Harendra is trying to change things that should have changed 15-20 years ago, says Ciriello

Bengaluru: It’s a busy day at the Sports Authority of India for the members of the Indian men’s hockey team. They have just finished an intense session at the gym. With their sippers in hand, some are heading to their hostel rooms to get their notebooks, which they’d require for the psychology session about to start within an hour. Amidst this, some – including the team’s head coach Harendra Singh – have obliged to give interviews to the journalists. In a few days, they’d have to travel to Jakarta to defend their Asian Games gold medal. Based on their current form – winning a silver medal in the Champions Trophy and blanking New Zealand 3-0 – one would do well to put money on their gold medal defence in the Indonesian capital. But there are a few areas – like the low penalty corner conversion rate – that India need to improve upon ahead of the tournament. To talk about that and more, Scroll.in caught up with the team’s analytical coach and former Australian drag-flick specialist Chris Ciriello.

It’s been over six months since you joined the team. How has the journey been so far?

Quite good.We are working hard to create a good team. And, I think that takes time. Most of the media don’t understand that. It’s like saying you come out of a journalism school and you have to be the best writer. So, everything takes time. But the guys are really good. They are improving as the world ranking shows [India recently surged to the fifth spot].

What has been your best moment with the team over this period?

Playing and winning the semi-final at Champions Trophy is good. We competed against the best six nations in the world. We had to keep winning. The learning curve of the team and the way the guys were playing, I was quite happy with. Obviously, finishing we need to be better at.

To become a coach of an Indian hockey team, is language a big factor?

Well, I am half-Indian. My mother was born in Calcutta. So, I do understand the language a little bit. My speaking is not as good as it should be. So, I ask my questions in English. And, if they can’t respond in English, they’ll do it in Hindi and based on their response I ask them more questions to make sure I have understood what they told me. But in ‘hockey language’, when you are talking about specific things, people generally know what’s going on.

You have worked closely with Sjoerd Marijne and Harendra Singh. Can you talk about their coaching styles?

Both are very open. They are willing to listen. They both have their ideas about the way to play. I have mine. We, then, put together the ideas. The good thing is Harry (Harendra) speaks Hindi. He has a background as a player in the program, in the system. He’s trying to change things that should have been changed 15-20 years ago. Both liked attacking hockey. And, I come from Australia, where we won a lot, attacking. So, we are trying to do the same with this team.

Across sports, coaching has become data-driven. Is there a lot of data generation and analysis in hockey as well, as compared to, say football?

Yeah, probably more. Obviously, football is a bigger space. They play more minutes. But ours is a lot more intense. You have to run more in a shorter period of time. We do stats on everything, from the penalty corners, their runs, shots. All that’s analysed by the conditioning coach Robin [Arkell]. How they feel every morning, how they feel after a session are also analysed.

Are the players aware of these numbers though? And, is it important for them to know them?

They get information on what they run and what they are training as well. So, they’ll get that data. And, they are encouraged to ask questions to the strength and conditioning coach. I think it’s important that they know what’s going on because you can’t live in ignorance. You need all the information that you can gather. Because you are competing against teams and it can’t be like some people know and others don’t.

So, how does it work? Do they take notes?

Yes, everything’s printed out. Pie charts and stuff. Match by match. Training by training. How many kilometers they have run, how much high speed running. All that gets printed out. Training session we sit down and go through all the videos. We do meetings from 8 to 9, every night. So, the guys are learning and writing in their books as well.

 “Every team is now defensively better. Everyone now runs with two gloves, big footpads and everything [to defend penalty corners]. So, they are going to get better.”  

When compared to the Commonwealth Games, there seemed to be an improvement in the performance of the side during the Champions Trophy. What’s the reason for this?

I don’t think there was that much of a difference. The problem is that most people only look at the result. What they don’t look at it is the other stats that tell them what happened behind the play. In Commonwealth Games, we were actually better than Champions Trophy. Because the amount of opportunities we had per game – like circle entries – at CWG was nearly 30 every game. In Champions Trophy, it was down to about 20. But the finishing quality was a lot better. And, overall, our defensive game in Champions Trophy was better. That was one of our big focuses. I mean, Harry [Harendra] was a defender when he played as well. And we realised that defense will win you a tournament.

What were the takeaways from the Champions Trophy and the New Zealand series. And, what are you focusing for the Asian Games?

I think our tackling can be better. But against New Zealand we did well. So, we are getting better. But we can’t be just happy with where we are at. I say, if these players work hard enough, there’s no reason why they can’t be in the top two or three teams in the world.

India have probably never had more drag-flicking specialists in the team than they do now. But the conversion of penalty corners still seem to be an area of concern. Why is it so?

Every team is now defensively better. Everyone now runs with two gloves, big footpads and everything. So, they are going to get better. People are getting more brave because they are getting more padding.

And, drag-flicking is the third part of a skill. The first part is the push-out. The second is the trap. And if you can’t get any of those two right. That’s 66 percent. Before you have your drag-flick, which is 34 percent. We need to improve our pushing and trapping and then, on drag-flicking. A lot of times, we focus only on who’s taking the shot. But if it’s not the right push and if you can’t trap it, it won’t matter even if you have the world’s best flicker with you. And, we had issues with a dry pitch at Champions Trophy and the highest ranked team had 25% conversion, which is not good. Having four drag-flickers is good because you can then try different variations as well as play different direct balls. Also, you have to pick the right corner to score. Goal-keepers change angles. So, depending on how they are running, you might have to change your target.

What do each of the four Indian drag-flickers bring to the table?

Rupinder [Pal Singh], obviously is 6’4 or 6’5 and has a long reach. Varun [Kumar] is a little shorter but strong, good drive from his legs. Harmanpreer [Singh] is more of finesse with good speed and power. And, Amit [Rohidas] has a different action. All of these guys have the ability to score. What we have to do is balance how much they can flick. So, you have to look at what team you are playing against, how they run.

Who decides how to execute the penalty corner in the match?

I look at some videos, Harry looks at some of the videos as well. Then we come to a conclusion. It’s about keeping the drag-flickers happy. We gotta look at where they feel the most comfortable to flick. Then we have to see what the opposition does. It’s also about the pitch – is it new, is it slippery, will the ball run flat through it… there are all these things as well. So, it’s very technical.