Lucknow, Nov 28 (IANS) As part of the preparations for the junior men's hockey World Cup, starting here on December 8, the Indian squad on Monday focussed on goal scoring techniques during a rigorous training session.
The team under the watchful eyes of Hockey India (HI) Technical Director and senior men's team head coach Roelant Oltmans, started with a warm-up session followed by strong passes and penalty corner conversion for dragflickers at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium here.
The goalkeepers, meanwhile worked with South African Dave Staniforth.
"We tried different tactics to do with player positioning within the circle for goal scoring. The boys are upbeat and focused. We will be playing a practice match with Argentina on December 2 and further fine tune our game," Oltmans said in a statement.
He also added that the players are getting used to the new turf here at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium which serves as the main venue for the mega event with all 44 matches being played here.
"We have trained on this pitch for the past five days and the boys are getting used to the new turf. It is similar to the turf back in Bengaluru Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre where the boys have been based for almost 10 months."
The squad will play their second practice match on December 5 against Netherlands.
"We will meet these two teams with which we play practice match only in the semi-finals or the final. So this won't be just another practice game," he asserted.
The evening session saw the squad train at the newly built Padma Shri Mohammed Shahid Synthetic hockey Stadium which will serve as the practice venue for the tournament.
The training was carried out for two hours under flood lights.
India will start its campaign against Canada on the opening day of the tournament.
