Indian hockey defender Amit Rohidas shares the importance of video analysis in modern hockey

Indian Men’s Hockey defender Amit Rohidas credits the new means of video analysis for the overall development of the team. He also highlighted the fact that video analysis has been a crucial part of the team’s preparations. He also credits video analysis for the success that India had in the recent foreign tours.

“Video analysis has been playing a massive part for us in terms of preparations. It helped us on both tours. We analysed our opponent’s style of play, their every movement in the attack as well as in defence, and we adapted to the situations accordingly. We didn’t have much on-field experience, but I can say we did our homework pretty well through the video analysis and it benefited us,” expressed Amit Rohidas, who has donned the national Blue jersey 97 times.

Currently, both the men’s and women’s team probables are at the SAI centre in Bengaluru preparing for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. While their matches got cancelled and even they cannot travel abroad for camping, Rohidas credits video analysis for helping eh players assess their weaknesses.

“At the camp also, with the help of video analysis, we are working on the areas where our team need correcting or need to improve. So, yeah it’s one of the major assets for us to cover our bases for the Olympics,” he added.

The 28-year-old defender revealed how he kept himself calm and believed in his abilities to overcome the nerves that he had while playing hockey again after a year. “I went with the mindset that I don’t have to do anything extraordinary, I just have to repeat all the things which we have done during training sessions.”

“As a team also, we took one game at a time, we were not bothered about win or lose. We took it as an opportunity to prepare for the Olympics. We had a great experience on both tours. I feel we have gained good momentum and would like to continue what we have been doing at the camp.”

Rohidas also believes that video analysis is the answer for India’s wastefulness in front of goal from open plays. The defender feels that the Men in Blue will be more clinical and score more goals to get that conversion rate up.

“I think we need to improve on our conversion rate. We can be more clinical. We should try to convert those chances as quick as we can. It will indirectly help the defence line. As I said, we are making the most of the video analysis to work on these areas,” said the defender.

Lastly, the experienced defender assured that the team is looking forward in only one direction and that is the Tokyo Olympics where the Indians have kept a target of at least reaching the podium.

“We are not thinking about anything other than the Olympics. Playing against top teams have boosted our confidence, and we want to keep working hard. We have the resources at the camp, which is helping us improve each and every day,” he concluded.