Olympian suggests success mantras for Indian hockey team (original) (raw)

NEW DELHI:

Carl Lewis

' speed,

Dhyan Chand

's finishing skills and immense mental toughness would be needed for India to end their 35-year wait for a World Cup title, feels

R S Bhola

, a member of the country's 1956 Olympic gold winning team.
Bhola, who was also part of the 1960 Olympic silver winning team, has come up with some "golden success mantras" for India on the eve of their World Cup opener against Pakistan.

"Modern Hockey is all about team possessing super fitness having excellent skills, tactics, counter strategies and mental toughness. Need of the hour is to have super-fit players with dribbling capabilities like K D Singh (greatest exponent of skills) operating at Carl Lewis speed (100 m sprinter) and having a finish of the great Dhyan Chand," Bhola said.
"Half of the battle is won if our team is alive to the strength and weaknesses of all playing nations to develop counter strategies that work to tackle them.

"Do not lose your temper and retaliate when hit by opponents during the game, as it will affect your concentration. Do not brood over chances missed and instead concentrate on minimising missing goal scoring/conceding chances," he suggested.
Bhola, manager of the Indian team during the 1976 Montreal Olympics, also said that players need to play an attacking game and improve their execution of penalty corners.
Bhola also cautioned the team against relaxing during the closing stages of the game.

"Our players need to make well planned dummy moves to draw defenders to create a gap for the co-player to move in and score. As and when our goalkeeper charges out to tackle opponents, player nearest to our goal must cover the goal post to deflect/divert the ball out of danger.
"Our team needs to maintain ball possession during the game as failure to do so will invite the attacker to regroup and score," Bhola said.
"Every member of the hockey team must put heart and soul into the game and not brood over past happenings."