‘Team will focus on conversion rate’
Fresh from a weeklong break, the Indian men’s hockey team will begin its final phase of preparation for the Asian Games, starting August 18 at Jakarta/Palembang, at Bangalore from Wednesday.
The camp will be attended by the Asian Games-bound squad of 18 and seven standbys.
Over the next 11 days, the team will fine-tune its preparation and finalise strategies for the mega event as this would be an opportunity for them to prove its supremacy in Asia. India are the defending champions and a gold in Asian Games would help them secure a spot for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“We will be starting high-intensity training after a gap of almost one week. The rest was much-needed after a hectic schedule where the players played high-tempo matches against Bangladesh, South Korea and New Zealand,” chief coach Harendra Singh said on the eve of the camp.
“We will continue to work on all aspects of the game with specific focus on converting opportunities in the striking circle. We will work on the short comings noticed during the New Zealand matches. We want to seal the Olympic qualification by winning Gold,” he said.
Captain PR Sreejesh said the team will work on specific strate- gies. “In the next one week, we will sit together and work out a detailed plan.” he said.
“Playing against highly defensive teams like Korea and Japan will be testing for us because we might not be able to play with the kind of speed we are used to.”
He said the break has helped the team come back rejuvenated.
“Personally for me, I got to spend time with my one-year old son . Getting a short break before a major tournament is critical both mentally and physically,” said Sreejesh
“Though we were at home, we were given a specific regime which we had to follow, including conditioning, running, swimming for recovery and gym,” he added.
Harendra sounded confident about team’s prospects at the quadrennial event which will be a stepping stone towards the World Cup in Bhubaneswar, starting in November.
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