It’s not often that you hear a coach advocating risk-taking. But Rajinder Singh is aware that something out of the ordinary is required to pull Indian hockey out of the mess it currently is in.