India men's hockey chief coach Terry Walsh today said that a new set of techniques have been introduced in the national camp here and the players were adapting well to them ahead of the upcoming World Cup.
"We are majorly working on areas as that of opposition's defence. Considering the styles and techniques on which we are focussing upon, it's relatively different for the team, although enjoyable and challenging," Walsh said after team training session at Major Dhyanchand National Stadium here.
"Strategies like players swap, wherein other team sometimes changes for about 70 times in a game, in that way we need to overcome the mentality of going off the pitch. It has successfully started implementing in our team as well which is challenging yet very interesting," he said.
Walsh said there's a huge scope of development for the team and the European tour before the World Cup will give the players the chance to implement the new techniques.
"I can see a huge scope of acceptance within the team for trying new things and techniques in a more realistic way. We are preparing the team to avoid unpredictable circumstances in order to improvise more efficiently," the Australian said.
"European Tour which is soon taking place surely provides a good opportunity as even the pitch is similar to the one in World Cup which is why it is happily accepted by everyone."
Talking about the team performance in the training sessions, Sandeep Singh said, "These practice sessions are turning out to be fruitful for all the players and is going on pretty well too. We are working really hard and putting out best efforts for the World Cup.
"Terry and the supporting staff are working really hard on our scoring skills as well as the fitness. New techniques introduced by Terry are really significant and we think it will be very advantageous for us in the future games."
Jude Felix, who was on his first day as coach, said, "It feels pretty good and exciting to be a part of team. Players are also incredibly excited for World Cup and the upcoming European tour and are giving their cent percent in preparatory camp.
"The boys are great and we have to now focus more on polishing their skills. Things have become very much professional nowadays and especially the new set of techniques which are used in the camp are very essential for the World Cup and other upcoming tournaments.
