Indian women's hockey coach Janneke Schopman points out PC conversion, defence needs to improve after Asian Champions Trophy win

India will be back in action for a five-nation tournament in December.

The Indian women’s hockey team had a dream week at the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy post the Asian Games bronze medal run. Under the guidance of Janneke Schopman and the leadership of Savita Punia, the team won their second Women’s Asian champions trophy title and first at home. This tournament was highly beneficial to the Asian teams (except China) as they will be back once again in January for the Paris Olympics qualifiers.

Captain Savita Punia had health concerns for close to four days, but she led the team diligently putting in her best effort. After the title triumph head coach Janneke Schopman and Savita Punia attended a press conference sharing thoughts on the performance in women’s Asian champions trophy.

Thoughts on the Olympic qualifying pool

The Indian women’s hockey team was drawn with New Zealand, USA and Italy in Pool B of the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024. India have played New Zealand and USA before but will meet Italy for the first time in many years. From the list of countries participating, top three teams will be assured of direct qualification for Paris Olympics.

Head coach Janneke Schopman said, “We did a decent job by winning the women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2023 and are on the right path going into the Olympic qualifiers. We now know the pools whom we will be playing against now. We have played New Zealand before at the Commonwealth Games last year and haven’t seen them for a while. Then we met the USA last year in the FIH Pro League.

“Meanwhile, I do not know if we have played Italy before. Overall, it will be a good challenge with New Zealand and USA playing competitive matches in the Pro league.”

Comparing performances in Asian Games and Women’s Asian Champions Trophy

“I don’t compare the competition as they are completely different. Also winning the Champions Trophy isn’t redemption either as we lost in the semifinals of the Asian Games to China. As a team it was important for us to see what we had to improve in as the Olympic qualifiers will take place in the stadium in Ranchi.

“The teams which didn’t earn a quota at the Asian Games like us are preparing for the Olympic qualifiers so every team which played here (Women’s Asian Champions Trophy) have played to their best. Winning the trophy gives up happiness as we are back on track and need to keep doing the same thing going forward.”

Areas of concern

The Indian team had few areas of concerns as they received cards regularly. Apart from this the injection stopper did not perform well as many penalty corners from the injection weren’t received well.

“We have done extensive research with the team after the Asian Games and have decided on what we need to improve on. We have tried to improve on the corrections in the Women’s Asian Champions trophy with the inputs of mental and conditioning coach Peter Harberl. Having him will be beneficial as he has good expertise. Although I know a bit on mental aspect having an expert is highly beneficial.

“I have worked with him in the past and it is refreshing for me now to get feedback and helping us perform better. On the whole, it is not about winning Asian Games rather improving our performance which is what we want before the Olympic qualifiers.

“In the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy, we had few areas to improve – making better use of referrals and not getting suspended frequently. Penalty corner needs to improve, and the defense is getting better slowly.”

Captain Savita Punia on Harberl’s inputs said, the team is happy with the initial interaction with Harberl. He observes things very keenly and everyone had a one-on-one interaction. The team will definitely look to work more with the coach.

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Importance of mental conditioning coach and their inputs

Savita Punia explained the importance of mental conditioning and said, “We have a pretty mixed squad in terms of number of matches played – there are players who have played lesser than 50 matches and on the other hand there are players with over 250 appearances. We have started to give importance to mental health ever since Janneke took over as head coach. Prior to that we did not have knowledge on it.

“We got to know the importance of mental fitness in the past few years, and you cannot deny that we do not have pressure in important matches. Rather we need to know on how to deal pressure and now have accepted that pressure is normal. In the past few years, players have opened up on what they want to speak out which wasn’t the case earlier as many had hesitation to speak out.

“If I keep several things in mind then would not be able to perform freely. So now players are coming out to tell each other and the coach that they are feeling pressure. Apart from physical fitness, mental aspect is also equally important. We started to concentrate on the mental post the joining of Janneke and now with Harberl coming in we are feeling not keeping anything inside.

“Earlier, we kept saying we played with heavy legs during match days. But now we have come to know that it wasn’t heavy legs rather the pressure that did not help us perform to the best of our abilities.”

Plans up next in the off-season

“After two hectic months of non-stop action, the team have received all-important break ahead of the qualifiers. After the qualifiers the team will be heading to Europe to take part in a five-nation tournament which will benefit the team in terms of exposure and experience.

“The girls are professionals, and they know what’s the stake until January. The players are currently at home for a week’s break for Diwali. After this, they will play in the inter-department tournament followed by the national camp. There are few players who need to do recovery and rehab. So the plan is to travel to Spain on December 10 or 11 for the five nations tournament.

“After the taste of Asian hockey we need to need to play alongside the other side from Europe. Post this we have a pretty short break followed by the Olympic qualifiers.

On junior players’ inclusion the coach iterated, “there are three junior players currently in the senior squad who are eligible to play in the junior world cup. We now need to evaluate everyone’s performance and see what’s best for the team.”

Crowd support

Savita Punia was overwhelmed by the support shown by the fans. Throughout the tournament the stadium was filled up and in the final a section of audience had to watch the match in the giant screen outside the stadium as the seats were filled up.

“Definitely the crowd had helped us a lot in the tournament. We know there will be support as the competition was announced earlier to be held in Ranchi. I last played here during the National Games in 2011 and that time we had decent crowd but this time it was more than expected. Also, there was pressure on us as we have to win the trophy in front of the home fans.

“Coach and the team decided to use this tournament wisely as we will be playing the Olympic qualifiers here and would be ideal for us to prepare.”