The Indian men's hockey team has credited its impressive performance in the FIH Pro League to a week-long camp with legendary Australian forward Michael McCann, with players vouching for his cutting-edge techniques that helped them dominate the rivals in Bhubaneswar. (More Hockey News)
The Paris Olympics bronze-medallist side, led by Harmanpreet, won five of the eight Pro League matches in the home leg, losing one game each to Spain, Germany and England before beating them in the return matches. India also thrashed Ireland 3-1 and 4-0.
India are currently third in the table on 15 points behind England and Belgium, who have 16 points apiece.
India have the most number of wins, followed by England, Belgium and fourth-placed Germany, who have four victories each after eight games.
The 47-year-old McCann was part of Australia's dream team that won the 2004 Athens Olympics gold besides the 2005 Champions Trophy in Chennai.
McCann, who was in Bhubaneswar from February 6-12, has been working for nearly eight years with the German U21 and Senior squads.
Experienced India forward Mandeep Singh said McCann paid special attention to the minute details that go into scoring field goals.
"It was a very good camp and Michael was not only extremely informative on the field but his off-the-field meetings were also extremely knowledgeable where he showed us a lot of short clips on specific areas," said Mandeep in a Hockey India release.
"I particularly enjoyed the basics inside the 'D', shot on target two-feet from the goal," said Mandeep, who played a key role upfront, scoring some fine field goals, including a breathtaking goal against Ireland in India's 3-1 win.
"He also taught us new things specific to strikers' lead and re-lead within the circle and how to deflect from the nine-yard mark near the D with two-touch to the goal were some of the interesting aspects he made us work on." "Small things like, angle of the body while receiving the ball, fake-passing to beat the defenders in the D was fun to learn. If you see our performance in the Pro League, we scored a lot of field goals. This was a very good learning point for us," he added.
India chief coach Craig Fulton said the short camp would have definitely helped the youngsters a lot.
"It was great to have Michael here ahead of our Pro League campaign. This would particularly help the youngsters in the squad and though it was a short camp, it was very effective. We worked a lot of basics and also had one-hour off-the-field sessions so players could also interact with him. We look forward to having more such sessions leading up to the World Cup and Asian Games next year," said Fulton.
McCann coaching will come in handy as India prepare for the gruelling European leg of the Pro League in June, the Asia Cup this year and the World Cup next year.
Former India Colts captain Uttam Singh said McCann's lessons on finishing the moves was very much beneficial for him.
"The things I particularly enjoyed working on was on my finishing. Michael touched upon how to finish, when we can't get a full attempt on goal. Receiving the ball and what position we must be in while receiving in the second post, and which side we must hold the stick and how important it is to look at the goalkeeper's position when we take strike were some of the finer details which will help me in the long run," said Singh. PTI AM AM TAP
