Rajgir: China couldn’t have hoped of starting the Asia Cup on a better note as they almost held India to a draw in their tournament opener last week at Rajgir Sports Complex here. With just a game left in the Super4s stage, they can now make it to the final and even grab the ticket to the World Cup.While the players have been impressive to say the least, a lot of credit should be given to their support staff that includes the likes of Michel van den Heuvel, Roelant Oltmans and Anthony Farry.Although Farry has been appointed as the head coach for the tournament, it’s Van den Heuvel who has been calling the shots and he’s the one who asked Oltmans to also join the 12-member support staff, including the translator, for the tournament.“My good friend Michel called me up to support him during this tournament. I must say he’s a hard taskmaster because he is determined and the people who are determined can be hard. But at the same time, he has a great heart, I tell you that,” said former India head coach Oltmans.And together they have started chalking out a way to take the Chinese men’s national team to the top — like their women’s team that won the silver at the Paris Olympics last year. But with so many coaches together, it can get difficult at times. But for Farry, who is Australian, this has been a huge learning experience working with the two seasoned Dutchmen.“It’s amazing to have the opportunity to learn from these guys and listen to their philosophy and what they’re doing and those different things,” said Farry, who was with the Indian women’s hockey team earlier.And the most crucial part of working in such an environment has been clear communication. “I think we have open lines of communication the whole time. We’re constantly talking about different things. We connect around different ideas and look at different things,” added the Australian.
Poll
Do you think China has a strong chance of reaching the Asia Cup final?
Speaking of roles, the head coach has been deciding who will oversee what but there’s some overlapping, too, and this is where clear communication makes the difference.As far as this tournament is concerned, the team trained at Moqi hockey training base in inner Mongolia — that eight of the players hail from — before going to Beijing and playing there ahead of their arrival in India.“Yeah, we just played internal matches. We didn’t have any practice match. I worked with these guys for four weeks in China. So, we are building a programme for the future and that’s the aim and we are learning (with) every game we play,” said coach Van den Heuvel.Besides training on the field, they also worked on their physical aspects, and it has been quite evident so far. “There was a big emphasis on making sure physically we were in the right position. I think lots of principles instilled in the players around getting the defensive stuff right and then understanding what we’re trying to do with the ball as well,” Farry further added.One needs to now wait and see whether they make it to the top of the podium here with all this planning and hard work. Even if that doesn’t happen, they look to be on way to achieving some big results in the coming days.
