Over to you, Oltmans

Holland’s Roelant Oltmans, with his vast experience, has been appointed as the coach of the Malaysian men’s hockey team. The 64-year-old has been hired to help the national team qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Oltmans spoke to StarSport’s AFTAR SINGH

StarSport: How long have you been coaching? A: I have 29 years of coaching experience. I have been the national Dutch women coach since 1989 and guided the team to win the 1990 World Cup in Sydney.

I then coached the Dutch men’s team and guided them to win the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 1998 World Cup in Utrecht, Holland.

Later, I coached the Pakistan men’s team from 2003 to 2004 before I was initially appointed as the high-performance director by Hockey India in 2013. I eventually took over as the head coach in 2015 until the end of last year. I had a short stint as the Pakistan coach from March this year until the Asian Games in Jakarta last month.

StarSport: What is your first impression of the Malaysian men’s team?

A: Malaysian men’s hockey team are a team with lots of quality and there is no doubt about it. But just quality on its own is not good enough to win big tournaments. You need more and there has to be awareness, the execution of the game plan, game management, tournament management and all other aspects that are important for the team. If I look at the national team, I am impressed with the team but if you look at game situations, there are players who are not involved enough. That is one important aspect that you need to do – get every individual player to be involved in matches.

StarSport: Are there any target set for your first assignment – the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) tournament in Muscat, Oman, from Oct 18-28?

A: We don’t have a target for the ACT meet to win the gold, silver or the bronze medal. If you go for a tournament, you always want to win every single match. Even if you play a game of chess, you want to win. But we are using the ACT meet as part of our preparation for the World Cup (in Bhubaneswar, India from Nov 28 to Dec 16).

Our most important target is to improve ourselves towards the World Cup. The World Cup is the tournament where we want to peak as we will face the top teams in the world. The World Cup is also part of our preparation to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

StarSport: What are things the national players need to improve on?

A: In every area, you can always make improvement and that is clear. Physically the team has made an improvement over the past year. We will do a fitness test on the players next week to see where we are actually. But we will keep on improving the fitness of the players. Fitness level is so important nowadays that hockey has become a power sport and the game is played on such a high speed. The Malaysian players need to showcase their skills and speed at the highest level. It is not only the fitness you need to work on but also the combination of fitness and skills execution and tactical awareness.

What is far more important is that the players must show improvement towards the World Cup.

StarSport: Any changes you will make for the ACT tournament?.

A: I only had about few training sessions with the team since Tuesday and I am still working on their condition and other aspects of the game. But there will be a few changes that I will make for the ACT tournament as few players like defender Muhd Razie (Abdul Rahim) will not be available due to a hamstring injury. There will be someone else to take over his place. I will also need to check the fitness and injuries of the other players. And some young players will get the opportunity to play in the ACT meet.