Watching a movie on self belief after three consecutive losses rebuilt the Indian women’s hockey team’s shattered morale and helped it to ‘aim for the clouds’, the side’s Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne revealed on Monday after Rani Rampal and Co entered their maiden Olympic semifinals here.
The Indian team bounced back tremendously in the tournament after successive losses and Marijne said the movie helped psychologically ahead of the must-win pool game against Ireland but did not reveal its name.
“The difference is believing in ourselves and believing in their dreams and then it’s about going back to reality focussing on your past. I think that is the main thing and that’s what we did,” Marijne said after upsetting Australia in the quarterfinals.
“If you lose you don’t stop believing and that’s what I told the girls. The most important thing is to stay in the moment. I showed them a movie and that movie is about being in the moment and I think that was really helpful. Against Ireland we kept on referring to that movie,” he said.
He said all he asked the team to do was to aim for the highest.
“In India you must think big and that’s what I said to the girls. If you aim for the highest, for the clouds, you will fall on the highest mountain. If you aim for the mountain you will fall on the ground,” he explained.
“We went for the clouds and I said whatever happens after it doesn’t matter, but that’s where we have to aim for.”
India captain Rani Rampal too credited the movie for the turnaround of fortunes.