Bengaluru: Fresh from a week-long break post the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia where the Indian men's hockey team finished second behind world champions Australia and returned with a Silver, captain Sardar Singh and his team were put through the rigors of a gruelling yo-yo test to access their fitness level here at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) South Centre on Tuesday morning.
Speaking about his men's recent outing, Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans said: "Satisfied is a big word and people who know me, know well that I can't feel satisfied so easily, but the performance of the team is always getting better. It is important to me as a coach that the level we touched remains consistent."
Speaking of the final against Australia, Oltmans feels that the team's defence tactics were good. "Australia is the no. 1 side in the world but at the same time, we put forth an improved show at Azlan Shah. Our defence was well structured” says the Dutchman.
“We had an experimental team at Azlan Shah. Shreejesh is the no. 1 goal keeper in India and we didn't bring him to Malaysia to test the others. While I believe, Harjot and Akash could have done better, we are overall working to better goalkeeping with the seven other boys via special sessions” added Oltmans.
With exactly 101 days left before their first tie in the Rio Olympics, Oltmans' focus is to improve by another ten per cent in every aspect of the game. "If we manage to do that then we come close to being medal contender which is our core mission. We also play a few games such as Champions Trophy, Six Nations Tournament which will determine the best combination plays at the Olympics. We also play friendlies with Spain, Belgium and New Zealand. This gives us opportunity to test like we did in Malaysia," concludes the coach.
