Opportunity to work with Martijn Drijver will benefit us in preparations for Olympic Qualification, says Savita

Opportunity to work with Martijn Drijver will benefit us in preparations for Olympic Qualification, says Savita

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Hockey India

India women’s hockey team’s goalkeeper Savita has said that the opportunity to work with coach Martijn Drijver in the special women’s goalkeeping camp will be beneficial for the team before the FIH Olympic Qualifiers. Drijver, on the other hand, was impressed with the Indian goalies during the camp.

Dutch goalkeeping coach Martijn Drijver is in India for a special coaching camp for India’s female goalkeepers in Bengaluru. Apart from Savita and Rajani Etimarpu, who are the regulars for the national side, Swati, Sonal Minz, Bichu Devi Kharibam, Chanchal, Kushboo, Rashanpreet Kaur and F Ramengmawii have also got an opportunity to train with Drijver in the ongoing camp.

Savita is delighted to get the chance to train with Drijver as a part of the Indian team’s preparations ahead of the upcoming FIH Olympic Qualifiers, which will be the last qualifying event for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020. 

"It is great that Hockey India has provided us an opportunity to work with the legendary goalkeeping Coach Martijn Drijver. I believe this opportunity will benefit us especially in our preparations for Olympic Qualification. The detailing with which Martijn conducts each session is amazing and it has opened our minds on the minor aspects that were being overlooked by us,” Savita was quoted as saying by Hockey India.

“The fine details that we are learning from him now will help us raise the bar in our future tournaments. Also the fact that young goalies have been given this opportunity will surely add depth to our pool of goalies,” she added.

The Indian women won the FIH Series Finals which was held last month in Hiroshima and are all set for their preparatory camps and matches ahead of the Olympic qualification event. India had gone into the tournament with Savita and Rajani as the two goalies in the 18-member team.

Drijver, who has a reputation of being one of the high-level goalkeeping coaches in the world, is impressed with the standard of the Indian goalkeepers.

“I am quite impressed to see how gifted these goalkeepers are. It's amazing to see how keen they are to learn and raise their level," the goalkeeping coach explained. 

"We have been training twice everyday for 90 minutes. First we work on coordination with special focus on how best we can use our eyes as goalkeepers. We follow this up with fundamentals to achieve highest results. We have completed three good days of training and I am looking forward to the next few days here." Drijver concluded.

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