The Indian women's hockey team may have had a tough year, but they have started turning things around. Rallying to draw the four-match training series against Argentina in Buenos Aires is a step in that direction.
After losing the first two games, the World Cup-bound Indian team staged a dramatic comeback to win the final two matches and level the series.
Irrespective of the shortcomings, coach Sjoerd Marijne was pleased with the team's performance, especially the youngsters like Sakshi Rana, Ishika, and Lalthantluangi.
To ensure he has a fair idea about the other upcoming youngsters, Marijne will work closely with Indian junior women's coach Tim White, who was appointed earlier this month.
White has worked in Australia and Belgium earlier and believes his biggest challenge will be to improve the physicality of the players.
"I feel that for a country to be world-class, it has to be physically world-class. When Belgium improved, they did so physically along with other aspects," said White during a virtual press conference on Friday.
"Arriving in India, one of the things I've observed is that the group is physically behind compared to when I was in Belgium or even in Australia. We will have to work hard to improve physically to be able to compete with the best junior teams in the world."
Currently, 23 new players have come from hostels and training centres, and according to White, they are getting used to the rhythm of training. But more importantly, he wants them to train at a particular intensity, for which the players will need a "good physical program and have knowledge of recovery and nutrition."
"I have to make sure they understand the need to train with a certain intensity, and that doesn't happen overnight. I have to build that up. But it's something I've already been working on, and they're starting to improve. That will be a major focus, though it's certainly a challenge in India," added the Australian high-performance coach, who recently served as the coach of Tamil Nadu Dragons in Hockey India League (HIL).
Marijne, meanwhile, is looking forward to working closely with White so that the junior players can easily be incorporated into the senior side.
"I always keep an eye on what's going on with the juniors. Tim (White) monitors what's happening with the seniors, and I share my thoughts on what we are working on with the senior team and what makes the difference. Tim then implements that with the juniors," said Marijne.
On the Argentina tour, the Dutchman was especially happy with how the team improved after losing the first two matches. "The difference in the first two matches was they did everything sprinting and we did everything running. And if we want to be the top team, we need to do everything sprinting. And we did that much better in matches three and four," added the Indian women's team coach.
