#hhil

Hey Family, This time when coming to India I knew what to expect so I was actually looking forward to the trip , reuniting with my foreign counterparts for a month of travel and hockey. As thought the first week would be quiet laborious doing double training most days. This seems unnecessary but when the tournament starts you don’t really get a chance to train at all so we need all players up to speed and ready for the tournaments start. If you have ever been to India you will know that for anything to happen it must pass through a hierarchy system it takes ages for anything to get done. And even `players in the other franchises experienced this, all of which had overnight delays in either India or Singapore. Unlike them our trip to India was pretty seamless, long but seamless. No delays and 24h hours total travel we arrived to Bhubaneswar. We anxiously asked the driver what hotel he was taking us , when he responded “Mayfair” we sighed with relief, because this is by far the superior of any accommodation in town . But not until we had unpacked our bags and started to relax we where informed we had to move to a far less comfortable hotel . Lucky enough this was just a temporary shift for 2 days and we moved back to the resort that is the Mayfair . The daily ritual involves eating , training , eating , coffee , pool , training , eating in that exact order. Repeat this for the last 5 days and that is exactly what we have been doing . So when you have asked me what we have been up to, I didn’t exactly have anything exciting to tell you . Sunday was our day off , and I wanted to get out of the hotel so I bugged a few of the other boys to come to see a few temples for a few hours . Unlike last year these temples where extremely unsatisfying and small. Needless to say our tuktuk driver in true Indian style “tuk” us to the wrong temple twice. The first temple he drove us to was a Hindu temple so we couldn’t even get in (why the fuck would we want to go there ) . A few locals could speak some small English , mainly through watching cricket so he helped us get to our desired location . Missing home and the beach but enjoying my time here so far , plenty of dhal, rice & rotti for lunch and dinner a fair change from the large portion of vegetables and meat I eat at home . Excited for the tournament to start tomorrow and the travelling certainly will be interesting. Over & Out Aran

2/8-Rochester/Syracuse, NY

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Time now for Hockey World League Principal Correspondent Close on the heels of the inaugural Hockey India League (HIL), India is ready to host another event, Round 2 of the Hockey World League (HWL), which will serve as a qualifying competition for next year’s World Cup to be held at The Hague, The Netherlands. This new event, floated by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for men and women, will be held over a two-year cycle. For the first cycle, which started in August last and would continue till February 2014, the event would be the qualifier for the World Cup and over the next two-year period it would become the qualifying competition for the Olympics. Several teams, which took part in Round 1, have qualified for the next round, while the sides ranked between ninth and 16th in the world get the chance to directly play in Round 2. Eight teams from four Round 2 events (to be played on single pool round robin format) will be eligible to participate in Round 3 (which will have two pools of four teams each followed by the classification matches). The eight top ranked sides in the world will get a bye to play in the two third round events, which will serve as the semifinals. The best six finishers in the semifinals will make it to the World Cup or the Olympics. The host nation and five continental champions will complete the remaining slots. The top eight teams from the HWL semifinals will be eligible to take part in the final (which will follow the format of Round 3). Some of the teams which have come through Round 1 will be seen in action during the Round 2 competition for men and women to be held here from February 18 to 24. Teams like Ireland, Bangladesh, Oman and Fiji have qualified from the first round of the men’s competition. India, ranked 11th, and China have made it directly. Among the women’s teams, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Fiji have advanced from the opening round. India, ranked 12th, and Japan (9th) are the sides to get a bye. Even as some teams arrived on Tuesday, the Indian women’s side began its preparations under the watchful eyes of coach Neil Hawgood. Hawgood said in an event involving lesser known teams, the host had to focus on improving its own game. “We are moving in the right direction. We can worry about ourselves than others.” Hawgood said the players needed to work on various aspects of their game in order to improve the performance. Meanwhile, Indian men’s team coach Michael Nobbs allowed the players to recover from the fatigue of the gruelling HIL. However, the coach along with two other support staff took time out to put drag-flicker Gurjinder Singh, who was not part of the HIL, through some fitness drills. The visiting teams will start their training here from Wednesday. SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

The course is the second part of a coaching education program for elite coaches who aspire to be high performance coaches. It aims to identify coaches from all areas of India and provide them with advanced coaching tools. Thirty coaches across India will be participating in the course. The first course was held in Lucknow in September 2012