Indian Women's Hockey Team Improves Fitness, Is Ready for Tournaments Says Coach

Indian women's Hockey team's head coach Sjoerd Marijine said that the team has completed its fitness training which was their primary target at the camp. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the team has not played any matches in the past few months.

In January 2020, the hockey team travelled to New Zealand for the year's first tournament. The Indian team beat New Zealand by 4-0 in the first match and ended the last match of the series with a 3-0 win against the host team. After coming back from New Zealand, the hockey team has not had any competition. The camp session in Sports Authority Of India Centre in Bengaluru, that started in February is going to end on Saturday.

"One of our goals was improving fitness and that worked out very well. In the past few weeks, we also worked with the junior men's team in a few sessions to test our speed and handling skills and I am happy with the progress we have made as a group, " Marijine said.

The coach believes that the hockey team has worked hard for the Olympics next year.  He also talked about how the team has managed time well and is hopeful to play good matches in the games next year.

As the players leave for home after months of training at the camp, Marijine talked about how players need a break to recover.

Also Read: Rani Rampal Wins World Games Athlete Award, With 199,477 Votes

"The players have worked hard these past four and half months and they have done it without complaining about anything be it living in a bio-bubble with zero outside interaction or living away from their families for so long, " he said.

Considering the harsh effects of training and the mental pressure on players, the coach said, " I am extremely happy with the attitude they have shown these past four months and I understand that the training camp was physically and mentally quite challenging. This break will be especially good to recover from mental fatigue.