India’s hockey juniors are currently being judged on their need for speed

When David John was the exercise physiologist of the Indian hockey team five years ago, he didn’t speak much beyond fitness. To be fair, he wasn’t asked much beyond his domain. But things have changed for him, with more power and responsibility, since November 2016.

John, Hockey India’s new High Performance Director, is now accountable for holistic development of Indian hockey. And six months into the role, he has got a fair grip of things to plan the way forward.

At present, he is shouting instructions at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru, guiding the coach-less India juniors at the national camp. But he’s not merely guiding them. John is using his fitness expertise to put the 53 junior boys through a three-part selection criteria to hand 33 of them to the soon-to-be appointed new coach

In a freewheeling chat with Scroll, John disclosed his plans of handling the senior and the juniors team leading up to the end of 2017.

Need for speed

A miscommunication between Hockey India and junior World Cup-winning coach Harendra Singh led to the latter’s ouster, and Jude Felix is now the frontrunner to get the job. Until the appointment happens, David is in the driver’s seat at the junior camp.

His target is to hand over the new coach 33 of the best young talent in the country, similar to how Harendra in 2014 built the team until they won the junior World Cup in December last year.

To do that, John has devised a three-part selection criteria, which includes (a) Fitness, (b) Skills and (c) Game Awareness.

“Based on these criteria, the boys will be ranked according to points out of 100. To be selected, they need to secure at least 75. At the moment, their scores are less than the bare minimum. In some areas, they are getting almost 100 but in other areas only 50,” John said.

While the skills section includes assessment in 12 different skills, the fitness part includes a speed test, which has been introduced for the first time.

10m sprint – 1.8 sec or less

40m sprint – 5 sec or less

40m sprint – 12 times every 30 seconds

“Because of the change in format of the game (four quarters of 15 minutes each), most midfielders and strikers remain on the pitch for four to five minutes at a time (before being rotated). So they have to be speedy,” he explained.

Where’s Raghunath?

For the FIH Hockey World League finals in December this year, Hockey India has selected a pool of 33 players who will be rotated on the three tours before the Asia Cup.

“These three tours will be treated as a selection ground for the more important tournaments later in the year – the Asia Cup and the HWL finals. The best 18 among these 33 will be selected for those two events,” the High Performance Director confirmed.

However, a few prominent names are missing in this group of 33. Among them is the senior defender VR Raghunath.

There is a cloud of suspense surrounding Raghunath’s absence. However, sources have told Scroll that the dragflicker is likely to announce his retirement soon and hence made himself unavailable for selection. But John refused to comment and surprisingly failed to provide a reason for Raghunath’s absence.

However, he confirmed that Raghunath, along with Dharamvir Singh and Danish Mujtaba, will not be considered for the Asia Cup and HWL Finals.

Danish and Dharamvir are also not part of the 33.

“Raghunath was not considered for the 33. I am not sure of the reason, but he will not be considered for the Asia Cup and HWL Finals.” David said.

New role for Harendra?

Harendra isn’t pleased the way he has been sidelined despite winning the junior World Cup. But his talks with Oman Hockey Association led to SAI and HI advertising for a new coach. Harendra missed the deadline and hence wasn’t considered.

“People who applied through HI and SAI’s advertisement were considered and the formal announcement will be made next week,” David said.

“He has achieved his goal (of winning the junior World Cup) and may have ambitions to coach at a higher level. He needs to be spoken to. He may have wanted a break from the game because it (the job) was mentally demanding.”

But it will be foolhardy on part of HI to let go of Harendra, whose coaching credentials and methods have been lauded world over.

Does John have a role in mind for Harendra? He almost answered in the affirmative.

“Harry is a very successful coach. He can possibly handle the coaching accreditation system in India, but it’s still being formulated. It is necessary that the coaches are accredited through a proper system. Harry can do that, but I have not spoken to him about that since the programme is still being made,” said David.