Jay Stacy, Floris Jan Bovelander, Sohail Abbas – these three names have two things common between them. One, they are hockey players, and two, they gave to the game what today’s defenders thrive on, i.e., dragflicks. And ever since Jugraj Singh popped up in the early 2000s, India also got serious about the art and started work on developing more such quality talent.
But the word ‘quality’ seems blown out of proportion when your team’s conversion rate in a tournament is paltry 24%. That’s what Rupinder Pal Singh and Harmanpreet Singh could achieve at the recently concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia, where India finished third.
It’s a clear gray area for India.
If there is no room for a field goal, forwards try to find a foot in the striking circle to earn the second best shot at goal – a penalty corner. But a one-fourth conversion rate may not fetch you the goals required to win. That’s where India lost ground in the crucial games against Australia and Malaysia at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.
Jugraj, India’s first dragflick sensation, is part of the current coaching staff and trying to fine-tune Rupinder, Harmanpreet and others at the ongoing camp in Bengaluru.
Right from injection, stopping, crouch, stepping and release, Jugraj is eagle-eyeing India’s penalty corner routines to iron out every little technical flaw ahead of the three-nations tournament in Germany and the Hockey World League Semi-finals in London next month.
Despite India’s disconcerting penalty corner conversion rate in Malaysia, Jugraj ranks India’s dragflick strength among the top three in the world, with an added admission that “accurancy” remains an unresolved issue.
Power is there, angles missing
At the national camp, the Indian team is spending an extra hour of training specifically for penalty corners. That leaves no doubts about one of Roelant Oltmans’s biggest worries.
“[India’s dragflickers] still need to work on their accuracy,” Jugraj told Scroll.in. “Power is there; they just need to concentrate on accuracy and angles. They need to read the opponent goalkeeper [better], as to what are his strong and weak points.”
But Jugraj insisted that Rupinder and Harmanpreet are still the best options India have; in fact, he grouped them among the best in the world.
“Right now, as per my opinion, we have two of the best dragflickers in the world,” he said. “We are definitely in the top three nations [in that area]. Both Rupinder Pal, Harmanpreet are really good. They have variations up their sleeve.”
Stopping on PCs another worry
Penalty corners are not just about dragflicks. Before the dragflicker, the injector and the stopper are the first two, respectively, in the chain of events that ends with a flick. Jugraj has also identified flaws in the first two events.
“If the first two things are perfect, then only we can score [off a dragflick],” he said. “In the one extra hour of training for penalty corners, we work really hard on injectors because the direction they give to the ball is not really good at times. And I think we need to really improve our stopping. In the last tournament, our stoppers were not really up to mark. So we need to concentrate more on them. Rest all is good.”
Conversion rate
Many feel Rupinder is lucky to be on the plane to London via Germany. But in the absence of VR Raghunath, his experience stands vital for India, as he showed in shouldering India’s defence amicably in Malaysia.
While Rupinder’s penalty corner conversion rate – despite two goals in the bronze-medal playoff against New Zealand – remained less than satisfactory at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, he rose to shore up India’s defensive wall.
“I always look at the game in two parts – as a dragflicker and as defender,” he said. “You need to stay firm as a defender, as you never know if the team will get penalty corners or not. From the start I have followed the philosophy of doing well on the field, because then only I will stay on the pitch for penalty corners. So my first priority is defending, and then on top of that is other duties.”
He added, “I feel the last tournament I did not perform well as a dragflicker. We have learnt a lot from that, where we need to work on. So we are focusing on that.”
Dragflick bench
Though they aren’t in the squad for the tri-nation tournament and HWL semi-finals, Jugraj ranks Dipsan Tirkey and Amit Rohidas as the next in line to step up as dragflickers. In particular, Jugraj has attached high hopes with Tirkey.
“Their timing is really good and their stepping is very good,” he said. “The way they can change direction, especially Dipsan, is very good. He is very young and has a lot of time to improve. In the coming time, Dipsan will be on top as well.”