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Journalism of Courage
Indian hockey team goes back to the basics to make it to London
Long before he posted his CV to become Indias national hockey coach,Michael Nobbs was an unabashed Indophile. As a teenager in Australia,his first lessons in hockey had the Asian 5-3-2-1 template. When he graduated to the national team in the 1980s,the centre-half relished the contest with men in light blue who had magical stickwork and played an open attacking game. During his passionate presentation at his job interview last year,he spoke about his vision,one that had Indian hockey players in full flow,scoring lots of goals.
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.
