The Nobbs effect

His dream played out as India qualified for the London Games,with an 8-1 win in a tournament that saw it scoring 44 goals. This was redemption after failing to make it to Beijing in 2008. Like others before him,Nobbs didnt want to overhaul Indian hockey. Nor was he selling fusion hockey,that fictional style of play that aspires for the impossible combine the best of Asia and Europe. Nobbs kept it simple: he asked Indians to play like the Indians he had played against a couple of decades back. To be creative,cohesive and constantly attacking.

A few coaches had propagated this back-to-basics approach,but Nobbs has imaginatively tweaked the tactics to convert Indias weakness into strength. Constant substitution has meant players rarely get more than 10 minutes at a stretch on the field. The endurance of the players is improving but because of Nobbss rotation policy the squads combined stamina has spiked. The man manager in Nobbs has also quelled dressing-room dissent: thats why Sandeep Singh and Sardar Singh two players who left the camp last year because of their differences with the coach have become the chief architects of the win. Qualifying for London means the road ahead is tough,but shaking off pretences and being itself a key lesson from Nobbs could be a good starting point for Indian hockey.