Indians testify poorly in the fitness box

With all the training camps and facilities, the Indian fitness level is still below par. If one looks at the Indian record in the last 10 years, fitness has never been a priority. In the name of fitness, the Indian team plays practice matches. But the truth is that fitness has to be handled by an expert.

A look at the Koreans shows that when the ball goes back into their circle, all the 10 players fall back. Even Pakistan is trying to adopt these methods. Forwards like Atif Bashir fall back to help the defence out.

But the Indians refuse to learn. BaljitSingh Dhillon, Gagan Ajit Singh and Deepak Thakur once robbed of the ball don’t even fall back to regain it.The attitude has to change. Korea has proved that fitness takes the team a couple of notches up. And as coach Sang said, “We saw the fitness of the Germans and we decided to adopt that. They are not a skillful side but look at the fitness level.”

Fitness will be the key factor if India wants to finish in the top four at the Sydney 2000. In the 1990 Asia Cup in New Delhi, India thrashed Korea 5-2 in the semi-finals. Skills alone could, then, beat Korea.

And in 1999 Asia Cup, fitness had finally beaten skills. Korea outplayed India 5-4, after trailing by 4-3 and they beat Pakistan 5-4. The reason: Endurance.

India, Pakistan and Malaysia have all the skills. If hockey was played purely on skills, these three would be at the top three positions in the world. But that’s no longer true.

After Korea equalised 4-4 with Pakistan in the final, they simply shifted gear and ran the Pakistani’s ragged inthe field. Pakistan couldn’t last and the Korean fifth goal proved that. The Koreans beat three defenders and then tapped the ball into the circle. Totally out of breath, none of the three Pakistani defenders even ventured back to help goalkeeper Ahmed Ahmed Alam.

But take the Koreans. Seong Tae Song, the best player of the tourney, was hacked down in the Pakistan circle and by the time he got up, the ball was in the Korean circle. But he ran back and before Pakistan forwards could even try for a goal, he had reached his end. That’s the fitness of the Koreans.

Malaysia has learnt their lesson and is “trying” to get a full time trainer. Said coach Stephen Van Huizeh, “If we need to break into the top six, we need to be able to stand there for a full 70 minutes.”

Pakistan is also trying to adopt similar techniques. Its time India too learnt the lessons.