FIH Pro League will be about fine tuning our game play: Indian women coach Schopman

FIH Pro League will help the Indian women hockey team fine-tune its gameplan ahead of major tournaments this year, says chief coach Janneke Schopman, who also hinted at some experimentation during the event. The Indian team has a packed calendar ahead with several big-ticket tournaments like the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games scheduled. "I want our team to perform and to be able to be at our best in a tournament like the World Cup or Asian Games.

The players need to be at the level that they get the experience they need," Schopman said during a virtual media interaction arranged by Hockey India. "And with Covid happening, our players didn't have that much experience in the last two, two and a half years of playing actual games. So, the Pro League will be a lot about how people are preserving their sport, making sure that they can play and then also fine tuning our gameplay." "You'll see changes in our lineup, but I'm not going to bring in 10-15 new players or something," she said.

Despite not getting the desired result in the Asian Hockey Cup last month, Schopman is happy with the team's progress. The India team failed to defend its title at the Asian Hockey Cup last month in Muscat, finishing third. However, they began their Pro League campaign with a bang, drubbing China 7-1.

"The girls did really well. Of course we didn't get the results we wanted in terms of scoreline but I was actually quite happy to see the progress throughout the tournament into the Pro League," Schopman said. "I'm really trying to focus on the way we want to play and how do we want to attack and how do we want to look as a team and I think we made big steps there.